Rooted in Good Soil: Cultivating and Sustaining Authentic Discipleship - A Farmer looks at the Parable of the Sower, by Tri Robinson.
“Just like a fruitful tree, authentic faith is the result of careful tending, the passage of time, and good growing conditions. According to Jesus’s parable of the sower, true belief takes root in good soil. … In a culture that seems enamored with quick fixes and superficial amusements, Rooted in Good Soil will show you a more intentional and fulfilling way to live.”
Some things I noted from the book:
“Four different scenarios are portrayed in the parable, and of the four, only the seed that fell on good soil grew to spiritual maturity. This is something to note – only one group managed to grow roots that penetrated deep into the love, grace, and mercy of God. Only one group became sustainable to the point of bearing a harvest that could reproduce itself in the lives of others. … Often even those I would consider to be Christians miss the richness that can be found only in the depth of the good soil.”Matthew 13:1-23 (New International Version, ©2010)
"Jesus’s parable tells us it was in the good soil where the seed took root, matured, and produced a harvest. … Timing are soil preparation are important parts of the process of growing things to maturity, both in plants and in our lives. …The soils in Jesus’s parable of the sower represent your heart and my heart. God wants every one of us to receive His seed and mature spiritually so we will bear fruit. … Life has a way of compacting and hardening the soil of our hearts. Life’s hurts combined with the gradual accumulation of guilt and shame as a result of sin constantly weigh us down … Over the course of time, all of this can produce a hardened heart; and like soil, it eventually becomes so crusted over, it is impossible for the seeds of truth to penetrate. Like the soil, until the heart is cultivated and broken, God’s truth cannot take root.”
“…Through the work of Jesus, God made provision for us to have our past washed clean so that we can have a fresh start and a new beginning. This is the reason the gospel is called the Good News – because it really is good news for a hurting world. The good news is that there is a way to break up the fallow ground of our hearts and enter into a life with God that will allow us to produce a great harvest.”
The Parable of the Sower
1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’
16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
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The parable of the sower or, as some say, the parable of the soils … although I am familiar with the story in Scripture, I have had different thoughts about the “harvest” or, as noted in the NIV passage above, the “crop.” First, I thought it was souls saved, then, as I read about the fruit of the Spirit and the wording in 13:22 regarding being “unfruitful” I thought the harvest was the fruit of the Spirit. But I see now that it is any fruit, any reproduction of the Word of God evident in our lives. This includes (again, not mutually exclusive with our “and” God) souls saved, and the fruit of the Spirit, and other attributes in our lives which would show forth the nature and the glory of God (acceptance, embrace, and receiving and giving of forgiveness; obedience; healing unto wholeness; repentance unto salvation.)
…and my journey with Him continues…
