A Modern Parable
Jan 26, 2016 1236
A man went out to plant seed. As he planted the seed, some fell by the side of the road. Birds came and ate them. Some seed fell among rocks. It came up at once because there was so little ground. But it dried up when the sun was high in the sky because it had no root. Some seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew and did not give the seed room to grow. This seed gave no grain. Some seed fell on good ground. It came up and grew and gave much grain. Some gave thirty times as much grain. Some gave sixty times as much grain. Some gave one hundred times as much grain (Mark 4:3-9).
A group of “seekers” opened the Word and one of them began reading. Some were listening intently, some were busy talking, others were checking their mobile phones, and some were just day-dreaming about their business ventures. Each one heard only what he or she wanted to. Those checking their mobile phones heard the Word and were not interested; they did not discern the importance of what they were hearing. It was fun texting each other.
The people who were day-dreaming welcomed the news, and for a while they made the effort to “give it a go,” but soon their business affairs took precedence and they discarded the Word as irrelevant to their lives. It is often easier to start something than to finish it. Still others saw the necessity of making an effort, they took the “rules” seriously, they came to church on time, did and said all the right things, but the essence of God’s Word (love) was not their guiding principle.
However, there were those who listened intently and received it into their hearts (minds) and desired to put it into action. They saw the needs of the community: their neighbours who were unsaved, their families and work colleagues who might welcome the “good news.”
The Word told them there would be a harvest; they believed and put their faith into action and invited the community to their social events, their neighbours to their BBQs, and into their homes where small groups gathered to talk about God and how He featured in their regular everyday lives. They lived and shared the Gospel.
Judy Lyew
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