Scripture Reading - Luke 8:4-15 "And when much people were gathered together , and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable: A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed , some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down , and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up , it withered away , because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it , and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up , and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried , He that hath ears to hear , let him hear . And his disciples asked him, saying , What might this parable be ? And he said , Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see , and hearing they might not understand . Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are they that hear ; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved . They on the rock are they, which, when they hear , receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe , and in time of temptation fall away . And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard , go forth , and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection . But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience."
The Word of God is a wonderful thing. Adhering to the Word is what mold us into the man or woman that God wants us to be. This is meant to be an ongoing continual process, a process that should never end. We should always seek and desire not only to know the Word,but also, to be a doer of the Word. As Jesus spoke the parable of the sower in Luke 8:4-15, He warns us of the dangers that would prevent the Word of God taking effect in our lives. He also makes us a promise of fruit being produced in our lives when the seed (the Word of God) falls upon good soil. The dangers are clear, we can hear the Word and never actually listen to it. We never let it even set up in our hearts because it is quickly snatched away. An example of this condition would be us reading the Word out of obligation instead of really seeking to understand and allow the Word to change us. A person in this condition will attend services and never really listen and seek. They will just beat in time appeasing their conscience. Those who hear the Word and receive it with joy initially, but, the Word never develops in their lives because they have bad rocky soil within their hearts. These people don't have the basic fundamentals of following Christ down pat. These people are more concerned about what Christ can do for them as opposed to what they can do for Christ. They wait for the Word to magically appear in their lives without making any effort toward that fact. Do you really think the Word magically appears? You know it doesn't. I think many of us have thorny soil at times in our hearts. Thorns are anything that distracts us from God. It is usually the cares of this world. We have thorns when we don't place God upon the pedestal the He needs to be on. We need to "love the Lord thy God with all our hearts, soul and mind". Be careful of the thorns, they can greatly hinder our progress in becoming the man or woman God desires us to become. What are the thorns that appear in your soil? Identify them and weed them out of your life. Finally, it is a beautiful thing when the Word materializes in your life and you see what can happen when our soil is good.
Be Blessed and Live in the NOW!!!
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God fully intends for us to live the Kingdom life that he wants for us to live and this passage is very direct on that, as it is a call to anyone that has an ear, let him hear! Many times when thorns spring up in our lives , they take our focus off the solution that The Word of God has for us and places our focus on the problem that is in front of us. The noble and good heart has the type of soil that settles in and become a productive part of the Kingdom of God. We are warned not to assume that we are the good soil, if are not bearing fruit...We have allowed the thorns to choke out the perfect work in us. It takes effort to allow God to weed out the thorns in our garden, as sometimes we can't tell the weeds from the crops. He is worthy, Let us examine ourselves and compare ourselves to what the word says.
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