THE SOILS AND THE SOWER
Something came to my mind yesterday about the Parable of the Sower (or "soils" as some call it) as we were doing our Bible study and I don't know why because we were in Acts, not in Matthew, Mark, or Luke where this parable is told.
In the parable, the farmer is sowing seed for his growing season. As he scatters it, some seed falls on the path where people walking by crush it and the birds gather it up, some fall on the rocky soil where there was shallow soil, so it grew a little, but it didn't last, some fell on the ground covered in thorny weeds and it grew but was swallowed up by the thorns, so it didn't last there either. The other seed fell on the good soil where it took hold, grew, and produced a huge crop.
We all know the soils represent the hearts of people, the seed is the gospel, and the farmer is Jesus. If you've ever grown up in a rural area like I did, you come to understand a little bit about farming just from watching and hearing the farmers who work their fields. When harvest is done, the fields lie dormant for months. They go through weather cycles of rain, sun, and snow (depending upon where they're located). Over those few months, the soil becomes hard and packed, then when it's time to get ready for planting, the farmer must prepare the soil in the fields before planting begins. He will break up the ground, add in nutrients, and whatever else he needs to do to get that soil ready to receive the seed.
As it was said earlier, Jesus is the Sower/farmer in this parable. One of my favorite verses is Ezekiel 36:26 - "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."
In preparation to receive the "seed", aka, the gospel, the "soil", aka, the heart, must be prepared. The heart must be changed. It has to go from a hard, packed, stony state, to a soft, broken state. The heart change must come first before the seed is able to take root and grow.
Let's say you witness a street preacher giving the gospel to a crowd of about 50 people who are not saved. There'll be those who'll outright reject the message, becoming belligerent and walking away; those who hear and receive it with joy, but it never takes hold because when trouble comes, they fall away; and then those who think it's a nice message, but they're too concerned about the pleasures of life to be bothered by it. Then you may have 2 or 3 who respond to the message by surrendering their life to Christ and follow Him in obedience. Those whose lives have been changed had their "soil" prepared to accept the "seed".
In the parable, the farmer is sowing seed for his growing season. As he scatters it, some seed falls on the path where people walking by crush it and the birds gather it up, some fall on the rocky soil where there was shallow soil, so it grew a little, but it didn't last, some fell on the ground covered in thorny weeds and it grew but was swallowed up by the thorns, so it didn't last there either. The other seed fell on the good soil where it took hold, grew, and produced a huge crop.
We all know the soils represent the hearts of people, the seed is the gospel, and the farmer is Jesus. If you've ever grown up in a rural area like I did, you come to understand a little bit about farming just from watching and hearing the farmers who work their fields. When harvest is done, the fields lie dormant for months. They go through weather cycles of rain, sun, and snow (depending upon where they're located). Over those few months, the soil becomes hard and packed, then when it's time to get ready for planting, the farmer must prepare the soil in the fields before planting begins. He will break up the ground, add in nutrients, and whatever else he needs to do to get that soil ready to receive the seed.
As it was said earlier, Jesus is the Sower/farmer in this parable. One of my favorite verses is Ezekiel 36:26 - "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."
In preparation to receive the "seed", aka, the gospel, the "soil", aka, the heart, must be prepared. The heart must be changed. It has to go from a hard, packed, stony state, to a soft, broken state. The heart change must come first before the seed is able to take root and grow.
Let's say you witness a street preacher giving the gospel to a crowd of about 50 people who are not saved. There'll be those who'll outright reject the message, becoming belligerent and walking away; those who hear and receive it with joy, but it never takes hold because when trouble comes, they fall away; and then those who think it's a nice message, but they're too concerned about the pleasures of life to be bothered by it. Then you may have 2 or 3 who respond to the message by surrendering their life to Christ and follow Him in obedience. Those whose lives have been changed had their "soil" prepared to accept the "seed".
See, the farmer doesn't cast the seed on unprepared soil hoping the seed will take root, he makes sure the soil is ready and prepared to take the seed, and that's how it is with the gospel. God will make sure the heart is ready to take the seed. He is the one who makes the soil "good" by giving a person the heart they need to receive the seed so that when that seed is cast (the preaching and hearing of the gospel), their heart is ready to accept it, and the seed takes root.
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