Perpetual
Ministry
By Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the June 30, 2012 Sabbath School Lesson
“All
by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full
kernel in the head.” Mark 4:28, NIV
An old story tells of a passerby admiring another man’s
beautiful garden. Looking over the beautiful blooms, he remarked that God had
certainly produced a wonderful garden, blessed with so many beautiful flowers.
The gardener, who had been toiling for much of the day in the hot sun and
apparently feeling that the admirer did not understand how much work went into
producing such a beautiful garden said, “Maybe, but you should have seen it when
God was taking care of it by Himself.”
Those who toil in garden and field know that the results
simply do not happen on their own. Even in the Garden of Eden, the plants
needed care and tending. (See Genesis 2:15) This is even more so, today,
because the ground will only bring forth abundantly with a great deal of work. This
was the result of sin entering the world. (See Genesis 3:17-19) While plants
seem to grow magically from the ground, the reality is that unless conditions
are just right where the seed is sown the plant will need a great deal of care
to grow to its full potential. Even then, the work is not done.
A farmer who thought that because he could look out upon
many acres of ripened grain, he could take it easy for the rest of his life
would not be very wise. He must harvest the grain and set aside enough of the
seed to plant for the next crop. He cannot store all of his grain from one
season for the rest of his days. It will eventually go bad. Instead, he sells
it so it can feed many people and not simply his family. Next planting season,
he will sow seed for another harvest. He must perpetually renew the cycle in
order to sustain his own family and others. In faithfully completing this cycle
each year, he finds his reward as others bless him in turn for the blessing he
provides to feed their families. Of course, if the farmer tried to sell spoiled
grain, he would quickly lose the blessing from others as they would no longer come
to him to feed their families. As it is with the farmer, so it is with the Christian.
The work to tend the Lord’s garden and produce a harvest
is not without its hardships. Like the farmer seeking a harvest, the Christian
worker must first prepare the soil to receive the seed. Jesus told us what
success we can expect if the soil is not fertile. (See Luke 8:1-15) Many
problems later in the growing season can be avoided by properly preparing the
soil. Perhaps many issues that arise later within the new Christian’s
experience can be prevented with proper preparation as well. Until the soil is
prepared, sowing of the seed may be a waste. From Jesus’ parable in Luke 8, we
can see that the soil is the human heart. Thus this initial step is the
preparation of the human heart to make it receptive to the seed to be sown.
How do we know when the heart becomes receptive? Perhaps
it is like our cats. A cat signals that he or she is receptive by lying on its
back and exposing its tummy. The cat is saying it trusts you, as it delightedly
waits for some tummy rubbing. It trusts you because experience has told it that
you will be kind to it and it feels safe. We see from the gospels that even
little children felt safe with Jesus and came to Him. Perhaps we can ask
ourselves if people can feel safe entrusting their hearts to us? Have we demonstrated
care and compassion? Just as animals respond to these things and come willingly
to our call, people are more willing to come to us when they feel safe as well.
There are many ways to do this. Needs based ministry is certainly a formal
method that is often considered. However, on a less formal level, being there
to demonstrate our care and concern to our friends and families when they need
us is a much simpler way of showing ourselves to be trustworthy.
When hearts are open in trust, then the seed can be
planted in fertile soil. That seed, according to the parable, is the Word of
God. The parable also seems to make a case for a process that does not begin
with the Word. That only comes once the heart is ready to receive it. While
there may be a place for directly confronting the lost with Scripture without
prior preparation, perhaps that is the exception rather than the rule. The
trust that makes a person receptive is a function of friendship, not doctrine. Doctrine
does not produce trust, but trust can open the way for doctrine. Even the Devil
understands this simple principle. He knows that if he can get people to trust
him, the way is open for his sophistries. Therefore it is important that the
Christian be the one preparing the heart so that the trust is not misplaced. We
can only do this if we are perceived as trustworthy.
