More From The Garden Part 1

More from the Garden Part One

“And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: “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 8:4-8 (ESV)

A little while ago I had written about how I actually got some basic hand tools and tilled some ground to plant some corn. Well I am happy to say that there are sprouts coming up from the ground. I am so happy about this that I decided to post a little diddy on my Facebook page called “FARMVILLE: The Reality Series”. So for those of you who do the Facebook thing I sure hope you get a laugh from my future posts. Farmville, for those of you who may not know, is a game that is played on Facebook and is a make believe farm and many people “labor” in their fields, share their results and other stuff. Now I wonder if we can apply this to our everyday living…laboring in the vineyard for the building up of the maturity of the saints, if you will?

I heard a message on the “Parable of the Sower” from Dr. Earl Johnson. Dr. Johnson pastor’s Covenant Life Church in Carson, Ca. He oversees the “According to Pattern” apostolic team and is an “AMEN” preacher. After I had listened to his message on this parable I decided to RE-VEIW the parable from Luke 8. At my earlier reads I only thought this a parable of evangelizing but it has become much more after Dr. Johnson’s teaching. So…“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

“I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here am I, here am I,” to a nation that was not called by My name.” (Isaiah 65:1) In Luke’s Gospel account Jesus is going from town to town preaching the Good News when He stops and tells the people around Him a story. “A sower went out to sow his seed” He starts out with but I do not think anyone looks at Him being the sower in His own parable let alone the ground He is sowing into being the heart of the listener.

So let’s say that the fresh plot of ground or soil is the heart of man and that the seed is God’s Word being sowed into it. Agree? I hope you do. So if we look at the heart of man as being the soil and the seed is God’s Word (and remember the seed is always good) then the success of the seeding is based on the nature and the temper of the soil. So if it is the nature and the temper of the soil (or the heart) to intentionally look for growth or truth then there the seed will have success but if there is no concern for growth or finding truth there is no success and the ground has no maturing.

I will stop there today. I think it is rather ironic that I am looking at the heart like a plot of soil. But I keep in mind that our Hebrew brethren speak of the heart as really being your thought process. So like a modern-day psalmist once said, “Garbage in, garbage out” and most garbage is dirty. So if we keep choosing the garbage to till into our soil or heart we will never be ready for that good seed and we may never see any real growth or maturing in ourselves. So why not ask yourself today…What am I tilling into my plot of soil and will it yield a hundred-fold? -- Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a frequent contributor to Freedom Fighter

Happy Fourth Birthday, Lindsay Bear. Pop loves you a bushel and a peck!

Digging Deeper: Proverbs 14

Dig This Quote: “Those with a well-kept heart are persons who are prepared for and capable of responding to the situations of life in ways that are good and right. Their will functions as it should, to choose what is good and avoid what is evil, and the other components of their nature cooperate to that end. They need not be “perfect”; but what all people manage in at least a few times and areas of life, they manage in life as a whole.” Dallas Willard

Determined Digging: Level 1: Proverbs 16:7; Level 2: Psalm 92-1-4