Finding Victory in the Dirt“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Luke 8:5-8 (ESV)
On a Saturday afternoon I took my daughter to our local Home Depot to help her get the tools she needed to refurbish a make-up table that really needs a good makeover itself. While we there she decided that I also was going to buy her flower seeds. That is where I was of no help to her at all. Flower Seeds!! I confess that I have a hard time remembering to buy my wife flowers at times but I am clueless on how to give my daughter any advice on what to do to grow them. So I bought her a kit to grow flowers and a packet of corn seed. Burpee seeds no less, after all aren’t they the most popular brand. They must have been for they were the only brand of seed I could find.
Now don’t get me too wrong here. I have done gardening in the past, but that past was a different kind of past. I knew nothing of Jesus in that past and whatever I did to make a garden happen I have forgotten. So anyway I picked out an area to cultivate and got to work. I also think for some strange reason that I can toil the soil with a shovel and a hoe like they did back in Cain’s time. I am half way through and wish I had a roto-tiller. Right now all I have are hand tools and Advil. The Advil is for the sore muscles I am getting from the hand tilling. This may be funny to all and I am even having a good chuckle over it but I thought about Jesus and the parable of the sower while doing my digging and hoeing. Here’s what went through my head.
“This is hard work because the ground is cursed.” I reckon to myself. I am quite sure the Garden of Eden did not need to be tilled, plowed or sowed. But there is this eating of an apple that kind of ruins things so I till by hand. Cain must have been a very unhappy camper knowing this as well and there is nothing in the Bible that tells me anything different, so I’ll have to go on what I experience with tilling by hand. And this ground is just as cursed in the time of Cain as it is in my time and as it was the time Jesus walked on it. And as He walked on this cursed ground He sowed seed didn’t He?
So much is taken out of this simple parable but here’s my view. If we have the heart of Christ in us as we walk on this cursed ground we are, like He did, to sow seed. Not the seed that the INSP channel sows but the seeds that plants God’s Word in the hearts of all who have chosen to hear it. The various places where the seed lands, tells us about the condition of the hearts that have heard. Now get this part…God calls us all. So what of the heart of all? It is not all in the same unity as some is it? So God’s Word only grows in the kind of soil or heart that is prepared for Him. So I continue to till my soil…without the roto-tiller.
Matthew Henry says; “There are many very needful and excellent rules and cautions for hearing the Word, in the parable of the sower, and the application of it.” I will agree with in its entirety but it is the next thing in this concise where he makes this statement, “Happy are we, and forever indebted to free grace, if the same thing that is a parable to others, with which they are only amused, is a plain truth to us, by which we are taught and governed.”
So simply put those parables that Jesus spoke in are plain truths that with the right tool to listen, we will be privileged to understand God’s Word. I am glad to back to gardening…hope there will be a harvest. What will you sow and what will it harvest for you this morning Brothers… and Sisters? -- Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and serves on the ministry team of Families for Christ. Chris is a frequent contributor to Freedom Fighter
Digging Deeper: Proverbs 26; 2 Samuel 23-24; Luke 19:1-27
Dig This Quote:The Cross is God’s truth to us, and therefore it is the only power which can make us truthful. When we know the Cross, we are no longer afraid of the truth. We need no more oaths to confirm the truth of our utterance, for we live the perfect of God. There is no truth toward Jesus without truth toward man. Untruthfulness destroys fellowship, but truth cuts false fellowship to pieces and establishes genuine brotherhood. We cannot fellow Christ unless we live revealed truth before God and man. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Hung for resisting the Nazis
Berlin, Germany 1945
Determined Digging: Level 1: Proverbs 3:5-6; Level 2: Psalm 62:5-8
No comments:
Post a Comment