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Do a little tilling (Luke 8:5-15) October 16, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Hebrews 11-13

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 8:5-15
Jesus: Once a farmer went out to scatter seed in his fields. Some seeds fell along a trail where they were crushed underfoot by people walking by. Birds flew in and ate those seeds. Other seeds fell on gravel. Those seeds sprouted but soon withered, depleted of moisture under the scorching sun. Still other seeds landed among thorns where they grew for a while, but eventually the thorns stunted them so they couldn’t thrive or bear fruit. But some seeds fell into good soil—soft, moist, free from thorns. These seeds not only grew, but they also produced more seeds, a hundred times what the farmer originally planted. If you have ears, hear My meaning!
His disciples heard the words, but the deeper meaning eluded them.
Disciples: What were You trying to say?
Jesus: The kingdom of God contains many secrets.
They keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep observing, but do not understand.
I want you to understand, so here’s the interpretation: The voice of God falls on human hearts like seeds scattered across a field. Some people hear that message, but the devil opposes the liberation that would come to them by believing. So he swoops in and steals the message from their hard hearts like birds stealing the seeds from the footpath. Others receive the message enthusiastically, but their vitality is short-lived because the message cannot be deeply rooted in their shallow hearts. In the heat of temptation, their faith withers, like the seeds that sprouted in gravelly soil. A third group hears the message, but as time passes, the daily anxieties, the pursuit of wealth, and life’s addicting delights outpace the growth of the message in their hearts. Even if the message blossoms and fruit begins to form, the fruit never fully matures because the thorns choke out the plants’ vitality.
But some people hear the message and let it take root deeply in receptive hearts made fertile by honesty and goodness. With patient dependability, they bear good fruit.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

So there are two perspectives from which to view Jesus’ story as He tells it to the crowd that day. Are you the one sowing the seed or are you the soil on which the seed is sown? It’s important to understand that each of us are in both positions all the time if we are part of the kingdom of God. Now why would I say that if we have already heard the word and accepted Christ as Lord of our life? What would make us continue to need to hear this story and apply it to our lives?

Let’s think about the story from the sower’s perspective first. Sometimes and in some places sharing the word will result in only pain and suffering for those who share it with nothing good in return. The hearers are like the hard path Jesus talked about that seed takes no root at all. Sharing the word at those times is a waste of breath and effort. Like arguing with a drunk. Nothing you say will be comprehended or remembered because of the circumstances at the time. Every once in a while you know you’re in that situation, but those don’t come around often.

If I’m honest, most of the time, I think I find myself among rocks and thorns when I’m sharing with people in the world. Either the truth takes little root because of the cultural background of the individual and there just isn’t any comparisons to help make the transition from what they have heard and believed all their life to the truth of God’s word. Or they are so tied to the pleasures of this world and the lies Satan gives us that they don’t want to give them up for any reason. They want the temporary pleasures more than they want eternal life. They want their way and self control more than their willingness to let God control their life. We still should share the message with these because the seed does take root. Some will grow. Most will be choked out because of the rock or the thorns, but some will survive even in that environment. We must share with them and pray that God will rescue them from their situation.

Then there are those you share the word with that are eager to hear. They need to know God’s truth and want hope that nothing and no one can give except God. They want freedom from the burden of sin they carry. The guilt that sin piles on our shoulders that can never be relieved except by the grace of a merciful God. These listen intently to the testimony we give as we share what God has done for us. These are like the rich, moist, fertile soil that produces a bountiful crop at harvest time. These are the people we must find and to whom we must share boldly and openly. These are the ones who will grow to become sowers themselves and reap their own harvests one day.

How about the story from the soil’s perspective? Why would I mention that even believers must take heed to this story? It’s because we never quit learning. God never leaves us as we are because we never attain the perfection He wants us to attain in this life. Remember we live in damaged bodies. We inherited these afflicted frames through the sin scarred world in which we live. So there is a lot of work to be done to help us become more like Christ.

Studies tell us it takes 10,000 of focused practice to become an expert in any field. But to have complete mastery over that same field take much more than that 10,000 hours. There’s a difference between being an expert and having complete mastery over something. God wants us to have mastery by giving Him complete mastery. The problem is we have remnants of that Adamic nature that plagues us as long as we live in these bodies of clay.

