Mark 4: The Parable of the Sower
Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: "Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times."
I have written so many unfinished blog entries that never got published, but this one I promise to finish today. I didn't realize that I had written about this parable the entry before which was months ago but with a totally different perspective than what I was planning to write about today. The past week, I've been thinking about why people find themselves in bad soil all the time, getting caught up with the wrong people at the wrong place at the wrong time. And why when we think that we are ready to bear good fruit, we bear thorns and icky things that just doesn't reflect the fullness that God promises in his word. And really, the key is this: we don't repent.When Jesus was on earth, his message was this:
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” -- Mark 1:14-15
We think that we can bear fruit by just believing in the Gospel, but we forget the part of the Gospel message that requires that we REPENT-- a turning from the old ways toward the new life found in the Gospel message! It does not mean just a "exposing" of the old ways, but a literal turning away from the old way of living. THAT requires a sacrifice. THAT requires us to truly come to terms with our own darkness and wickedness, not to just acknowledge it but to realize that we really need Jesus to deal with it. It is a process that requires us to lay ourselves at the feet of Jesus. It just then that we can be transplanted out of the the bad soil, into good soil.
2 Corinthians 4:10
We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
I realize that if we are to carry the body of the death of Jesus (which symbolizes how Christ died for OUR sins), it requires us to be in constant acknowledgement that we are sinners and that we need God to redeem us and turn us toward Him DAILY. We always want to deceive ourselves that it is a "one time deal" when we confess our sins and repent. But I realize that without truly coming to terms with the depth of our depravity, emptiness, evil, and darkness within us, we cannot carry the life of Jesus that Apostle Paul talks about in the passage mentioned above.
Part of being on bad soil is that it embodies the old life without Jesus, and without repentance, yes we might try to bear fruit in bad soil -- but those fruits will come forth distorted because the roots are corrupt and the nourishment from the soil choke up all that good stuff that's supposed to help us bear fruit. This is not to be mistaken to believe that when we are on good soil there will be no thorns in our lives, it just means that those thorns won't choke us up because we can still get the nourishment from the good soil.
Therefore, I pray that in daily repentance that we keep bearing fruits which only comes natural when we are grounded on good soil. I am tired of seeing us Christians compromise the FULLNESS of life that God offers us because of our choice not to go into the deep dark places of our hearts. I will no longer mistaken God to be one who wants to choke us up, but believe for the God who wants to empower us to live in the FULLNESS AND ABUNDANT life that Christ's death, resurrection, and life provides us with (I just needed to post this quick one before going to bed-- just practical and basic, but somehow we all somehow neglect this part).