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Mark 4:14-20

Yesterday I was resting in Mark 4, something I have meditated on many times in the past and it hit me right in the face.  Jesus is explaining a parable about the Kingdom of God and how God places seeds of his truth into our lives.

 14 The farmer[God] sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

I feel often like I live in the third form of seed, I hear these truths from the Lords mouth but I all to often allow the worries of this life, the pursuit of wealth, and the desires of this world choke me.  He desires for us to be seeds the produce 100 fold but we often allow the thorns to rise and smother out the destiny placed on our lives!  By writing these words I do not want to make it sound like I understand this passage and its application in my life any better.  All that I know is that I have had many seeds land in the soil of my heart and I all to often see them fail to bear fruit!  As I draw near to the Lord he draws near to me and he is ever changing my heart to not be deceived by the wealth of this word but rather to focus my eyes on the wealth to come.  To not fix my thoughts of the passing temporal attributes of this earthly existence, but rather to focus on bringing heaven to earth!  To see the desires of my flesh to be stripped away and the desires of my soul to be fully satisfied!

My prayer is that I fight for the seeds to land on the good soil of my heart, the soil that the Lord has been cultivating for years, so that he will be glorified by the fruit of his labor! 


These seeds were given to me two summers ago upon our teams departure from Bosnia.  We talked about them in a very similar manner to the musing of my mind tonight, life is flying past!


All is Great at the Feet of my King,
Paul Shackelford 
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