The Seed

TO READ: Luke 8:1-18

A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it.

Luke 8:5

“Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand” said Jesus (Luke 8:8). He was telling a story about a farmer sowing seed. “The seed is God’s word,” he said (Luke 8:11). The speaker can control the message, but cannot control the hearers. The hearers evaluate the word of God as they receive it from the preacher.

All too often, the personality of the preacher gets in the way, and the hearers end up evaluating the preacher, not what he said. If you dislike the man, you probably will have little respect for his message. Yet Jesus said when his farmers —or preachers —scatter the seed, we should receive it.

In a little English churchyard, there stands a tall, beautiful oak tree. There is nothing strange about that, until you realize it is growing right through the middle of a gravestone! The force of life has been so strong that it has split the stones in two as the tree has pushed upward toward the light. What dynamic power in a tiny acorn!

There is similar power in the seed of God. When sown in good soil, though buried underneath concrete, it will break through. The first thing we need to do is receive the seed sown by the preachers God has given us. We must listen to God’s message and then go to God’s Word and discover it for ourselves. The more we study and read, the more that tiny acorn from God’s Word can grow into a strong oak in our lives!