Thursday @ The Freedom Conference - Morning Devotional

This morning's devotional were led by Stephen Black.  (He's my boss, so I didn't take a picture of him.)

He spoke of the parable of the sower and the seed. (Luke )  I caught the picture.  I've been praying all day for the ground of our hearts and yours to be well prepared so that we can receive the seed (The Word of God) and bear fruit. 

Stephen pointed out that the interesting things about this story is that Jesus said if they didn't understand this story then would wouldn't understand others.  What was the deal? See was being planed everywhere!  The Sower was doing His job.  The SEED was doing its job.  It seemed that it was determined to do what seed should do.  Grow!

So what was the deal then?  It was the soil.  The soil represents the heart in this story.  The seed is the word of God. Sometimes is can't bear fruit because the ground is too hard.  Something it can't bear fruit because the soil is rocky (affliction and persecution) and while the seed springs up quickly it cannot plant deeply and, therefore, dies.  Some seed fell in soil that was good but other things came along to choke the life out of it--worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke it out. 

Wow!  Take the soil of our hearts and prepare it to receive well and to bear fruit!