Is your soil ready for planting?

⁵The sower went forth to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden under foot, and the birds of the heaven devoured it.
⁶And other fell on the rock; and as soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
⁷And other fell amidst the thorns; and the thorns grew with it, and choked it.
⁸And other fell into the good ground, and grew, and brought forth fruit a hundredfold.

                                                                                      - Luke 8:5-8

So when we began to plan our church garden, we chose a spot that we thought would be good. It was relatively level, had a lot of sun, and easy access. But the ground was covered by grass so we really did not what the soil was like, but this was "virgin" ground so it shouldn't be to bad, right? Well...As we started to till up the ground there were rocks everywhere, not just at the surface either, we are talking about rocks down about 18- 20 inches (I found this out by digging the holes for the fence posts).  The dirt was also a light brown, not the dark brown that generally means that it is really fertile.

When we saw what the ground was like we could have given up or moved on to a better spot that was more likely to do better for a garden.  We didn't, this is the spot that we felt was right for the garden.  This was where we were supposed to plant our garden, so we had to make it work.  We tilled it up as best we could, we raked out and hand picked out a lot of the rocks, and we added some rich soil to make the existing soil better.  That was just for this year, next year we will have to do it all again, and again, and again each year.  Each time the soil will get a little better and the garden will grow better each year.

Is the soil of your mind in good shape to recieve the seed of Gods Word?  What have you done to prepare your soil? If your mind is full of the rocks of sin is there going to be any good soil for Gods Word to take root in? Even if there is enough for the seed to begin to grow, is there enough for it to flourish? So how do we clean up and enrich the soil of our minds? We begin by removing the rocks of sin, don't worry you don't have to get all of them before the seed will take root.  Another way to enrich the soil is to be carefull what you are dumping into it.  Anything you add to the soil will make a difference, good and/or bad. If you are only hanging around nonchristians, getting drunk, and doing immoral things, the soil is going to be poisoned.  Going to church, having christian friends, making the morally correct choices in activities are all going to enrich the soil, so that as you read the Bible the Word of God will have a mind ready to recieve it. But like our garden, this is not a one time thing.  It is an ongoing, constant process that will gradually make the soil better and better all the time.

Is your soil ready for the seed?

Is it too late to plant?

Then Jesus said,"What is the Kingdom of God like? How can I illustrate it?  It is like a tiny mustard seed that a man planted in a garden; it grows and becomes a tree, and the birds make nests in its branches."
                                                        - Luke 13:18-19

Late this spring a good friend came to me and asked me to help start a Community Garden at our church. I thought it was a great idea and in fact had been toying with the idea since the previous spring.  We had so much to do but first we had to get the church board to give us the money we would need to by the supplies. That was relatively easy, but then came tilling up the ground, purchasing the supplies to build the fence and getting it built, enriching the soil, and finally buying and planting the plants.  Well, as I said this all started in late spring, well past when we should have already had the garden planted. I almost suggested that we just get the garden ready and wait to plant until next spring. After all, the plants might not have a chance to mature in time to really produce the way they should, but my friend was so sure that it would work out that I couldn't tell her she had to wait.  So we got everything ready and planted the plants, and wouldn't you know... they grew beautifully.  We are already  starting to harvest some veggies, a little later than normal but our little plants are really florishing.

When I saw how our garden was doing it made me think about how I had wanted to wait to plant.  What if someone had wanted to wait to plant the seed of God's love in my heart? You see until about a year and a half ago I was an atheist.  I had been for most of my life.  But my family had never given up on me.  My wife (fiancee at the time) never gave up on me.  They lived their lives the way God wanted them to live and they set a good example for me. They planted the seed of a love for God in me that layed dormant for quite some time, but when the time was right, a big crisis in my family's life, that seed sprouted and grew into something beautiful.

What if they had waited to plant that seed?  It would not have been there when I needed it the most.  It is never to late to plant that seed.  You might have to be very patient and you might not see the results of your work for a long time, you might have to tend that seed through the cold weather and wait for it to come up next year.  Some of the seeds you plant may never come up, but when one does, wow! Look how beautiful it is.  And yes, that is just one plant but that one plant may hold hundreds of seeds that it will be able to drop in soil nearby, and each of those might grow into a plant with hundreds of seeds.  In just a few generations your one little seed could grow into a whole garden. 

It's never too late to plant that seed, so go on, get planting.