Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Mark 4:13-20 (NIV)
13 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
Identify reasons for coming to church (worship) regularly from today’s texts
Lord, I know that the more time I invest in studying and applying Your Word, the greater the benefit I will experience. Going to church to embrace Your Words and You is a priority in my life. Your parable shows that once Your Words have taken root in my life I can expect to bear fruit. I go to church for Your Word to continue to be nurtured and grown in my life. By regularly going to church, I can work on the weeds in my life and in transplanting Your seed to others. Lord, help me not only to hear Your Words but also to speak them to others and see the extraordinary power of Your Word to transform my life and those around me. I trust that Your harvest will come. Amen