Weekend thoughts and unplowed ground

Yesterday morning turned out to be a wonderful time spent in the presence of God.

I also had the opportunity to continue my series on the parables of Jesus - the greatest stories that have ever been told. The topic? The different types of soil that Jesus talked about in his parable of the sower (Luke 4:8-15).

The parable of the sower speaks not of 4 different types of people but of 4 different types of seasons that we can experience in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ.

I would suggest that people often move between different soil types depending on their stage of life, their response to truth and their perceived needs. This movement can be forward (toward spiritual soil) or backward (to spoiled soil).

Sometimes our hearts are hardened to the things of God, sometimes we walk in the arena of superficiality, sometimes we get distracted, and yes, thankfully, sometimes we our "soil" is plowed and tender to the moving of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

I want my soil to be so rich, so plowed, that the seed of God's Word immediately opens in my life.

I don't want to be an "unplowed man."

An "unplowed man" knows all the answers even before you ask the questions.

An "unplowed man" is right and is hard and stern in his rightness. He storms through life hard and insensitive to those around him. Humility is a foreign characteristic.

The plowed man has been:

Broken
Crushed
Sweetened
Prepared

There is no other way to have a prepared heart than to go through the crusher.

But once that happens, once the plow has dug in and the soil has been turned over, then our hearts are prepared for God's Word.

You might say, "isn't there an easier way to get to God than through suffering?"

If there were, Jesus would have told us. Instead, Jesus said, "The only way to get to me is by picking up your cross daily and following me." There is no other way.

Jeremiah 4:3 states to "break up your unplowed ground..."

May we all be open to the Word of God in our hearts today.