2 He taught them many things in parables, and in His teaching He said to them: 3 “Listen! Consider the sower who went out to sow. 4 As he sowed, this occurred: Some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it sprang up right away, since it didn’t have deep soil. 6 When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it didn’t have a root, it withered. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce a crop. 8 Still others fell on good ground and produced a crop that increased 30, 60, and 100 times ⌊what was sown⌋.” 9 Then He said, “Anyone who has ears to hear should listen!”
Mark 4:14–20 (HCSB)
14 The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones along the path where the word is sown: when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root in themselves; they are short-lived. When pressure or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately stumble. 18 Others are sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the worries of this age, the seduction of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 But the ones sown on good ground are those who hear the word, welcome it, and produce a crop: 30, 60, and 100 times ⌊what was sown⌋.”
How fertile is the soil of your heart?
A very popular parable taught by Jesus which speaks of the condition of man's heart towards God's Word (remember yesterday, the Psalmist talks about a happy man as one who delights in God's Word). So in the infancy of this series let me re-emphasize the importance of determining what condition our hearts are in towards God's Word. So which one are you:
- Are you like the soil on the path? A heart so hard and cold the Word never even has the least bit of chance; or,
- Rocky Soil? Okay, this sounds good. I'll give it a try. But you no roots. I tend to see this like youth coming home from camp who are really pumped up after camp - very zealous. Two weeks later the emotion has died down so that zeal eventually dies; or,
- Thorny Soil? I have a deep suspicion that is where most of us are. Between jobs, kids, church responsibilities, money, etc. Its easy to get distracted, worried, stressed, and "freaked out" and next thing you know the "Seed" has been choked out; or,
- Good Soil? The one who Listens, Understands, and Responds to God's Word in his/her life. The soil like the one by the tree near the river. Bearing lots of fruit and never withering.
Honestly right now I feel like I'm personally somewhere between 3 and 4. Sure my first reaction during a crisis is to have a meltdown, but I eventually come around and am able to kill the weeds and thorns and get back to the business.
Life Space and Heart Space.
Dr. Guthrie talks about these two issues quite a bit. Life Space is simply making space in your life for God's Word. Taking that 5, 10, 20 or so minutes and focusing on God and His Word. Face it unless you live in a monastery, that is not easy to do. I guess life space could be seen as soils 2,3, & 4 above.
But what happens to the "seed" depends upon our "Heart Space". We have to find room in our hearts to let the Word penetrate (Heb. 4.12) our heart and change us/mold us. Let the seed produce 30, 60, and 100 fold.
My prayer is that we can ask God what rocks and thorns are in our lives that need to cleaned out and thrown away. This parable has always reminded my of a very popular Christian song from the 70's. The Secret Place by Steve and Annie Chapman (always hated that song because I thought it was extremely corny). The basis for the song is about letting God visits all of the rooms in our heart - except one. The one that no one goes into - the SECRET PLACE. Let me give you a little hint - that is where all the thorns are grown and where all the rocks hang out.......
Six Months from Now
Six months from now I would like to be so sensitive to the Bible that I hear God's Heart and not just His Word. The best example I can think of is when your parents would always tell you "No"when it came time to do certain stuff. You thought that their whole purpose in life was to keep you from having fun. As you got older you began to understand why - they loved you and were attempting to keep you from getting hurt and//or in trouble. You begin to see the "Heart" behind the "Words". That's where I want to be.
Wag is out
Wag is out
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