JESUS USED COMMON THINGS TO TEACH US
Some of these ways were
referred to by Jesus and others in the Bible, through the use of the names and
qualities of common substances metaphorically, attempting to capture the
essence of how and what He is doing for us by His outpoured Holy Spirit in each
one of our lives.
These include Oil, Fire, Salt, and….
KERNEL (SEED)
Finally,
we have the kernel of God’s Word sown into us by Jesus, through His messengers
in the earth.
God’s
Word is sown into our hearts by Jesus through His Holy Spirit, who works
through His messengers that walk the earth today, and by His words preserved
for us over many centuries in the Bible.
As
Jesus’ well known Parable of the Sower tells us, there are many heart
conditions into which this kernel of His Word falls.
This
broad range and variation of results in people’s life experiences, is certainly
influenced and affected by our own openness and obedience, or our personal
resistance and reluctance, to the work of the Holy Spirit within and upon each
of us.
Some
with these heart conditions either reject God’s Word outright or do so over
time, when faced with difficult conditions or rejection by others.
Others,
with different heart conditions can slowly strangle the life out of the Word,
because of all the other things from this world (cosmos) system already growing and taking over within them!
Jesus’
description of this fourth and final heart condition speaks of good soil and
fruitful results, but also shows us several differing levels of productivity.
This
variation in the level of our fruitfulness may be based on divine callings and
giftings, but is also influenced and affected by our openness and obedience to
the Lord in receiving and reflecting His many graces offered to each of us:
It
finally comes down to how well we choose to receive and reflect our Lord Jesus
and His many graces, offered freely to every one of us:
MARK 4:14 The sower sows the Word. 15 The ones along the path
are those who have the Word sown [in
their hearts], but when they hear, Satan comes at once and [by force] takes
away the message which is sown in them. 16 And in the same way the
ones sown upon stony ground are those who, when they hear the Word, at once
receive and accept and welcome it with joy; 17 And they have no real root
in themselves, and so they endure for a little while; then when trouble or
persecution arises on account of the Word, they immediately are offended (become
displeased, indignant, resentful) and they stumble and fall away. 18 The ones sown among the
thorns are others who hear the Word; 19 Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless. 20 And those
sown on the good (well-adapted) soil are the ones who hear the Word and receive and accept and welcome it
and bear fruit—some thirty times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much,
and some [even] a hundred times as much.
Jesus
sows His Word into those of us who have been prepared, and now have the
blessing of this fourth and final human heart condition.
Within
our prepared hearts, the works of the Holy Spirit, depicted to us by Jesus, as
Oil, Fire, and Salt create a dynamic combustion within our human spirits,
eternally transforming our hearts, souls, minds, and wills!
This
divinely produced transformation begins to blow away the hard outer shells we
have developed within ourselves, because of wounds from others, and our own
negative reactions to our hurts.
As
we then begin to have softened, enlarged spiritual lives, we open up more and
more to give and recieve love, to be loved by God and love other people.
This
dynamo of love within our expanding hearts and lives flows from deep within us,
until our true destiny to become like Jesus blossoms forth, growing upward,
forward, and outward, toward full realization in and beyond our lifespan here
on earth, and on into eternity!
IN OTHER WORDS - POP!
Neil Uniacke
Executive Director
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