PLANT THE SEED
Bill Yoder

“Then he told them many things in parables, saying : A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—-a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” Matthew 13 : 3-9 NIV

The focus of this parable is not the sower but the soils. The farmer who planted the seeds was just doing his job. Likewise, when we plant the seeds of the Gospel message to people in darkness we will sometimes get various negative responses and in that case the seeds will not produce growth. We cannot blame ourselves for the negative results. We, like the farmer, were just doing our job. But when we sow the seeds to responsive people we rejoice with them in their willingness to turn from their sinful ways and serve the Lord.

“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” Matthew 18 : 10-14 ESV