More from the Garden Part Two“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” Luke 8:11-15 (ESV)
Yesterday I had us look at our plot of dirt and see if it was tilled with the right stuff and ready for planting. Today I would like to continue with some of the different conditions that Jesus said the dirt may have been as He was scattering His seed throughout the towns He traveled to and preached in. Let’s take a look at the four conditions that Jesus said the dirt was in.
The first “some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot”. Dr. Johnson calls this “The Wayside Condition” and it falls in the context of being just too busy for God’s Word. If we are not careful we can fall into this category just as much as the person who is hearing the Word for the first time and allows it to fall by the wayside where “the birds of the air devoured it.”When we get to Jesus’ explanation of this part of Luke in verse 11 He puts it like this, “The seeds on the road are those who hear the Word, but no sooner do they hear it than the Devil snatches it from them so they won’t believe and be saved.”(The Message)
The Wayside Condition can even fall on those of us who are in the House. We are sitting in the pew, the Preacher is on the Pulpit giving a message and in our thoughts we are somewhere else. How many people do you see leaving Church to get to lunch and they are on the cell phone getting into their car and driving into heavy traffic? Well guess what…bye, bye Word of God. It is being trampled under by a set of Goodyear tires, a cheeseburger and then washed down by a Starbucks frappuccino.
The next condition to look at is what has fallen on the rocks and gravel. This is where the seed can get no root system developed. It is a plot of ground that has unresolved issues and hurt. It is as if there has never been some sort of root system instilled into it at all. These are the folks who claim that because their family had dysfunctions they will have life crippling dysfunctions. But couldn’t we also say there is a point in us where we seem to say…”The good I want to do that I do not do but the bad I do not want to do that I do.” And we do not finish up the rest of that verse and we know where the source of the Living Water is but we let some unresolved issue stop us from running our tap root to the Streams!!
“The seeds in the gravel are those who hear with enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm doesn’t go very deep. It’s only another fad, and the moment there’s trouble it’s gone.”Luke 8:13 (The Message). The Word is being preached but there is no target listening. Those in the gravel love the idea of someone else dying for their sins but when it comes times to put themselves on that altar of dedication this no longer becomes a good thing.
“Present myself a living sacrifice? Hmmm…and so exits our hero through the front door, stage right, none the less for his heroic deeds.”
I’ll stop here for today but before I exit…through the front door…stage right, I want to ask you…Are you doing something different with your plot of dirt? Are you one of those who know where the water is…but won’t let the root grow? Try to remember that if we run our tap root to The Bible all the other roots will be drawn to it as well. -- Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a frequent contributor to Freedom Fighter
Digging Deeper: Proverbs 15; Nehemiah 1-3; Acts 2:1-21
Dig This Quote: “There is a good deal of mere mental and logical sanctification nowadays, which is only a religious fiction. It consists of mentally putting one’s self on the altar, then mentally saying the altar sanctifies the gift, and then logically concluding therefore one is sanctified; and such a one goes forth with a gay, flippant, theological prattle about the deep thing of God. But the natural heartstrings have not been snapped, and the Adamic flint has not been ground to powder, and the bosom has not throbbed with the lonely, surging sighs of Gethsemane; and not having the real death marks of Calvary, there cannot be that soft, sweet, gentle, floating, victorious, overflowing, triumphant life that flows like a spring morning from an empty tomb.” G.D.W Streams in the Desert Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
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