Is your heart powerless, excited but rootless, anxious or fruitful?
“On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. And he spoke to them at length in parables,* saying:
“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.
But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.””
Catalina Island
ROAD - A powerless heart
From a powerless, indifferent, sterile, and defenseless heart that is not able to keep your Word but leaves space for the Accuser to snatch it from it, deliver us, Jesus.
ROCKS - An excited but rootles heart
From stirred and excited but rootless heart which seeks short enchantments to feed the hunger for emotional high but under external pressures or desires appearing as fascinating hops to the next newest attraction, deliver us, Jesus.
This is a plague of our times: we talk in terms of having passion, getting excited, having fervor and we aim at producing those things at our meetings, yet not in the hearts of those who are close to us.
Our effort to ignite the fervor ends shortly after our input is given, be it a well organized meeting, great talk etc. our efforts don’t bring much fruit bc the hearts of people are weak and restless from seeking continual triggers to get satisfied.
We want to be fascinated by the effects of God’s grace so much that we might end up as those who pursue holiness, pursue wholeness, pursue integrity, pursue supernatural, pursue virtuous life, pursue noble causes, pursue social Justice, but not Jesus Himself, not God the Father Himself. Our roads to Him are empty of Him, they have rocky sides and we like to sit there instead of moving toward Him, they have plenty of thorns growing all over and we don’t even mind it anymore. The vision of Jesus is obscured on the road. We don’t even see that He is hiding in a plain site.
Big Bear Lake
Big Bear Lake
THORNS - An anxious heart
From an anxious and troubled heart that is choked by the overpowering pleasures, overcome by deadly temptations, wearied from worry, deliver us, Jesus.
RICH - A fruitful heart
We ask for a heart that is bruised but content, softened by your Word and moistured by our tears, forgiven and forgiving, still and aroused at your Voice, peaceful enough to be content with one thing and radical enough to follow you to Gethsemane and the tomb, beautiful enough to run with you from the empty tomb and committed enough to do mundane tasks which hide the glory of your Presence.
We ask for the impossible because we want to walk the road of freedom.
A parable about the sower. Matt 13, Mark 4.
“On another occasion(A) he began to teach by the sea.[b] A very large crowd gathered around him so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down. And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land. And he taught them at length in parables, and in the course of his instruction he said to them, “Hear this! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and it produced no grain. And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear. (...)
The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once and takes away the word sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who, when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy. But they have no root; they last only for a time. Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit. But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”