Welcome to Timeless Truth with Pastor Jim Thomas. In season 2, Pastor Jim is leading us in a study of Mark. Today’s passage is Mark 4:1-20.
“The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor… Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second.”
― Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Agree or disagree? It’s at least interesting to note that this claim is a propositional claim supported by a conviction or conclusion. It is not a story itself. But it does lead me to ask some other questions:
How do you process thoughts and ideas, images or experiences? Are you more of a logical thinker or an intuitive thinker? When you process things is your process limited to your five senses and if so, what about those times when one of your senses isn’t telling the truth? How does the process you use involve your mind, your intuition, your soul, your will, your imagination or, some combination of all the above?
The Parable of the Sower, the Seed and the Soils is used to get us to think about our own receptivity to the message of the Gospel.
Parables serve two purposes: they conceal and reveal. Which they do for you is determined by which soil best represents the disposition of your mind and heart.
“The parable is not about enhancing the quality of the seed, improving the skill of the sower, or finding a more elegant use for the farm. It’s all about the condition of the soil. Whether the Word of God bears fruit in the life of a hearer or not depends ultimately on the condition of a person’s heart. The various heart conditions Jesus illustrates cover the whole range of human possibilities.”
– John MacArthur
“Listen up, Christian. You have an implacable enemy whose single objective is to plant a victory flag in the soil of your vanquished faith. He wants to devour you, consume you, and destroy you.”
– Brian G. Hedges, Watchfulness
“Just as a great tree is deep-rooted in the soil and draws its nourishment from it, so the Christian is rooted in Christ, the source of his life and strength. Just as the house stands fast because it is built on strong foundations, so the Christian life is resistant to any storm because it is founded on the strength of Christ. Christ is alike the source of the Christian’s life and the foundation of his stability.”
– William Barclay
“The life of true holiness is rooted in the soil of awed adoration.”
– J. I. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness
