Mark 4:8-9 – The Sower: The Good Stuff

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mark 4:8-9 ESV)

Good, healthy soil, is the product of many factors coming together in just the right balance. This soil isn't hardened, leaving the sower’s seeds vulnerable on the surface to be devoured by the birds of the air. This soil isn’t shallow, but has the depth required to weather spells of drought, heat and adversity. This soil isn’t overrun with thorns and weeds because it is cared for and cultivated. This is the good stuff, the stuff only a Master Sower could take credit for.

When our hearts are permeated by the truth of God’s word we will yield useful crops, thirty, sixty and a hundredfold! Commonly, a crop that yields ten to one is considered good. What this parable speaks of is a life producing exponentially more than is natural. Good soil is that which is prepared to receive God’s truth, allowing it to take deep root, and to grow the seed planted therein. Rather than attempting to grow an orange tree with an appleseed, this soil takes what is sown by the Master’s hand, and obediently allows it to come to fruition. Grow the seed God plants in you.

Let the Holy Spirit cultivate healthy soil in your heart through submission to Scripture, prayer, and fellowship with other believers.

Are Tongues a Gift for Today?

David Platt

I Timothy 1:5 – Mark of the Believer

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5 ESV)

Love is so vast and deep that humans will never reach its end in understanding or experience. Here, love is the believer’s “charge”, in Romans it is the “fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10), and in I John an accurate depiction of our God; “God is love” (I John 4:8). So love is both something to be felt and enjoyed together, and an attribute of our God to be learned and emulated over a lifetime. Essentially, what it boils down to is that genuine biblical love is a life’s work in itself!

Love is both an experience and a pursuit. Given the context, the commentator John MacArthur describes love as, “characterized by self-denial and self-sacrifice, for the benefit of others, and it is the mark of a true Christian”. For God loved us first, even as ill-deserving rebels, by sacrificially sending his only Son for our great good and his great glory! This indeed is how we ought

to love one another, at a cost to ourselves on others’ behalf. Love is expensive, costly, and not a thing to be taken lightly.

Meditate on the passages used in today’s devotion. How do they change your understanding and perception of love?