While pruning one of my house plants, I began to notice how the vining branches were dying closest to the dirt and the other end was looking healthy. This lead me to realize a few things: 1) looks can be deceiving, 2) the dirt matters and 3) be careful as you prune. This lead me to think about the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. How the sower planted seeds and some fell by the way side, the fowls came and ate them up. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth; and they sprung up because they had no depthness of earth when the sun was up, they were scorched, they had no root and withered away. Some fell among thorns and the thorns sprung up and choked them. Then other fell into good ground, brought forth fruit, some a hundred fold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold. You see this parable teaches us that the soil matters and the soil for a Christian is who we are rooted and grounded in…Christ. If we read from a bible or attend a church that is not rooted and grounded in the true Word of God then we’ll be like the seeds that fell by the wayside and the fowls will come and eat us up. The world, society, our worldly friends, peer pressure to be liked by our friends or co-workers will be more important than serving God, than being rooted and grounded in Jesus. We will be like everyone else who’ll talk about God, who’ll even say we “believe” in Him, but we’ll keep our distance from the power in Jesus Christ. Because just as the devil realizes that there’s power in the name of Jesus Christ, we too will pretend to be a Christian, attend the type of church who feeds our fleshly lusts for wickedness rather than being truly convicted and converted. The soil matters so we won’t be like unto the seeds that fell upon stony places, stony ground where they didn’t have much earth (soil) to root themselves into. But yet they still tried to have growth, they sprung up and because they had no depth in the soil as soon as the sun was up, they were scorched and withered away. This is like unto people who “feel” the excitement of being entertained by what they see and hear. Such as many do with praise and worship music or concerts, modern worship music and gospel music; they are attracted to the “movement”, the feeling of worshipping something more than themselves and falseness of the modernized church. You see it feels good while they are in service, while they see others engaging in what looks like true worship cloaked under the come as you are, God loves you in your sin. There’s no root system in such beliefs. Yes we come as we are…sinners but when true redemption is obtained, when true salvation is received within a person there is an authentic, automatic transformation from sinner. It’s not a momentary feel good situation. The soil matters as some fell among thorns; the thorns sprung up and choked them. This resembles those churches, pastors, teachers and believers who have the outside look or mannerisms is a Christian but in all truth they’re living a lie. They mixed just a bit of truth with a whole lot of deception. They remove the evidence of power in Christ and replace it with power in self. They tend to navigate through false hope, false sense of love and self preservation which choke out any truth that was once growing. The soil absolutely matters for others fell into good ground, good fertile soil, enriched in the Holy Living Word of God. Because they were instilled in righteousness from the start (from the transformation through salvation), because they were taught the truth and accepted the truth, because they seek out the truth and hunger for more of it, allowed it to set up roots, become grounded, unmovable, and enriched by the cornerstone Jesus Christ. They brought forth good fruit; some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. Meaning they produced a righteous witness for Jesus Christ, they shared the gospel with others who was convicted by God and accepted Jesus as their own personal Savior. Some sowed truth into a 100 people, some 60 people, some 30 people adding to the body of Christ daily. Let’s face it we’ve been lied to for long enough! Looking for absolute true love….Jesus Christ can only fill up that longing. Looking for true hope….Jesus Christ is the only hope this world can obtain. Looking for the sweet peace….Jesus Christ provides peace that passes all understanding.

Lord Jesus, Please forgive me for any time that I did not seek out complete truth from God the Father. I hunger to be so overly rooted and grounded in the truth that even the demons of hell say oh great she’s awake, praying and putting on the full armor of God…the Holy Word…my enriched dirt.