Shallow

A quick entry before I officially start my day at work.

This is my QT today. Think it's quite a wake-up call for me.

The verse is this:

"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root..."
Matthew 13:3-6

The narrative:

"It would seem from the teaching of this parable that we have something to do with the soil. The fruitful seed fell into "good and honest hearts." I suppose the shallow people are the soil without much earth--those who have no real purpose, are moved by a tender appeal, a good sermon, a pathetic melody, and at first it looks as if they would amount to something; but not much earth--no depth, no deep, honest purpose, no earnest desire to know duty in order to do it. Let us look after the soil of our hearts.

When a Roman soldier was told by his guide that if he insisted on taking a certain journey it would probably be fatal, he answered, "It is necessary for me to go; it is not necessary for me to live."

This was depth. When we are convicted something like that we shall come to something. The shallow nature lives in its impulses, its impressions, its intuitions, its instincts, and very largely its surroundings. The profound character looks beyond all these, and moves steadily on, sailing past all storms and clouds into the clear sunshine which is always on the other side, and waiting for the afterwards which always brings the reversion of sorrow, seeming defeat and failure.

When God has deepened us, then He can give us His deeper truths, His profoundest secrets, and His mightier trusts. Lord, lead me into the depths of Thy life and save me from a shallow experience!"

Short as this is, I think the part that strikes me most is in the first paragraph:

"I suppose the shallow people are the soil without much earth--those who have no real purpose, are moved by a tender appeal, a good sermon, a pathetic melody, and at first it looks as if they would amount to something; but not much earth--no depth, no deep, honest purpose, no earnest desire to know duty in order to do it."

No offence to anyone or anywhere or anything, but the first imagery that comes to mind were my experiences at KBC. The sermons were head-on, sometimes short and sweet, direct, honest, open teachings full of passion and emotion and feeling, and people get stirred up into a frenzy of passion and sing and cry their hearts out to GOD, to Jesus. I myself have cried out and fallen sobbing and all... but at the end of the day, I realize that I don't do anything after that.

Of course, it's not just KBC. The more charismatic churches tend to do that... City Harvest for one. I haven't been to many charismatic churches, but of those that I've been to, it's more or less like that.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm the shallow one. And I really don't want to be. It's scary enough that the Christian community might be made up of a majority of shallow earth, and I definitely do not want to increase the surface area of this shallow earth.

*shudders*

What are you doing with the life GOD gave you?