Lessons on the Farm

The people in the bible knew a lot about farming, me on the other hand... not so much. I didn't necessary live in the city but I am no farm girl. I was rather glad when Jesus explained his farming story to his disciples. I was just about as lost as they were.
Mark 4:1-20

Characters in Parable
Farmer (Jesus or someone telling about him)
the ground that receives the seeds (everyone else)
seeds (Jesus and the gospel)

Scene 1
Farmer throws seeds onto path
birds eat seeds
no plants at all what so ever

Scene 2
Farmer throws seeds onto rocky soil
grow quickly but die just as fast because have no root

Scene 3
Farmer throws seeds were thorns also grew
seeds grow up with thorns have good roots but are fruitless

Scene 4
Farmer throws seeds onto good soil
grew up and produced 30x 60x 100x more

Check on Scene 3. This one gave me the shivers!

The seed (so the word of God) fell onto soil that had lots of thorns on it. But the seed grew up. And what it sounds like pretty normal. I think the plant looked like the plants that were growing up in the good soil. The thorns though they represent something that should make us Christians cringe

Wealth

Worries

Wrongful Desires

                     ....The World

And what was the product of the thorns; not death or destruction but---FRUITLESS. To me this is almost worse. Cause I feel like people go on lives life thinking that they are Christians but really they are like the plant that has been growing with the weeds. If a plant doesn't produce fruit what happens to it? Its pulled out with the rest of the weeds and burned. So not cool!! This is scary! We as Christians need to be on guard against these things and constantly checking if we have indeed been producing fruit and not being overgrown and overpowered by the thorns that can so easily creep into our lives but how do we know if we are producing fruit. What is fruit? Simple

Love Joy Peace Patience Kindness

Goodness Gentleness Faithfulness Self Control

These are the things that we need to check on when we are examining ourselves and looking for the thorns in our lives. As I examine my own life I can see small thorns creeping into my life and realizing that I need to give these things back to God and ask him to continually to help me to bear these fruits. I challenge you to the same thing. Examine your Life, your Heart and see where the thorns are creeping in. Ask God to replace those thorns with beautiful fruit that reflect the One who created them!