Good Morning Friends,
“While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: ‘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 of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 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, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’" (Luke 8:4-8)
Jesus said that there are four kinds of soil and each of them represents a kind of heart.
One heart is represented by the hard soil of the path. The path cannot be penetrated by the seed and so the seed just lies on top of the path and is easily available for the birds to come and eat. The seed that is sown on the path never takes root and never sprouts any kind of response to the sowing. There are hard hearts like that. The Gospel is presented, but it doesn’t penetrate the heart in any way and so there is no response.
Another heart is represented by the rocky soil. In Israel there is much soil that is very thin and just a few inches below the soil is a layer of rock. When seed is sown on that kind of soil it germinates quickly because the shallow soil heats up more quickly than deep soil and when it rains, the water stays in that shallow layer of soil because it cannot penetrate the rock. But when the rain stops and the sun comes up, the shallow soil dries out quickly and the new plant quickly dies. There are hearts like that. They hear the Gospel and respond quickly, but the heart is shallow and the response is short-lived. The Gospel never really takes root and there is not fruit produced from it.
A third heart is represented by soil that is infested with many weed seeds. When seed is sown in soil like that it may germinate and come up quickly, but so do the weeds. And the weeds tend to be stronger and take the water and nutrients needed by the good seed. Soon the weeds are so big they choke out the good plants and the good plants die, never having produced any crop. There are hearts like that. They hear the Gospel and respond, but they are also surrounded by powerful temptations and those cares and priorities choke out the good seed of the Gospel and their response to God dies quickly, never having produced any fruit.
The final heart is represented by the good soil. When seed is sown on good soil it germinates, takes root, grows throughout the growing season and produces a great crop at harvest. There are hearts like that. They hear the Gospel, respond and then grow and produce fruit for the Lord.
What kind of soil is your heart?
His, by Grace,
Steve
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