Coffee Hour @ Chilklit Power - What kind of soil are you?

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Happy Tuesday to you and thanks for stopping by for our Coffee Hour and hopefully a giggle or two! I think we only have a couple of coffee hours left in this series and then we’ll be going to our WOW for May, which I can’t believe is almost half over! Whew, stay in the moment, Evinda. Grab your coffee and come with me to another funny analogy given in the Book of Mark.

Jesus is talking with His disciples, teaching them through the Parable of the Four Soils. Parables were His favorite way to teach for they were like short stories that included familiar scenes but had significant spiritual truths planted deep within the heart of the story. First He talks about a sower who went out to sow. He is referring here to anyone who goes about His Father’s work, so this speaks to us today who proclaim the Gospel of Christ, in action, not just words! So what will you sow today? Joy, encouragement and/or truth, or . . . ?

Then He speaks about the seed, analogous to the Gospel of the Kingdom, the theme of all His teachings. You know, you never know when/if you are going to be the only Jesus that people see and when we are focused on Him and about His work, He’s got our backs and our future so we don’t always get to choose who we share the “seed” with!

Then He goes on to describe the first soil, the wayside! “Wayside” is symbolic to one who hears but does not receive, with seed that falls on deaf ears and/or ricochets off a a hardened heart preventing understand, and before the seed can really penetrate to do its heart-softening job, those darned birds, Satan’s minions, pounce down and snatch it away. They are left blinded to His word! How tragic. Think about it: Everyone will be given at least one chance to hear and/or receive – just as His word says and not to take it will result in separation, forever, from their/our Creator! That is a thought I cannot and will not dwell on for myself, but for others as well.

Then there’s the stony soil, the second soil which is basically a heart that receives the Gospel with joy, but doesn’t let it root. It just stays at the surface of the heart, not going down deep into all the secret places to do all the heart cleaning and rooting. So when the heat of struggle rises, and it becomes painful and unbearable, the message of the Good News withers up and dries out, and the commitment with it!

The third soil is the thorns and this soil represents those hearts who hear the word, receive the word but whose fruit is choked off by the cares of the world, by a hunger for money, pleasures that feed the flesh that are put before their relationship with God and the things of God.

And then there’s the fourth soil, the “good” soil. This represents the
person who hears the Good News, receives it into their heart and

allows He who began a good work to continue the work until the time of Christ, and this is evidenced by their fruit – their life!

 

So Jesus has just explained all of this to His disciples, and it’s like He’s telling them a secret but asking them to not keep it when He says: “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things come in parables.” (Mark 4:11) But what He’s saying is He’s giving them the heads-up first and they are to pass it on so He’s really let us in on the secret as well! This is revealed in how He
wraps up this parable. With laughter and a heart for them, and us, to  
 truly understand what He has just explained He says:                          He fills my heart with laughter!
“Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed?”
(Mark 4:21) I can just hear Him chuckle as He gave them and us this funny word picture. Go ahead, allow yourself to imagine a lamp, turned on, under the bed! Actually, if you leave it on too long, you may have a fire! :)


Joyfully

Evinda