So as God gives you instruction, will you be like the hard packed path and not listen to Him at all? Or like the rocky and thorny soil and let your wishes over ride His so that His new truth for your life doesn’t take root and help you become more like Him? Or will you let your life always be like the rich, moist, fertile soil so that whatever God shares with you will germinate, grow, and return a harvest a hundred fold in your life? The good news is you get to choose the type soil you let your life consist of. You’re the farmer of your heart. How about doing a little tilling today?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Which soil are you? (Matthew 13:18-23) March 24, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Job 23-24

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 13:18-23
Jesus: This is what the parable of the sower means. It is about the kingdom of heaven. When someone hears the story of the Kingdom and cannot understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away whatever goodness and holiness had been sown in the heart. This is like the seeds sown beside the road. You know people who hear the word of God and receive it joyfully—but then, somehow, the word fails to take root in their hearts. It is temporary. As soon as there is trouble for those people, they trip: those people are the seeds strewn on the rocky soil. And you know people who hear the word, but it is choked inside them because they constantly worry and prefer the wealth and pleasures of the world: they prefer drunken dinner parties to prayer, power to piety, and riches to righteousness. Those people are like the seeds sown among thorns. The people who hear the word and receive it and grow in it—those are like the seeds sown on good soil. They produce a bumper crop, 30 or 60 or 100 times what was sown.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

In these verses, Jesus explains His earlier parable. We talked about our missionary responsibility and how we might act as sower looking for those most receptive to the good news. Today, what if you are the soil? What kind of soil are you?

Are you like the rocky soil? Hard-headed and refuse to hear the word and understand it? Do you refuse to let God speak to you through the gospel and just play off the scriptures as so many fairy tales or exaggerations from overly zealous religious freaks? Do you flat refuse to hear God’s word in this day of “enlightened scientific knowledge about all things”? If you fit in that category, you’ll be as fruitful as that concrete like soil on the path beaten down by everyone walking on it. The word won’t get through to you because of your refusal to listen.

Are you like the soil plagued with thorns that choke out the crops? You listen and accept the truth, but then get out in the world and listen to what they have to say and are swayed by their argument, too. You find yourself living life by the last message you heard. So was the last message from God or from the world? Is it Sunday or Tuesday? Are you at church or at work? You bend according to the company you keep and have no opinion of your own, unable to stand on your own two feet and make a decision about which side you will take.

The problem with that stance is you really have made a decision. You’re like the church at Laodecia Jesus had John send the letter about being lukewarm. Thinking everything was okay when Jesus says He would vomit you out of His mouth. He would rather you be cold as ice than lukewarm. At least then you might have a chance of seeing your lost condition and changing. But trying to grow among the thorns, you get just enough nourishment, just enough of the water and nutrients from the soil that you think you’re okay. But you’re not. The thorns choke the life out of you until finally you just wither away.

Hopefully, you are like the good soil Jesus talks about. Rich in nutrients, loose and ready to accept the seed the sower plants. Ready to hear God’s word and plant it in your heart. You’re ready to not just hear His word, but meditate on it, study it, then put it into practice. You’re ready to live it until other see your good works and glorify God because of them. Hopefully, you are like that good soil that creates a bumper crop at harvest time – 30, 60, 100 fold – bringing new disciples into the fold. Helping others find Christ and knowing His peace and forgiveness is for them, too.

Hopefully, you are like that good soil that Jesus talks about. Ready to receive all He has for you and ready to be part of His master plan to bring others to know His will that all would come to the saving knowledge of God’s Son. Ready to give testimony to all God has done in your life and act as His emissary in a world that has too many rocks and thorns and not enough ground ready to plow.

Hopefully, you are like that good soil that Jesus talks about, ready to become the person He created you to be. Full of His Spirit. Acting on His behalf. Sharing His message. Bringing others into His kingdom.

