Todays Meditation - Sun. July, 13 O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Devotion Matthew 13:4. And the birds came and ate them up. The parable of the sower is much loved, quoted, and depicted. Because the gospel texts treat it as an allegory where each part stands for a specific fact or truth, and since the allegory is fully explained by Jesus, there seems to be little more that can be said about it. If Jesus says this is what it means, who are we to expand on it? With appropriate fear and trembling, let’s try. The gospel interpretation is that we are the soil receiving the seeds. What if we were sometimes the birds or the rocks, the sun or the thorns? How do we, by our actions or inactions, snatch the seeds of another’s faith or constitute the shallowness that prevents deepening? How might we scorch with unkind judgment the aspirations of another or choke a struggling belief? Congregations can be hard soil, virtual conspiracies against seedlings by their hidebound ways. People who are trivial when they need to be serious, talking when they should be listening, narrow when they need to be broad, and bad examples when good ones are needed can all find a place in the parable’s allegory. Ps 119:105-112 and Genesis 25:19-34 – OR – Ps 65:(1-8)9-14 and Isaiah 55:10-13; Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 Bible Verse for Today Psalm 34:8 (NIV). Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him....... Thoughts on This Verse... Some aspects of faith are indescribable: they can only be experienced and known by doing them. Taste the Lord. Sample his goodness. Lean on his grace. Take refuge in his care. We are blessed to find him near and take our refuge from lifes greatest dangers and deaths greatest fears.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 11:44:37 +0000