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"From Dust to Dust" by Shawna Songer Gaines
Mark 4:10 When Yeshua was alone, the people around him with the Twelve asked him about the parables. 11 He answered them, “To you the secret of the Kingdom of God has been given; but to those outside, everything is in parables, 12 so that
they may be always looking but never seeing;
always listening but never understanding.
Otherwise, they might turn and be forgiven!”[Mark 4:12 Isaiah 6:9–10]
13 Then Yeshua said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you be able to understand any parable? 14 The sower sows the message. 15 Those alongside the path where the message is sown are people who no sooner hear it than the Adversary comes and takes away the message sown in them. 16 Likewise, those receiving seed on rocky patches are people who hear the message and joyfully accept it at once; 17 but they have no root in themselves. So they hold out for a while, but as soon as some trouble or persecution arises on account of the message, they immediately fall away. 18 Others are those sown among thorns — they hear the message; 19 but the worries of the world, the deceitful glamor of wealth and all the other kinds of desires push in and choke the message; so that it produces nothing. 20 But those sown on rich soil hear the message, accept it and bear fruit — thirty, sixty or a hundredfold.”
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Genesis 2 tells us we came from the dust of the ground. A humble beginning indeed! From dust we came and to dust our bodies will return someday. In the meantime, we are God’s planting field. In “The Parable of the Sower” (Mark 4:1-20) Jesus calls us just what we are: dirt! We are the soil in which God calls forth new life. Dirt, on its own, cannot make a plant grow. Without sunshine and rain even the most fertile soil would be lifeless.
How easily we forget from where we have come! We worry over the trappings and adornments of our dirt piles. We desire bigger and better accommodations for our manure. And what’s worse, the very things for which we long deceive us, leading us to believe that wealth can do what only God can do: create life where there is none.
Let the God who spoke sunlight into existence and who brought the rain from His storehouse tend to the soil of your life. Open your life to receive the warmth of the Father and fresh rain from the Spirit so the Word of life can take root in you.
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Hymn for Today: "Jesus Calls Us" by Cecil F. Alexander
1. Jesus calls us o'er the tumult
of our life's wild, restless sea;
day by day his sweet voice soundeth,
saying, "Christian, follow me!"
2. As of old the apostles heard it
by the Galilean lake,
turned from home and toil and kindred,
leaving all for Jesus' sake.
3. Jesus calls us from the worship
of the vain world's golden store,
from each idol that would keep us,
saying, "Christian, love me more!"
4. In our joys and in our sorrows,
days of toil and hours of ease,
still he calls, in cares and pleasures,
"Christian, love me more than these!"
5. Jesus calls us! By thy mercies,
Savior, may we hear thy call,
give our hearts to thine obedience,
serve and love thee best of all.
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Thought of the Day: Jesus in John 15:8 This is how my Father is glorified — in your bearing much fruit; this is how you will prove to be my talmidim.
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Please Pray: That the people in areas of Africa that are resistant to the Gospel will have the opportunity to hear and see about God's Grace and Forgiveness.
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Please Pray: That the people in areas of Africa that are resistant to the Gospel will have the opportunity to hear and see about God's Grace and Forgiveness.
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