The great thing about the story of the sower and the soil is that you get to pick what kind of soil you want to be. So which is it? Are you the rocky soil, the thorny soil, or the good soil? I pray you make the right choice. Your eternal destiny depends on it. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Prepare the soil (Hosea 12), July 7, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Hosea 12

Set – Hosea 12; Psalms 73; Hebrews 4

Go! – Hosea 10–12; Psalms 73; Hebrews 4

Hosea 12
1 Eternal One: Ephraim feeds on the wind.
He chases the hot east wind all day long.
He’s becoming more and more deceitful and violent.
They’ve abandoned their covenant to make an alliance with Assyria,
trading oil for favor from Egypt.
2 The Eternal has charges to bring against Judah;
He’ll punish the nation of Jacob for the way he’s acting
and pay him back for the things he’s done.
3 Even from the womb, he fought with his brother by grabbing his heel;
when he grew to be an adult, he struggled against God.
4-5 He wrestled with a heavenly messenger and won;
he wept and begged for his help.
It was the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies, who met him at Bethel;
the Eternal Himself spoke with him there; the Eternal One is His memorial name.
6 So you must return to your God, maintain loyalty and justice,
and wait patiently for your God.
7 Like Canaan, Israel is a merchant who uses dishonest scales—
he loves to cheat people!
8 Ephraim gloats, “I’ve gotten rich! I’ve made a fortune for myself!
And in all my dealings no one can charge me with iniquity and dishonesty.”
9 Eternal One: I’m the Eternal One; I’ve been your True God ever since you left Egypt.
I’m going to make you live in tents again,
As you do in remembrance during the Feast of Tabernacles.
10 Eternal One: I’ve spoken to the prophets; I’ve given them many visions,
and I’ve told you parables through them.
11 Because Gilead is so wicked, it is worthless.
They sacrifice bulls at the cultic center of Gilgal,
But their altars will be heaps of stone next to a plowed field.
12 Jacob fled to the fields of Aram;
Israel worked for Laban in exchange for a wife;
to pay the bride-price, he shepherded Laban’s flocks.
13 But the Eternal One led Israel out of Egypt by a prophet;
Moses, God’s own prophet, kept the people safe.
14 But now Ephraim has made his Lord furious, and this is His judgment:
God will punish him for the blood he’s shed
and pay him back for his defiance.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Farmers always expect a harvest. Can you imagine what it would be like to be a farmer but not expect a harvest from the work you put into the crops? You prepare the fields each winter and spring. You spend days and weeks fertilizing, plowing, checking the soiling and making sure it is ready for planting. Then you carefully plant seeds into freshly plowed ground to ensure the best crop possible for a good harvest when the fruit is ripe on the stalks.

You water, weed, fertilize during the season. You protect the crop from bugs, birds, and other animals that might destroy the crop before you can harvest it. Then the big day comes. The crop should be ripe. The harvest should be ready. But instead of a harvest, you have nothing. Can you imagine the heartbreak the farmer must feel? All year he has labored, but he has done so in vain. No farmer goes through that labor without expecting a harvest. He always expects to reap what he has sown.

Life is like that. You reap what you sow. If you sow good deads, in time you will reap a harvest of good. But if you sow evil deeds, in time you will reap evil. Your harvest will reflect the seeds you planted and labored so diligently to grow. So I have a few questions for you along the metaphor of the farmer and his crop.

Have you planted the right seeds? Have you planted good deeds and a righteous life or evil? Let’s assume you are planting good deeds, or trying to.

Are you working diligently on the preparation of the soil before you plant the seeds and after the seeds are planted? Too many think just planting the seed is sufficient to make a bountiful harvest grow. What they find instead is just planting a seed will often result in a scrawny plant.

Pay attention to the preparation of your own soil and in the place you plant the seeds of good deeds. Fertilize the soil of your life and the lives of others with prayer. Plow the field with My word, a sharp sword that can divide body and spirit. That dividing sword can be the plow that creates furrows in the mind and spirit and prepares the heart for the seed being planted.

Once seeds of good deeds are planted, care for them. Water them with My spirit. The evidence of My can be found in its fruit – unconditional love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Remove the weeds that come from the world’s interference.

Take care of the seeds of good deeds you plant in others and prepare the soil well. Then care for the field. When you do, you will see a bountiful harvest in yourself and in others. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.