How do you respond to criticism?  My first reaction isn’t constructive, I must confess.  I want to argue or fight back.  But after letting my negativity subside, I’ve discovered it often helps to ask pertinent questions, to let the truth soak in deeper and have its way with me.

If you haven’t already listened to the short audio messages I posted earlier in the week, here are the links again.  They are about how Jesus used parables to sneak past our defenses with  tough truth:

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To let this parable have its way with you, here are some of the kinds of questions you might  ask:

• In what sense is teaching from God like a seed?
• What influences in our world tend to make our “soil” hard, so that His truth bounces off?
• What is the danger of religion that focuses mostly on drumming up emotional fervor?
• How much hard work does a seed expend in order to be fruitful?
• If none, then what does it do?  How is the fruit produced?
• How are your eyes and ears; do you have defenses to shield you from God’s dangerous truth?
• If so, what will you do about those defenses?