Once the Word can be sown in the fertile soil of the
trusting human heart, the growing plant needs nurture. Water, light, and
nutrients are necessary to produce healthy plants. Sometimes we are not happy
with simply enabling the plant to grow but instead want to shape the new
believers according to our perception of what they should be. We mistakenly treat
the young plant as though it was destined to be a Bonsai or an Espalier. We try
to force the new believer into a form they were never intended to develop. This
can be painful for them. The Spirit may be calling them to a ministry we cannot
even envision and that we should be enabling. Instead, we sometimes persist in
encouraging them to ignore that voice and listen to ours. This creates more
work for us than we were intended to shoulder as well. We were never meant to
become the Holy Spirit for someone else. God’s Spirit already owns that job.
Once we accept that, we can instead enable the plant to grow to its true form.
When it does it will produce the harvest it was meant to.
When we enable spiritual growth in this way instead of
manipulating it after our own image, a miraculous thing occurs. Eventually, the
plant will begin sowing seed as well. It does not have to think about ways to
sow seed. It does it automatically. This is the nature of plants that have
everything they need. They propagate more plants. However, if conditions are
not right, many plants cannot propagate. This is where we enable their ministry
as well by making sure they are surrounded with fertile soil. This can only
happen in a trusting, safe environment. In our hearts, we know this is true for
spiritual growth. If we do not feel safe in the church, we find it hard to feel
that others would find the church safe. There
will not be enough trust so the Word can be sown in their hearts.
We are plants that are trying to grow into our spiritual,
God-given destiny as well. We may understand from personal experience how
difficult it is to deal with those who want to make us into images of
themselves without regards to what God has called us to. As a result, we might
not feel safe in the church, either. If we do not feel safe, we cannot find a
way to help others feel safe. When that happens, the perpetual cycle of soil
preparation, sowing, and nurturing to fruitfulness ceases,
and a church can begin to die.
Those who want to force the spiritual experience of
others can be like pouring an herbicide on a fertile field. Eventually, the
soil may become fertile again, but it will take time and much more effort than
it did before. Once trust is destroyed, it is hard to rebuild it. It may even
be impossible for those who have lost it. Sadly, it can even go to multiple
generations. More people have likely turned their backs on the church because
of not feeling safe and nurtured than because of disputes over doctrine. I
cannot recount how many times I have visited non-attending members and they
have recounted experiences where instead of finding nurture in the church, they
found criticism and a controlling spirit.
We can understand this because it is not too hard to find
examples in our own experience. Many of us know that church member that loves
to tell others that they are worshipping the Devil by celebrating Christmas
even though the church teaches no such thing. We can probably name those church
members who condemn others for listening to contemporary Christian music, even
though there is no prohibition on that in the Baptismal contract. We even know
those who teach that one must be vegetarian to enter heaven without seeing
death, even though the Bible gives clear examples to the contrary and there is
no requirement for vegetarianism to belong to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Some would have others believe that they must accept the idea of a grand
conspiracy by the Illuminati or some other group. Some even promote the idea
that you must support a particular politician or political agenda to be a
Seventh-day Adventist. None of these things are listed as requirements for church
membership either in the church’s Statement of Fundamental Beliefs or in the
baptismal contract. If we support such things, we should recognize we may be
creating an image of Adventism after our own understanding, an image that is
powerless to save anyone.
If we want to enjoy a perpetual cycle of ministry, a
cycle where we can prepare human hearts to trust the Word, a cycle where the
Word can be nurtured in the heart so it can grow to sow seed and also produce a
harvest, we need to avoid these things that poison the soil and destroy trust.
If we present a strange gospel of conspiracies and political intrigues, we will
be like a farmer providing spoiled grain to his neighbors. They will cease to
come to be fed and will go elsewhere to feed themselves and their families. God
will still feed them, but we won’t be a part of it. When the grain is spoiled,
we will not even be able to feed ourselves.
This Commentary is a Service of Still
Waters Ministry
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