Jesus spoke in Parables (stories) to explain what God and Heaven were like. In Matthew he describes the story of the sower (farmer) who goes out to plant seeds. In this story the four different types of Christians are detailed, and how they react differently to God's Word. It is very interesting, because you can see these four types in all believers around you...
1) The First type: is the kind that hears the Words, and just dont understand it. Either by choice, or because they choose not to dig deeper, and remain ignorant. The devil will immediately come and snatch that out of his heart (with deceit or some sort of temptation right after they get the Word.) These Christians fall right back into sin immediately. They dont even gt out of the church parking lot before they are cussing out the ushers...lol..Jesus refers to them as seeds thrown along a roadside.
2) The Second type: The kind that hears the word and gets quickly glad and full of joy. They run out to carry it out and are excited and telling folks about Jesus for a few weeks, maybe months. He has no real deep roots though, because he doesnt follow it up with prayer, diligence, and studying, and when trials and hard times come, he falls away and turns on God, no longer trusting him to take care of his needs. Jesus refers to them as seeds thrown on rocky soil.
3) The Third type of Christian hears and understands the Word, but love of money, life, fun, riches and glamour are too much for him to resist. He cant stay in the Word, because he loves the things of the world too much to let go. Lots of celebrities and people who value money alot go into this category. They are tormented because they WANT to do right, but there is overwhelming temptation as well as enablers. Jesus refers to them as seeds thrown among thorns.
4) The fourth type hears, recieves, understands, lives it out, practices, and witnesses the Word to others, therefore growing up other believers, and changing lives around him. Jesus refers to them as seeds thrown on good (fertile and healthy) soil. These are the types of Christians that are not only hearing the Word, they study, pray and apply the Word to thier lives. The bible says this is pleasing to God, and they are ones that overcome when trials and temptations hit.
Dont you see these folks everywhere in the church today? The ones who holler the loudest during service, but curse the worse when they get home. Of the ones who use God to manipulate situations to thier advantage:God as your personal 'matchmaker: Folks using Him to secure a relationship (God SAID we supposed to be together) keep someone from leaving you (You're supposed to stay cuz God said Forgive me) or even worse, to manipulate another's mind (If you was Christian, you would...) Lying on/using God for your own SELFISH purposes~none of this is true Christanity!!
True Christians walk in love. They exhibit the fruits of the spirit shown in Galatians: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, gentleness, meekness longsuffering and self-control, and thier 'fruit' are evidence. They have touched lives, healed others, set free, and delivered those in need. They have increased the Kindgom by being a living, breathing example of what God was on this earth.
NOW..Look down deep in your heart. Read the verses to yourself, and meditate.
Then ask yourself then the following Question...
WHICH TYPE OF SEED ARE YOU?
if you are anything but the fourth kind: its time to look in the mirror and honestly decide what you are going to do about that.
I say all of this in L-O-V-E :)
For the actual story...It reads as follows:
THAT SAME day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting beside the sea.
But such great crowds gathered about Him that He got into a boat and remained sitting there, while all the throng stood on the shore.
And He told them many things in parables (stories by way of illustration and comparison), saying, A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and ate them up.
Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil; and at once they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil.
But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they dried up and withered away.
Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them out.
Other seeds fell on good soil, and yielded grain--some a hundred times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much, and some thirty.
He who has ears [to hear], let him be listening and let him [a]consider and [b]perceive and comprehend by hearing.
Then the disciples came to Him and said, Why do You speak to them in parables?
And He replied to them, To you it has been given to know the secrets and mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
For whoever has [spiritual knowledge], to him will more be given and he will [c]be furnished richly so that he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is the reason that I speak to them in parables: because [d]having the power of seeing, they do not see; and [e]having the power of hearing, they do not hear, nor do they grasp and understand.
In them indeed is [f]the process of fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, which says: You shall indeed hear and hear but never grasp and understand; and you shall indeed look and look but never see and perceive.
For this nation's heart has grown gross (fat and dull), and their ears heavy and difficult of hearing, and their eyes they have tightly closed, lest they see and perceive with their eyes, and hear and comprehend the sense with their ears, and grasp and understand with their heart, and turn and I should heal them.(A)
But blessed (happy, fortunate, and [g]to be envied) are your eyes because they do see, and your ears because they do hear.
Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous men [men who were upright and in right standing with God] yearned to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
LISTEN THEN TO THE MEANING OF THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER:
While anyone is hearing the Word of the kingdom and does not grasp and comprehend it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the roadside.
As for what was sown on thin (rocky) soil, this is he who hears the Word and at once welcomes and accepts it with joy;
Yet it has no real root in him, but is temporary (inconstant, [i]lasts but a little while); and when affliction or trouble or persecution comes on account of the Word, at once he is caused to stumble [he is repelled and [j]begins to distrust and desert Him Whom he ought to trust and obey] and he falls away.
As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the Word, but the cares of the world and the pleasure and delight and glamour and deceitfulness of riches choke and suffocate the Word, and it yields no fruit.
As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the Word and grasps and comprehends it; he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundred times as much as was sown, in another sixty times as much, and in another thirty.
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