When the Pilgrims came from the Old World to settle in the New World, they were truly seeking to create a New World. A World of Christians following the Way of Christ as given in His Word. When it came to their survival however, they brought with them the old ways of planting crops. These ways did not yield the bounty they expected. Especially as compared to their neighbors of the Wampanoag tribe. A friendly member of that tribe named Squanto shared with them his tribe’s way of preparing the ground in the New World to receive the bounty that Squanto’s tribe had. The secret was to place a portion of fish with the corn seed. We now have different ways to fertilize the ground which have increased the yield even beyond those days of old.
When my wife wanted to have her dream of having a horse, we wanted to improve the grass on our property for her horse. Trying old methods on a small plot that worked in the Midwest did not work in the High Rockies of Colorado. When we inquired of neighbors, we learned of the practice of actually drilling into the ground and at the same time planting the grass seed. Fertilizing is also a part of preparing the ground here as well. How does this relate spreading the Word?
Almost all who study the Word are familiar the parable of the Sower and the Seed as found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The method common in the time of Christ was plow the ground and then cast the seed by hand over the prepared ground. In this manner some of the seed fell on ground that wasn’t prepared. Some fell on rocky ground, some on thorny ground and some was eaten by birds. This was not a condemnation of the sower. This was just the way things worked in that place and time. The majority fell on the prepared ground and brought forth high yield. The point of the parable was to explain how the Word would yield it’s fruit. Not all of the ground was conducive to a favorable yield. This parable explains why not all receive the Word to a good result.
There are many who try to prepare the ground, however they, in most of today’s churches, are casting partially formed seed. In doing so, the seed of the Word isn’t capable of yielding any true bounty of the Word. In short the Word must be complete to grow and yield its bounty.
This parable was meant for those who sow the Word to understand why it doesn’t always yield a favorable result to all who hear the Word. How does this relate to today? The simple answer is that the majority of those professing to teach how one becomes a Christian are frankly doing an abominable job. They prepare the ground well for their own gospel which deletes much of what the true Gospel clearly teaches. This is one of the prime reasons we have so many denominations today. In many cases they are nothing more than cults of personalities of Charismatic, Prosperity, fraudulent Faith healing, salvation by works, pre, post and amillenialism and the list goes on and on.
In all of this the simple truth of how one gets rid of one’s sin debt load, i.e. being saved, and becoming a disciple of Christ gets lost if not ignored completely. Many slick phrases which cannot be found in the Word, are often used to deceive those who truly seek Christ and His Kingdom. For those who truly wish to learn the truth regarding salvation and many other topics, please create a login to this site and ask for a copy of How to Become a Christian. For those who truly cannot afford the small suggested donation of $13.95, a copy will be provided for the cost of postage as I am a small self endowed ministry.