We read Mark 4 in our Spoken Word Bible Reading Plan today. Jesus was doing something He did very often during His ministry, teaching beside the Lake! He was teaching the multitudes who would come to hear Him in parables, which are illustrations or comparisons put beside truths to explain them. At this time Jesus taught them the parable of the sower. When He was alone with His inner circle, He explained to them the meaning of this parable. Look at verses 14-20:
14 The sower sows the Word. 15 The ones along the path are those who have the Word sown [in their hearts], but when they hear, Satan comes at once and [by force] takes away the message which is sown in them. 16 And in the same way the ones sown upon stony ground are those who, when they hear the Word, at once receive and accept and welcome it with joy; 17 And they have no real root in themselves, and so they endure for a little while; then when trouble or persecution arises on account of the Word, they immediately are offended (become displeased, indignant, resentful) and they stumble and fall away. 18 And the ones sown among the thorns are others who hear the Word; 19 Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless. 20 And those sown on the good (well-adapted) soil are the ones who hear the Word and receive and accept and welcome it and bear fruit—some thirty times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much, and some [even] a hundred times as much.
What is revealed in this parable is that, while the seed was always the same (the Word of God), the condition of the soil in which the seed was sown was the key to whether the seed bore fruit or not. Have you ever wondered how a room full of people can be listening to the same Bible teaching and yet some of them never "get it"? THIS is the determining factor! What is the condition of YOUR soil? The soil is your heart, which is a combination of your born again spirit, recreated in the image of Godk and you soul (mind, emotion and will) which MUST be changed, renewed and transformed on a daily basis in order to be able to understand the Word (Romans 12:2)! Each individual believer, YOU and ME, are responsible to prepare the soil of our heart to receive the instruction of the Word of God that will cause the understanding to come so that we can be DOERS of that Word, receiving the rewards of that obedience! So, think it not strange that someone who heard the same message as you acts as though they never heard it. Most likely, they DIDN'T! But YOU and I can make the determined purpose to never take the hearing and teaching of the Word of God lightly! Make it a point to take notes and then to meditate on what you have heard until it becomes real and understandable (Joshua 1:8) to YOU! AMEN! Here is Hillsong with "The Difference":
Shalom in Him!
