The Soil of a Heart

I woke extremely early, got about my Bible & study time as I waited for the morning coffee to brew. I've been doing a specific study on Jesus and I was eager to get into it. Typically, I read rather fast and I am forcing myself to slow down, re-read passages for their full impact and certainly have asked God for revelation so I might get all that He would have me glean from the study.

I love it when a passage, a thought, or intent I had not grasped before jumps off the page at me. It ignites a spark that becomes a flame as God reveals more and I sit in awe that He has shared it with little ole' me. Much I read this morning inspired me but one thing stuck out and encouraged me, a nugget of gold to hold on to and turn over in my spirit to see from every angle.

There was a change in tone and teaching style when Jesus went from proclaiming the kingdom was at hand to the Nation of Israel who rejected Him as the long-awaited Messiah, to a call to the individual to surrender in faith to the yoke of his lordship. Thus began the time of teaching in parables – everyday stories that illustrated spiritual realities.

The first parable recorded in scripture in Matthew 13:3-9 was that of the sower/seed/soil. Jesus, always focused on seeking and saving the lost, preached the gospel in His first parable. Rather than openly proclaiming His message, He obscured the truth from those that had rejected it already. Genuine believers who desperately wanted to understand found Him eager to explain every detail. Those who hated the truth didn't bother to ask.

As I sit with my class of 'tweens, I draw analogies between spiritual concepts and their everyday worlds so they can understand how it is as relevant today as it was in the time Jesus walked the earth. As with the parable of the sower/seed/souls…I can tell by the attitudes, behaviors and interests the four types of soil bearers sitting in the class. There is a distinct line between the askers and the non-askers. The nugget I referred to before was this: in ancient times, the Palestinians used different methods of sowing. Sometimes they sowed first, and then plowed under the seed (gospel). That often happens in evangelism. We sow the seed, and even when it seems the hovering birds (satan) are ready to snatch it away, the Holy Spirit plows it under so it can sprout and bear glorious fruit.    

As sowers, we are called to broadcast the seed of the unadulterated gospel, even if some of it falls on unprepared soil. There will always be wayside soil, shallow soil, and weedy soil, but there will also be good soil that will bring forth crops thirty-, sixty- or a hundredfold. That prepared soil needs only to have the right seed thrown on it.