Sowing the Seeds

Each week all over America there are folks who are sharing the Word of God indiscriminately to whoever will listen. Sometimes it may be for an hour in a church. Sometimes it may be on a myriad of available media. Sometimes it may a friend or a neighbor who relates a personal testimony. Sometimes it comes to us from unexpected places. The Message is the same, "Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself".
Jesus explained this practice in a parable, the Parable of the Sower. After He told the parable He looked around at his disciples and saw blank looks and inquiring minds. In Mark 4:13-20, He says, "Do you really not understand this parable? Then how are you going to understand all the other parables? The man who sows, sows the message. As for those who are by the roadside where the message is sown, as soon as they hear it Satan comes at once and takes away what has been sown in their minds. Similarly, the seed sown among the rocks represents those who hear the message without hesitation and accept it joyfully. But they have no real roots and do not last- when trouble or persecution arises because of the message, they give up their faith at once. Then there are the seeds which are sown among thorn bushes. These are people who hear the message, but the worries of the world and the false glamour of riches and all sorts of other ambition creep in and choke the life out of what they have heard, and it produces no crop in their lives. As for the seed sown on good soil, this means the men who hear the message and accept it and do produce a crop - thirty, sixty, even a hundred times as much as they received."
Do you understand this parable? How often have you seen examples of each of these seed locations? Those who hear the Message but are immediately distracted by the evil of the world and lose their ability to pass the Message and to grow anything. Those who sit next to you in church every Sunday smiling as they hear the Message of Love but when confronted by the world and its expectations, turn and run. Or perhaps you know those who are active and do their time in church until society demands their participation and they turn their back on the Message. And then there are the ones who hear the Message and pass it on, tell the stories of Jesus, live the stories of Jesus, love God, and love their neighbors and their seeds produce new believers or renew old believers and by their efforts the Message goes on and on. Have a grateful Heart. Love and trust in God. Love your neighbor and tell the Story.