Good Soil

 

 Luke 8: 4-15 

The Parable of the Sower

⁴ While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: ⁵ “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. ⁶ Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

⁹ His disciples asked him what this parable meant. ¹⁰ He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

“‘though seeing, they may not see;
    though hearing, they may not understand.’

¹¹ “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹² Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³ Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. ¹⁴ The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. ¹⁵ But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Jesus clearly explains this parable; the question for us is are we "those who hear the word, retain it, and by  persevering produce a good crop"? We walk daily on rocky ground and with those who have lost their interest in and fervor for the Word of God. Secularism surrounds us on all sides, and we find ourselves devoting enormous amounts of time to the frivolous and less and less to "the things that matter."  Look a Sunday church attendance...all denominations are experiencing a large drop in numbers. What will the Lord of the Harvest do with these "dropouts"? May we catch ourselves before we drop too far.

Bro, Rene

Dear God,we need your help to remain good seed; renew our fervor to remain faithful to the things that really matter. Amen.