e-votional
a message to encourage and uplift from College Heights Baptist Church
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Many of you are new to our e-votional list. If you would like any of the previous e-votionals, just reply to this email and let me know. Likewise, if you would like to stop receiving them.
Several people have been asking about getting copies of our e-votionals to give to friends and family. We are looking into the possibility of publishing them into a booklet later this fall. We will keep you posted.
1 That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. 2 And large crowds gathered to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach.
3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 “Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 “But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 “Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8 “And others fell on the good soil and yielded* a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 “He who has ears, let him hear.” – Matthew 13:1-8, NASB
My daughter loves the movie “Finding Nemo.” Of course, it’s not the “Little Mermaid,” but it rates pretty high on her scale. In that movie, a clown fish named Marlin is looking for his lost son Nemo. He enlists the help of a rather absent-minded fish named Dori. On their quest, Dori encourages the team of seekers with the chant, “just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”
In the parable of the seed and the sower, Jesus uses imagery that would have been very familiar to the men and women of His audience. They all would have seen a farmer walking in his fields. That farmer had a pouch hanging over his shoulder. With each step, he reaches in and grabs a handful of seed. As he walks along, he would toss the seed on the ground. He keeps this up until he covers his entire field with his future crop.
Jesus tells the crowds that the seed falls in all sorts of different places. Some of it falls on hard soil. This soil is so hard and compacted that the seed cannot penetrate it. Some seed falls on rocky soil. There, it finds some dirt and quickly begins to grow, but it soon fades because it cannot grow deep roots. Some of the seed falls on soil that is filled with thorns. These seeds too take root and grow, but as the crop develops, the thorns choke off its continuing develop. Thankfully, some seed lands in rich, fertile soil. The crop grows here and the harvest is plentiful.
Focus on the sower for just a moment. He kept on sowing. The hard soil did not discourage him. The rocky soil did not dissuade him. The thorny soil did not distract his efforts. He just kept sowing. The seeds didn’t grow everywhere. As a matter of fact, there were a lot of places the seeds didn’t grow. Nonetheless, the sower kept on sowing.
Do you ever find yourself tired of sowing seed? You try to touch someone’s life with the gospel of Jesus only to be rebuffed? Maybe a co-worker expresses fleeting interest, but then fades away in the heat of a busy life. Maybe a spouse wants nothing whatsoever to do with the hope that you want to share. Maybe a neighbor expresses just enough interest to get you excited that you are making a difference, but then always fails to follow through. Just keep sowing. Our job is to spread the seed. We cannot control where it takes root. There can be a lot of reasons to get discouraged. We often run into obstacles that may discourge us from trying to make a difference. Don’t let them rob you of the joy that comes in investing in people for the Kingdom of God. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Keep trying. When you are in the fields of your life, just keep sowing, just keep sowing. That’s what a faithful sower does.
Pastor Darrell
