August 18th, 2024

4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The Purpose of the Parables 9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

I was reading this the other day and the revelation of the lack of control we have as humans and the proof of that through this parable that Jesus tells hit me immensely. It is parable about a sower (God), that scatters seeds on the ground and only He decides where to scatter them, this is what determines their faith in life. Depending on where the seeds were thrown determines how our faith either dies, or flourishes. Since God is beyond time, He knows everything beginning to end, He determines who goes to heaven and hell. He knows the people that will receive the faith, and those who will reject it. It is very common for the seed to be thrown in the thorns or on the rocks, since it is very hard to be a true christian (something only God can know for certain), it is very easy to see humanity distort christianity in superficial ways. People will follow it and then crumble under the true pressure of being a christian, or will warp it into fulfilling their own selfish purposes, making it a religion of the self. This parable, in my opinion, helps to show predestination, as God is the decider of where these seeds may be thrown. In this timeline, only our only God knows those who currently have the faith and will come to lose it, those who will never have it, those who are very far away from it but will come to it eventually and everything in between. Having faith in this is not some sort of switch you can make in a day, it is something that strikes you in your heart by the influences and forces you to continually and progressively live your life in the name of Christ, showing constant mindfulness in your actions, thoughts and words. This faith is extremely precious, it is direct proof of God's love, and we must ensure that it is the most important thing in our life. We must commit time to it so that it may grow its foundation, strengthening it in tough times. Our time is a tough time for the faith, everywhere I look I see a constant attack against the mere idea of trusting in the Son of God. These times have been prophesized by Jesus and other people in the new testament, we have been called to risk our lives for this faith, so that more people may have the opportunity to see the faith and be given it. We must not give up due to cultural pressures, there is so much temptation in what we call normal in our society that leads us away from god and into senseless and hedonistic ways. The love for God in the air is going away, in the same way something loses heat (evil is the lack of God). Without God, we see all moral regulation of society destructed and redesigned to fit our own selfish human ways, see the progression of the lack of God in the western world, look at the degredation, in such a short amount of time. To be ungodly is to try and bring God down to a human level, this is the essence of sin and the essence of how many people makes their decisions. We eat whatever we want, we see ourselves as the 'main character' to the universe, we consume what we want, we do what we want when we want to because of the lack of care in our lives, failing to acknowledge the true invisible ruler over everything, God. God brings a purpose and order to our lives, His way is true and any path away from that is the wrong path. I am no good, I sin and do what I say is bad, but because of the incredibly holy influences of Christ, I will always try to be better and not turn away from God. We all need to feel true remorse for our sin, and true gratitude for what God has given us.

Dear Lord, I am very sorry for my inherent misuse of your wonderful creation and I will always try to honor you for the infinitely beautiful things you have done for us, we hold zero power over you. Thank you so much. I just want your word and name to be rejoiced in and want to be a help in making that happen. You do miraculous things to me, I am astonished.

Amen...