SUNDAY PRAISE

 Hello, friends!  Welcome to the month of May.  April seemed to go by so quickly.  Let's hope May sticks around for awhile.  With nice weather too.

I wanted to share another Sunday Praise with you.  Our story today is the Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20 and Luke 8:4-15.

One day Jesus sat on a boat to teach the people.  Jesus told them a story about a farmer who went out to plant some seeds.  The farmer scattered the seed around the field.  The seeds fell on four kinds of soil.

The first seeds fell onto a patch where people walked.  The birds were happy to see it.  They flew down as quickly as possible and ate all the seed.  

The farmer continued to spread seeds around his field.  Some other seed landed on rocky soil.  It began to grow fast but the sun was too hot.  The plant died because it did not have roots to find water.

Other seeds fell among the weeds and thorns.  The weeds grew faster than the plant and blocked all the sun.  Plants cannot grow without sun.

Finally, some seed fell on good soil.  It grew healthy and produced a big harvest.

Jesus said that we are like these types of soil, and the seed is like God's word.  Just as the seed grows in good soil, God's ways can grow in our hearts.

This is a parable, a story Jesus taught to help people understand important truths.  In this parable, Jesus wanted the people to understand the effect of God's word and His teaching on their hearts.  Think about the ways we respond to things that people tell us.  Maybe you are busy and you don't really pay attention to what someone is telling you.  How does it make you feel when you are trying to tell someone something important and they aren't really listening to you?

The disciples didn't understand what Jesus was trying to teach them so they asked Him to explain it.  We don't understand everything in the Bible so it is important to pray and ask God to show us what He wants us to know.  We can also ask people we trust to explain things to us.

Just remember that not everyone we witness to will immediately accept the truth of Christ.  But it is still important to plant the seed.  It is important to tell everyone about salvation through Jesus.  And it is important to have good soil in our lives.

Hope you are having a wonderful Sunday.  I'll be back soon.

Kathy