Bummer Buster Friday - Rich Soil

Good morning!

These verses from God's Word caught my attention during a sermon I heard a few years ago.

• Matthew 13:3-9 “Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “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. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.””

Many of us have heard this part of the Matthew’s gospel and we know that what follows is the disciples asking why Jesus spoke in parables. We know from His response that, if our heart is hard our eyes and ears will be closed and we will miss His message and call to us.
 
I remember listening to a sermon where this part of scripture was the main focus of the sermon which looked at what this might mean to us - the idea being commitment (an inflexion point in our relationship with Jesus)…when we make our commitment to Christ, when we receive Him, surrender to Him, our eyes and ears are opened.
 
We know this is not a one-time event – that keeping our eyes and ears open means deepening our relationship with Christ – what makes that possible is God is now indwelling through the Holy Spirit.
 
So how can we deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ?
 
As I was listening, a clear thought came to mind about the idea of “good soil” or “rich soil”…our soil – our hearts become good or rich (we receive a new heart when we receive Jesus - our heart's of stone are replaced with hearts of flesh) when we spend time with God… through His Word…we can enrich the soil of our faith and how we live it every day, we can enrich the openness of the hearts (openness of the soil to receive and nurture truth) by spending time in God’s Word.
 
And for me, this thought becomes really interesting when you read John 1:1-5 and 1:14:

• “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

 

• “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

 
Here John shares that the Word of God is not just scripture, it is God and through Jesus Christ, the Word became one of us.
 
This seems to all tie together – even with Jesus back in heaven, we have God with us through the Holy Spirit and we have God’s Word in scripture which tells us the Word was God.
 
So if we want to enrich the soil of our hearts, open our eyes and ears, and to really understand and embrace our relationship with Christ, have our faith grow and be shared in the world and for Christ light to shine and overcome darkness…we need to spend time in the Word and with the Word (in prayer)– it will bring us to closer to God. 

We need to abide in Him...John 15:4 "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me."
 
So much for my musings.

Lord Jesus, my prayer for each of us as we go into the weekend is that we each are finding time daily to enrich the soil of our hearts, where our faith is nurtured and grown through the presence of the Holy Spirit, by being in The Word. Amen!
 
Have a weekend filled with the Peace that comes from knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
 
Patrick
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