I have an engineering degree.  I was a bad engineer, so I got into ministry.  I learned people are more complicated than any engineering problem.  I certainly am.

Jesus tells a Parable about 4 soils, representing 4 kinds of people.  4 different hearts with the potential for faith, hope & love to grow.  In fact, 3 of the 4 groups hear the Gospel and start going to church on Sunday.

Read Luke 8:4-8 (see below). 

His disciples ask, what does this parable mean?  Jesus answers, the seed is the word of God.  Seed falling on the path are those who hear but never believe.  The devil takes the word away.  Others wrongly think …

  • There are no consequences to following Christ. Trials derail them.  The world gets in the way.
  • Abundant riches & blessings are guaranteed. Temptations derail them.  The flesh gets in the way.

For the good soil, it’s not like they avoid the world, flesh, or devil.  Life can feel like 2-steps forward, 1-step back.  It’s messy, unnerving, painful at times.  Faithful Christ-followers persevere, and it becomes evident in their lives.  The Apostle Paul tells the Colossians his calling is to suffer among them.  He is happy to suffer, he must suffer, if they are to become mature in Christ.

Read Colossians 1:24-29 (see below). 

Jesus’ parable & Paul’s ministry help me see salvation as a process of maturing, even when it 1-step forward, 2-steps back.  We call it sanctification & discipleship.  It looks like repentance – changing our worldly ways for the ways of the Kingdom.

So, even as I trust Jesus with my life, I must still suffer the frailties of being human.  I must keep making a daily, conscious choice to follow Jesus.  To help me remember this, I no longer say “I am saved” as in past tense; Jesus saved me.  I use the present tense; Jesus is saving me.

My lived experience teaches me there is still much to learn & put into practice.  Do you interpret your salvation in Christ similarly or differently?

Luke 8:4-8 (ESV): The Parable of the Sower

4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Colossians 1:24-29 (ESV): Paul’s Ministry to the Church

24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.