A Simple Seed
written at Wednesday, June 24, 2009
The lyrics to a song I was listening to reminded me of the parable of the sower. "If a simple seed gets just what it needs, then a redwood tree can grow, up to a hundred feet and endure the sleep in the snow."
Have a read of the parable from Mark 4:1-20, a summary is at the bottom.
Some seeds falls on the paths, and the birds quickly eat it. Others fall where there are rocks, and not much soil. Plants grow quickly, but soon the sun dries them. There is not enough soil, and the plants die. Some seeds begins to grow in a place where there are too many weeds. The weeds stop the growth of the plants, and the plants die.
But other seeds fall on good ground. So, the plants grow well and they yield good fruit.
I was reading through Piper's sermon from quite sometime back about this parable and he gave some very relevant points. Three ways to resist Satan's efforts to defeat the word of God as you hear it. I wish to share it with you guys, do read on!
1.
Prepare the soil of your heart - Verse 20 says that good soil is the key to fruitful hearing of the word. The more you take time to humble yourself and purify your heart in prayer and tune the receiver of your mind into the wavelength of Christ, the more powerfully you will hear the word and the more deeply you will worship.
2.
Listen with all your might to the word of God - Pray to God whenever there is a non-directed moment. Go hard after God. Don't coast in worship. Again and again Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Strive to have those ears and not to be among those who hearing do not hear and seeing do not see.
3.
In the act of hearing welcome the word of God - Have a receptive attitude, not a resistant one. Love the word of God. Be like a miser in search of gold and silver. Snatch up the word of God as precious pearls.
Piper then ended with a wonderful illustration.
Be like rich black Minnesota (Or canterbury plains in a New Zealand context haha) farmland, deeply plowed, free of thorns, free of rocks, moist from the rains of the Spirit, and then receive the power-packed seed of the word of God. And this church will overflow with fruit -- thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold. May the Lord destroy the work of the devil and make us a fruitful people by his word.
A Simple Seed
written at Wednesday, June 24, 2009
The lyrics to a song I was listening to reminded me of the parable of the sower. "If a simple seed gets just what it needs, then a redwood tree can grow, up to a hundred feet and endure the sleep in the snow."
Have a read of the parable from Mark 4:1-20, a summary is at the bottom.
Some seeds falls on the paths, and the birds quickly eat it. Others fall where there are rocks, and not much soil. Plants grow quickly, but soon the sun dries them. There is not enough soil, and the plants die. Some seeds begins to grow in a place where there are too many weeds. The weeds stop the growth of the plants, and the plants die.
But other seeds fall on good ground. So, the plants grow well and they yield good fruit.
I was reading through Piper's sermon from quite sometime back about this parable and he gave some very relevant points. Three ways to resist Satan's efforts to defeat the word of God as you hear it. I wish to share it with you guys, do read on!
1.
Prepare the soil of your heart - Verse 20 says that good soil is the key to fruitful hearing of the word. The more you take time to humble yourself and purify your heart in prayer and tune the receiver of your mind into the wavelength of Christ, the more powerfully you will hear the word and the more deeply you will worship.
2.
Listen with all your might to the word of God - Pray to God whenever there is a non-directed moment. Go hard after God. Don't coast in worship. Again and again Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Strive to have those ears and not to be among those who hearing do not hear and seeing do not see.
3.
In the act of hearing welcome the word of God - Have a receptive attitude, not a resistant one. Love the word of God. Be like a miser in search of gold and silver. Snatch up the word of God as precious pearls.
Piper then ended with a wonderful illustration.
Be like rich black Minnesota (Or canterbury plains in a New Zealand context haha) farmland, deeply plowed, free of thorns, free of rocks, moist from the rains of the Spirit, and then receive the power-packed seed of the word of God. And this church will overflow with fruit -- thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold. May the Lord destroy the work of the devil and make us a fruitful people by his word.
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Knowing
What matters supremely, therefore, is not
in the last analysis, the fact that I know God,
but the larger fact which underlies it --
the fact that He knows me.
J. I. Packer
