Multipy

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

MULIPLY

Mark 4:1-8

4:1 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. 2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3 "Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times." 

NIV

We always claim to be that good soil because we are still believers while so many have fallen away, because of one of the reasons Jesus explained in this parable. The question we have to ask ourselves is whether or not we really are that good soil, in the sense have we produced a crop multiplying thirty, sixty or even a hundred times? Are we multiplying at all? We can look at this in two ways. First we could consider ourselves the soil in the sense that after the Word of God is planted in us do we produce many believers from that seed within us. Second we could see this as being the soil in which the Word of God is planted in us and we must grow into the full plant producing much fruit. Either way we still have to ask ourselves if we have not been choked by all the denominational doctrines, the manmade rules and regulations and the traditions of the past. Have we allowed these things to steal from us, scorch or strangle us from either bringing others into the Kingdom of God or from being the child of God that he intends us to be, bearing much fruit? If we think being a Christian is all about following all the rules, checking off our list of do’s and don’ts, then we surely have been choked by all the thorns. If all we do is attend church on Sunday morning thinking we are Christians then the sun has surely scorch us because we truly have no real roots in the Word of God, we are just shallow in our faith. If we say we are the good soil but live pretty much the in the same fashion as the world does, living on human effort, maybe the world came by and ate up all the seed that was planted in us. If we are the good soil then something has to show it. We have to produce a good crop, we have to either produce a lot of other believers, and that is not the job of the pastor/church thing, but our task, or we have to grow and produce much fruit which again is for the purpose of others coming along and plucking from us to enjoy. Either way we have to produce, we have to grow, we have to multiply. That would mean we cannot simply be the same every day, we cannot just be soil laying there being just like we have always been, we must multiply.