Jesus told many illustrative stories to help explain the Kingdom of God.  One of the stories is about about a Sower (farm worker who plants good seed for crops).  Mark recounts the story in his Gospel account:

 As Jesus taught, He said, “Listen to this. Look!

"The fellow who sows seed went out to sow. And it so happened as he scattered the seed, that some fell along the road, and the birds of the sky came and ate all of it. Other seed fell in a rocky area where the dirt is shallow. Now these sprang up quickly, since there was no depth of soil. But they were scorched when the sun came up, and since they had no root, they dried up. And other seed fell into the thorns, but the thorns grew bigger and choked them, so they produced no fruit.

“But the other seed fell into good soil, and it produced fruit, growing up and increasing. Some produced thirty times, and some sixty, and some a hundred times.”

Then He said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!”

“The sower scatters the Word [of God]. And these are the ones by the road, where the Word is sown: When they hear, Satan comes immediately and steals the Word that was sown in their hearts. Likewise, the ones sown in rocky areas are those who receive the Word with joy as soon as they hear it. But having no root in themselves, they don’t last. As soon as trouble or mistreatment comes along because of the Word, they topple over.

“And the ones sown among the thorns are people who listen to the Word, but their worries about this life, and the false glitter of riches, and the desires for other things come in and choke out the Word, so that it produces no change in their lives.

“But these are the ones sown on good ground: They hear the Word and take it into their hearts, and their lives produce fruit, some thirty, others sixty, and others a hundred-fold.”                                                                                    

                                                                    — taken from the Gospel of Mark 4:3-20

To read more about the ministry of Jesus, as told by Mark, go to Walking with Jesus

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