A parable from Air New Zealand.
I was praying with Shell, Rae, A-J and Jeremy and I was reminded of something.
The kingdom of God is like two men on a plane….
One man gets given a parachute and told the parachute will improve his flight. He likes this idea so he puts it on, after while he starts to feel uncomfortable- wearing a parachute in an airplane seat will do that. The other passengers start laughing at him and mocking him “nice parachute dude” they taunt in a taunting kind of way. After a period of mockery and a restless flight he gets sick of the parachute and throws it on the floor in disgust, the parachute did not improve his flight.
A second man is on a plane he is offered an eerily similar parachute, but told that the plane WILL crash and the parachute will save his life. He also is uncomfortable and mocked, but this man persists, surely a little discomfort and ridicule is worth his life.
Here is the breakdown, some of us get sold a man (woman) centered gospel/parachute, we get told (or we tell others) that it will improve our lives. God will help us through our flight. As soon as the discomfort and persecution comes we throw off the gospel disgusted that it didn’t improve our life at all. The second man gets told a God centered gospel the gospel is not about him it is about his fate- What will happen when the plane crashes? (And the plane will crash). This man can handle the discomfort and persecution because he has the right perspective- It IS a matter of life and death. How many of us got told that the gospel and following God was all about God blessing us? We made a choice when we were on a mountain top, but we need to think about our choice- it IS a matter of life and death.
How do we spread the gospel? – In a prosperity doctrine kind of way or a black and white, life and death, heaven or hell kind of way. It reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw once – Eternity, smoking or non-smoking? It is your choice. (Unless you’re a Calvinist, then it is predetermined, but I don’t want to open that can of worms.)
posted by Steve-a-saurus at 10:04 PM
4 Comments:
Sooo...how will this parachute help us if the plan crashes? :P I mean its a bit late to jump out of a plane when its already hit the earth and the flames are leaping around us.
You have given me something to ponder Tron, I think with all parables they are over simplified, that is kind of the point. And you can’t really base your theology on a parable that explains one element of the Kingdom of God. All I was trying to say was, that maybe we have a really bad perspective about the gospel and that is more serious than we think. There definitely needs to be more of a sense of urgency to the spreading of the gospel.
was this a ray comfort parable? I am sure I read it in one of his books somewhere...
Yeah it was from Ray Comfort
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