Among Thorns

The seed falling among thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches choke out the word, making it unfruitful.  – Matthew 13:22

I am now the pastor of a church.  For some reason, after three years, I am still coming to grips with this.  Anyway, I’ve always said that if I ever did become the pastor of a church, I’d want to be the pastor of a real one.   What I mean is a group of people (I don’t care if it is 50 or 5,000) who really do Christianity.  I’m talking about people who are disciples of Jesus Christ.  I’m talking about people who would risk their reputations, their jobs, and even their lives for His Name’s sake. 

Yet, the majority of the people sitting in churches calling themselves Christians refuse to deny themselves sexual pleasure outside of marriage.  The majority of American Christians would choose a million dollar scratch-off ticket over Him any day of the week.  Most Americans who call themselves Christians have zero control over their anger and even less control over the cuss words flying out of our mouths.  (These last two things you are to remove yourself, God doesn’t wave a magic wand and take them away . . . see Colossians 3:8)  Denial of one’s self is absolutely fundamental to following Christ.

The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

So what is choking out the fruit? 

Well, Jesus says it is the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth.  I know for too many years as a Christian, the cares of this life killed my fruit.  I cared about everything more than Him.  Sports, girlfriends, television, video games, movies, and just about every other form of entertainment kept me from God.  For five years after becoming a Christian, I said I didn’t have time to read the Bible.  Yet, I can quote from probably 50 movies that came out during that time period and sing word for word countless secular songs.  

Now, unlike Eddie Money (or Billy Satellite), I don’t wanna go back and do it all over.  I’m glad everything led me to where I am right now at this moment in time.  I love the Lord.  I’ve never felt closer to Him.  But, I see so many caught in the same trap that I was.  Many of you reading this may be in that trap.  My prayer is that this WMD helps you recognize it and it wakes you up.  You do have time to spend with God.  In fact, by NOT spending time with Him, you are choking out the fruit He wants to produce in you.  If you aren’t producing fruit, nobody will want the Jesus you claim to have.

Figure out your weeds and pull them. 

It is purity that produces power to make a real difference in this world.

Later

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Adam