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by:  Staci Stallings

We’ve been talking about Jesus as the Seed in Biblical terms — how you have to plant the right seed for the right kind of crop to grow.

Let’s now look at another parable you may be familiar with.

The story comes from Luke 8:4-15

“He spoke by way of a parable: ⁵ “The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled under foot and the birds of the air ate it up. ⁶ Other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. ⁷ Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out. ⁸ Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great.” As He said these things, He would call out, “ He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

⁹  His disciples began questioning Him as to what this parable meant. ¹⁰ And He said, “ To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.

¹¹ “Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. ¹² Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved. ¹³ Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. ¹⁴ The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity. ¹⁵ But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.”

We are going to break this down over the next couple of times because there are a lot of lessons packed in this one little parable.

First, recall that the “seed” is the Word of God, which is Jesus.  Also recall that we are the sowers.  We sow the Seed of God in our lives, in our work, in our families, in our churches, etc.

To me, one of the initial lessons of the parable is this: Don’t get discouraged.  Why?  Because when you are sowing God’s Seed, it’s going to look like a LOT of it is wasted.  Notice that if you take this as if each “set” of seeds is 1/4 of the whole, then 3/4′s of the seed is gone by the time harvest gets here.

So as you, the sower, are sowing God’s seed, don’t get discouraged that it doesn’t all come up.  Don’t feel like a failed sower because it doesn’t all work.  God is telling you in this parable, “Look, I know it’s not all going to work.  In fact, I’m looking at a 25% success rate as bringing about an abundant harvest.  So don’t think every seed you sow will sprout.  Just keep sowing.”

Now let’s look at the first seed…

“as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled under foot and the birds of the air ate it up.”

Sometimes we sow God’s Seed and it “falls” from our hands.  We are not careful with it.  That’s going to happen if you are sowing.

For example, you are out there sowing and the day has grown long and you are weary.  Then some unlovable someone comes up and says something that piques your anger.  In a perfect world, one in which we do not live, you as the sower would be able to react in perfect love back to this unlovable someone.  But you and I both know, despite our best intentions that doesn’t always happen.

We get careless or tired, and we scatter the seed that was meant to be carefully planted.  And what happens to it?  It is trampled under foot or the birds eat it up.  In short, it’s ruined.

I think God is saying, “You are not going to get everything right.  Seed is going to fall on places you did not intend.  That’s okay because it means you are out there trying.”

Let me ask you this… which is better to have some of the seed you are carrying fall because of carelessness or to have no seed with you at all?

So for those times you have been careless with God’s Seed in your life, realize that God understands.  And He will forgive you.

Further, the parable goes on to explain not from the sower’s perspective but from those receiving the Word/Seed that is being scattered.  Those who are receiving the Seed that are on the road, are those hardened souls who do not receive any good thing.  But notice that the sower still scatters the seed over them.  Yes, the devil takes it away, yes, they ultimately choose not to believe and are not saved.  But this is not the fault of the sower–only of the receiver.

So you know that unlovable someone we talked about.  Just because they are as hard as a road doesn’t mean you shouldn’t scatter some Jesus Seed on them because frankly, that’s what the sower is commissioned to do.  His is not to decide who gets the seed, who might be worthy or unworthy, or even whose life the seed will produce more seed.  His job is to scatter the seed as well as He can and let God worry about the rest.

*~*

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Houston firefighter, Jeff Taylor is a fireman’s fireman. No situation is too dangerous to keep him sidelined if lives are on the line. However, when control freak Lisa Matheson falls for him, she quickly realizes she can’t control Jeff or the death wish he seems to have…

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The Courage Series, Book 1

To save others’ lives, they will risk their own

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-Cindy Reiger

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