Mark 3:31-35, Matthew 12:46-50, Luke 8:19-21, Mark 4:1-20, Matthew 13:1-23, Luke 8:4-18, Mark 4:21-29
There are four types of soil (hearts) in Christ's parable of the farmer and the seed:
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for planting your Word in my heart, and thank you for growing the Life of Christ in me. I pray that you will give me boldness to share the Gospel so that your Word and Life may grow in others. I pray that you will use me to water, cultivate, and kill weeds in other people's lives. Lord, please do not let me be distracted by the things of this world; please show me anything that is competing for resources. Father, please produce the Fruit of the Spirit in my life - a hundred fold! I ask you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
There are four types of soil (hearts) in Christ's parable of the farmer and the seed:
- hard path - Satan steals away the Word before it sprouts
- rocky soil - the Word may sprout, but the heart is too hard for it to take root and grow
- weedy soil - the Word sprouts, the plant grows, but it is in competition with worldly things so it never produces fruit
- fertile soil - the Word sprouts, the heart is watered, cultivated, and receives plenty of "Son-light" so that the Life of Christ grows an abundant yield of the Fruit of the Spirit is produced!
- I need to be scattering seed (i.e., sharing the Word of God) every day. "How can they believe in whom they have not heard?"
- I am not responsible for the type of soil that the seed lands on, but the Lord will use me to water, cultivate, and kill weeds.
- I think that a lot of people in The Church have hearts of the third type - choked by the cares of this life, riches, etc.
- I want to be the fourth type - 100 fold producer. Practically, it takes a lot of water, nutrients, and energy to yield such an abundant fruit. The plant must be very efficient in allocating material and energy resources in root, stalk, leaves, and fruit production; an imbalance renders the plant ineffective.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for planting your Word in my heart, and thank you for growing the Life of Christ in me. I pray that you will give me boldness to share the Gospel so that your Word and Life may grow in others. I pray that you will use me to water, cultivate, and kill weeds in other people's lives. Lord, please do not let me be distracted by the things of this world; please show me anything that is competing for resources. Father, please produce the Fruit of the Spirit in my life - a hundred fold! I ask you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
"Lord will use me to water, cultivate, and kill weeds."
ReplyDeleteActually, that is the job of the Holy Spirit. When we "throw the seed" (Gospel of Christ's love), the Holy Spirit takes action. This is pictured in Hebrews 4:12, which says:
"For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
The Holy Spirit can only act where the "seed" is thrown. Jesus said his yoke is easy, and burden light. What I picture here, is the yoke being His cross. He is on one side of the crossbar, and the oter side of the crossbar is empty. The middle beam is the plow. The interesting thing in how I picture this; is the field has already been plowed; and on the empty side of the crossbar where we are supposed to be is a bag hanging off it that is labeled "seed." The "work" has already been done.
I agree. I guess I had 1 Corinthians 3 in mind, in the context of community:
ReplyDelete5What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
That's a good verse. I view the "watering" in this verse as discipleship, not so much as witnessing. It goes hand in hand with the Great Commission, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (seed throwing), teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (watering)."-Matthew 28:19-20.
ReplyDeleteCheck out my blog for my thoughts on discipleship; or read Nate's Noise in the vision this Sunday (same article).