will & t +1

I’m stuck in the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13.

Ever happened to you? You’re just reading along in the Bible and suddenly feel like you can’t move. God wants you to stay there, no, THERE, for a really long time. Like reading the same parable every day, multiple times a day, for days and days. And days. 

The fancy name might be “meditation,” but it feels more like digging and digging, and getting stuck, and trying new tools and new angles and asking new questions. Or the same one over and over again.

I’ve asked multiple people in the past week, “Why four soils?” 

Why four types of soil when only one bears fruit? Why not just two? One that doesn’t bear fruit, one that does?

The first and last type of soil make sense. Seed can’t grow on the path. And it doesn’t. At all. Seed can grow in good soil. And it does. A lot.

Makes sense.

But what about the second type of soil? It’s rocky. And things can’t grow to a fruit-bearing state where there is no depth of soil; the sun comes with its heat and scorches the young seedling. No fruit. But it does grow a bit. But what is the point of a little growth if what really matters is the fruit? 

And the third type, the seed that was sown among thorns. Like the second type of soil, the seed is able to grow in this briar-filled ground…a little. But it’s choked out…no fruit. 

Soil 1: No growth; no fruit.

Soil 2: Little growth; no fruit.

Soil 3: Little growth; no fruit.

Soil 4: Proper growth; fruit.

2 Timothy 3:16 is making me stay here until I get soil type 2 & 3; until I get something more than I already have, which doesn’t feel sufficient. This parable IS PROFITABLE for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. 

I want to be taught.

I want to be reproved.

I want to be corrected.

And I want to be trained in righteousness.

I’ve never done a blog series, but this might turn into one. 

Stay tuned…