Contours of Transformation (Part 2)

Recently the tree in the front yard of my house had to be cut down completely. There were some signs of ill health on the tree. The bark was peeling off on its own, some of the branches were obviously dead and on very windy days it appeared to be swaying back and forth at the trunk.

What we did not discover till after we had someone cut it down and then cut into pieces was that it was infested with termites. And not just any termites, but the large queen termites. There were holes burrowed vertically through the trunk the size of a thumb! The termites were effectively eating the tree to death from the inside.

There is a lesson in this.

The Lord Jesus spoke of people’s hearts as soil in differing conditions of preparedness to receive the Word of the Gospel. (See Mark 4:1-20). And then explained what blocked the growth of that seed so that it could not mature as it was designed by God to do. Yes, that is right, that seed of God’s Word could not mature as it was designed to do because of the conditions of the people’s hearts. And the conditions of the people’s hearts was a result of their many small choices to say no or yes to God’s witness of truth over time.

Thus we find that the soil of hardness of heart cannot receive the seed at all; for it has not been broken up and tilled. The soil that is full of rocks receives the seed but because the roots cannot go down deep enough to be able to endure the troubles of trials and persecutions such persons fall away. The soil of heart that has weeds (cares, concerns and love for things in this world) also receives the seed but the weeds prevent it from growing to its full potential and nothing of any worth is produced. Finally, there is the soil that is free (or is freed) from rocks and weeds; this heart fully receives the seed, its roots go down deep and there is a harvest.

The other soils retained elements that were inherently hostile to the seed of the Gospel. For such persons chose to retain them even as they opened themselves to some extent to the truth. “But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience endurance.” (Luke 8:15, NRSV)

Sin in its many manifestations has been eating away at the inner person of every human heart. We are like the tree in my yard. On the inside it was dying slowly—being silently devoured. There were signs of ill health but were these heeded? Did anyone bother to discover what was causing this?

In regard to people’s spiritual condition (condition of the soil) many people are not even aware that they are dead and dying. Some know that they have certain problems (anger issues, addictions, unhealthy relationship boundaries, etc.) but they are not sufficiently convinced that they cannot manage them. Or they think that they have only a few isolated problems that need attention while in fact they have a fatal condition at the core of their beings. Either way such persons are in denial about the fatal condition which afflicts them and they esteem “the cares
of this world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things…” (Mark 4:19) above the truth of the Gospel.