Where Is The Harvest?

Mark 4:18-20

And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,

Remember the parable of that pesky sower that went out to sow from before. How eagerly and with such great care he had tended the seed. Yet sometimes when we have done all we can, there is nothing left to do but to look upwards. As Psalm 121 says, we look unto him from whence comes our help. It might not come from people or places but always from the Lord. Now looking back to this certain sower who went out to do all for his field. It seems he did the best he could with his limited means. Yet due to where he had walked, he could not always control the nature to which the seed was sown nor the extent of its' fruit. Is that not how some of us do the Lord. We too can be just like that seed, sown among all the days of our life.

Then again, such should not always be. See, the sowing of the seed calls forth a response. Just as with a plant, it might not be immediate or happen all at once. But when we trust to the Lord, he makes all our days to be rooted and grounded, built up and established in him. Then too is not the most perfect Sower of them all known as the Lord. See with what great care he comes tending his flock. You would almost think that knowing the nature of the ground, the sower would choose better and with some more care. Regardless of all that, the Word must go out. Should it grow but a little, that is all the Sower wants, seeks, or even hopes to find. Even on stony ground, which was the worst of all, the seed endured for a time before withering away.

And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

As the text says it lacked a certain depth of earth to hold it in. Due to the ground we are often standing on, it takes God some time to bring this out. Then too is the thorny ground to be seen. Thorns are those things that catch you, trap you, and hold you fast, often not without a great deal of pain. I don't know if you have ever seen thorns on a bush before. But some of those can be quite prickly and really hurt. Now what you as the good ground are doing in the bush is hard to tell. Still there are some strange people and places that we go around that only God can bring us from. See how the thorns do nothing but sit there, littering the top of the ground. Immediately as the seed is sown, the thorns wait to catch the coming up.

There are several ways of addressing this issue. One smothers the cares of the world, stamps out every fire, and lets the church want for nothing. This can also produce the hard and stony ground spoken of before since the rocks were never removed at all. Seed that has fallen to this ground so lies until the sun has come whereupon it comes and withers away. This is almost like the hard times we go through is it not. It is easy to endure for the night, but when the joy of the Son has come in the morning, there is none to be seen. The other way is for the seed to choke out the cares of this world before these can ever take root.

And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.

The third way is to trust our ways to the Lord until all be established. But until we can get to that level, where the sun has arisen, we must first go through the night and with it the trials till the morning. How many of you know that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning, always and forever. It's just who he is my friends because it's in his very nature to do so. Then comes the time of the harvest when the tares and the wheat have sprung up, both together. Somehow this relates to the harvest and also the pain of the foot. That is why we can trust our God for both our grounds keeping and the harvest for such is his nature, my friends. Then too, see how now that the ground has been tended, the seed quickly comes forth. It is good indeed to shine as lights in this dark world for the Lord until the Son of righteousness be come with healing in his wings. How often some of us must do just a little more trust, for he is the Sower, the Harvest, and the good, good Father my friends.