Jesus, the Gardener and Cultivator of our Souls
As believers and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been called to produce. To produce means to yield something, to bring forth, or bear something. Our lives are constantly producing ‘something’. Let’s take a closer look at the ‘something’ we are called to yield or bring forth. Last week we looked at how the rain, wildflowers, weeds and tall grass, garden maintenance, abiding in the vine, and digging can impact our garden’s growth and expansion.
Today, I would like us to center our focus on the soil. The soil is one of the most important elements in producing a beautiful and healthy garden. But what type of soil will we find in our garden?
Soil is the top layer of most of the Earth’s land surface. It contains the unconsolidated elements of rock erosion, organic decay, bacteria, and fungi.
Today, I would like us to center our focus on the soil. The soil is one of the most important elements in producing a beautiful and healthy garden. But what type of soil will we find in our garden?
Soil is the top layer of most of the Earth’s land surface. It contains the unconsolidated elements of rock erosion, organic decay, bacteria, and fungi.
There are five soil-forming factors:
1. the parent material: the primary material from which the soil is formed i.e. bedrock, organic material, an old soil surface, or a deposit from water, wind, glaciers, or volcanoes
2. climate: the weathering forces such as heat, rain, ice, snow, wind, sunshine, and other environmental forces that break down parent material and affect how fast or slow soil formation processes go
3. organisms: all plants and animals living in or on the soil (including micro-organisms and humans)
4. topography: the location of a soil
5. time: all of the above factors assert themselves over time
In Mark 4, Jesus tells a parable about the sower who went out to sow:
First case: The WAYSIDE
Some seeds fell by the side of the tough, hard path where the soil was not broken up and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. Not only could the seed not get beneath the surface, but it was trampled down and afterwards picked up and devoured by the fowls.
Second case: The STONY or ROCKY ground
And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth -- "the rocky ground" is a ground that has a thin surface of earth covering the rocky place.
Third case: The THORNY ground
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit -- This case is that of the ground not thoroughly cleaned of the thistles, thorns, and weeds which rising above the good seed, "choke" it. The “thorns” smother the seed reducing it of any light and air, as it drains away the moisture and richness of the soil. Thus it becomes unfruitful; although it grows, it never ripens to full maturity.
The evil here is neither a hard nor a shallow soil, for there is enough softness and depth; but it is the existence that is living within the soil that draws all the nutrients of it away to itself, and so starves the plant.
Fourth case: The GOOD ground
And other fell on good ground and did yield fruit. The qualities of this last soil are the reverse of the other three soils. It is soft and tender, it has depth that allows the seed to take firm root, receives the necessary moisture that provides vitality and strength, and it is also clean grounds. In this type of environment, the seed brings forth fruit.
Are we allowing the deposits of God’s Word to fill our lives? Do we permit the storms of life to break up our stony and hard places? What forms and shapes us, the love of God or pressures of life? Does the climate of our circumstances break us down or build us up? Are we pliable or hard and rocky? Is our garden planted by the rivers of water (Psalm 1)? Do we see growth over a period of time?
We must allow the Word of God to cultivate our hearts so that we can experience an outpouring of the manifestation of His awesome power. In time, we will see our gardens filled with the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; and against such there is no law (Gal. 5:22-23).
Second case: The STONY or ROCKY ground
And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth -- "the rocky ground" is a ground that has a thin surface of earth covering the rocky place.
Third case: The THORNY ground
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit -- This case is that of the ground not thoroughly cleaned of the thistles, thorns, and weeds which rising above the good seed, "choke" it. The “thorns” smother the seed reducing it of any light and air, as it drains away the moisture and richness of the soil. Thus it becomes unfruitful; although it grows, it never ripens to full maturity.
The evil here is neither a hard nor a shallow soil, for there is enough softness and depth; but it is the existence that is living within the soil that draws all the nutrients of it away to itself, and so starves the plant.
Fourth case: The GOOD ground
And other fell on good ground and did yield fruit. The qualities of this last soil are the reverse of the other three soils. It is soft and tender, it has depth that allows the seed to take firm root, receives the necessary moisture that provides vitality and strength, and it is also clean grounds. In this type of environment, the seed brings forth fruit.
Are we allowing the deposits of God’s Word to fill our lives? Do we permit the storms of life to break up our stony and hard places? What forms and shapes us, the love of God or pressures of life? Does the climate of our circumstances break us down or build us up? Are we pliable or hard and rocky? Is our garden planted by the rivers of water (Psalm 1)? Do we see growth over a period of time?
We must allow the Word of God to cultivate our hearts so that we can experience an outpouring of the manifestation of His awesome power. In time, we will see our gardens filled with the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; and against such there is no law (Gal. 5:22-23).
Tilt your heart towards the SON!
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