Stony Ground Hearers

The message at Grace this week was powerful and piercing for me. Over the course of the last few years I have become more convicted about this sliding of the Gospel message and Sunday reinforced this belief.

Several years ago I listened to a message titled Hell’s Best Kept Secret by Ray Comfort, an evangelist from New Zealand. In the talk he speaks of his evangelical frustration of seeing upwards of 85% of the “decisions for Christ” he led people in, turning into what he called “backsliders”. After reading others and conducting his own research he discovered this was all too typical, with major denominations reporting tens of thousands of conversions leading to mere dozens of new believers who could be found in fellowship a year later. Instead of questioning the initial decision, he believed we misfocused (I love to create new words) our efforts on follow up and discipleship.

The revelation of Comfort’s message is that the church in the 20th century shifted focus from salvation to life-enhancement. We’ve all heard (and said) it…..Jesus has a wonderful plan for your life….Come to Jesus and he’ll clean you up…you have a God-sized hole in your heart….you’ll never know true peace, love, joy and happiness until you give your life to Jesus….etc. What we commonly call backsliders are people who never slid forward in the first place. They accepted the invitation in sincerity because who doesn’t want meaning and happiness? They’ve tried drugs, sex, Buddhism, money…why not give this Jesus-thing a go and see what happens.

Instead having never repented of their ways, never having seen their sin as exceedingly filthy, not holding themselves up to the light of God’s perfect standard they come not for the King and his grace – but for the benefits (peace, joy, purpose) of the King’s table. Using the text of Mark 4 and the parable of the sower, Comfort shows that Jesus foretold of these “stony ground hearers” who receive the word with great joy but, having no root, quickly fall away in the face of any hardship. These are not struggling, carnal, or backslidden believers, rather they are still unbelievers - goats among the sheep that “go out from us, because they were never of us”.

Comfort’s solution to this is to use the Law, the 10 Commandments as a means to show unbelievers their state before a holy God. That they are by nature enemies of God, rightly deserving punishment and hell for their deeds. As I listened to the message Sunday, I was reminded that we present only a “get out of hell free card” and a story of life enhancement with our witness. By not focusing on how awesome the gift of grace, we produce “Christians” with no real commitment because they don’t understand how great the price paid by Jesus and the cost of discipleship.

On the off-chance that you are still reading and I have not bored you to tears….let me know what you think. There’s been no discussion in weeks and I feel like Andre and I are drifting apart without a good blogument!

Sunday pm

Anyone interested in going to Grace in the evening to see the rest of the movie they showed last week and staying for the open forum?

One way?

OK - Reaction to Mark's talk...

1- Do you find the exclusivity of Christianity a problem personally?

2- Have you faced this when discussing spiritual issues with others?

3- Do you believe there will be anyone in heaven who has not "accepted Christ"? (Excluding babies, mentally handicapped, etc)