Notice on a slight format change:

Except for July 2012, these are mostly a collection of current devotional notes.

July 2012 is a re-write of old quiet times. My second child was born Nov 11, 1987 with multiple birth defects. I've been re-reading my QT notes from that time in my life, and have included them here. They cover the time before the birth and the few years immediately after the birth. They are tagged "historical." I added new insights and labeled them: ((TODAY, dd mmm yy)).

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

QT 19 Jan 16, Luke 8:4-8, How do we respond to the seed?

Luke 8:4–8 (RSV)
And when a great crowd came together and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell along the path, and was trodden under foot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew, and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

NOTE: The message is to a crowd, not to an individual, although the interpretation is given to a much smaller group. How we treat the word of God is the issue for all mankind (the crowd). Every person must choose what he does or thinks about God's word. Does he trample it underfoot? Is it meaningless to his life and undeserving of even recognition? That would seem to describe the majority of people and the first response. Another response is to give it acceptance but not much attention. In the end it withers away and makes no impact in a life because it really is not important. He gives it verbal acknowledgment but nothing else .This person is the verbal religious person who seldom attends a church.  A third response is to take it very seriously. To give it more than verbal acknowledgment and to try to follow its principles, but not to give it first place. The world and its desires have an equal place. This is the religious person of today, a hypocrite. Finally, we have the person who not only acknowledges its authority and truth, but puts it into practice. He is a true believer and his life reflects his beliefs. Many people in the church fool themselves into thinking they are this person, but their life outside church proves otherwise. The true believer ministers and serves God and has a positive impact on others for the sake of the kingdom.

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