Stories really get to me. The other day a friend handed me a short story he had written. It was only two type-written pages long about children in Appalachia and as I read it, tears welled up in my eyes making it almost impossible to continue reading. It touched my heart and proves that the telling of stories can get points across and move people.
Jesus knew this and was a superb story-teller and most were short and to the point. He told of a farmer who was busy planting seeds. Back in those days farmers wore cross-over bags to carry the seed and would grab a hand full and scatter them. The story tells of four kinds of ground on which the seed fell and each kind has a different result. The path had been walked on and was hard, packed dirt and nothing could penetrate. The rocky places had very little soil and tho the seed came up, there wasn't enough nourishment for it to survive. The weedy areas did have enough nourishment, but the weeds prevented the sun from reaching and gradually chocked out the new growth. Then, there was good soil, soil that had been cultivated. The rocks and weeds had been removed and the soil broken up by the plow. This soil produced a crop.
The point was made. The dirt, which if you recall, we were made of dirt, is the mind. The seed is the Word of God. The rocks are fears and doubts. The weeds are worldly pleasures. The path made by people walking on the soil shows the hardness that is done when people misuse you, walk on you. Each of us is represented by the four different soils. Can you recognize which one is you? One last point - it isn't hopeless, where you find yourself. Soil can be cultivated - plowed up, rocks removed, weeds pulled and now made ready to receive the word. If we can just recognize the problem in our lives and do the preparation, the Word will be productive. Its guaranteed.
"God's word will not return to Him void. It shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper in the thing I sent it to do". Isaiah 55:11
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