S07 Episode 1: Good Soil

Good Soil

In this episode we break open the parable of the sower and the seeds. We chat about how we can cultivate good soil in our hearts where seeds can grow and bear good fruit. We also talk about the practicals of what makes up rocky ground that chokes out goodness and what makes up the fertile soil, where God can bring forth life and abundance.

Sister Miriam’s one thing - Undone: Freeing Your Feminine Heart from the Knots of Fear and Shame by Carrie Schuchts Daunt 

Michelle’s one thing - Higher Love - Kygo, Whitney Houston 

Heather’s one thing - The team building my house from Tundra Developments

Announcements!

The Abiding Together Lenten Book Study will be The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen. Purchase the book via US Amazon Link, a Canada Amazon link, and a UK Amazon link. (As an Amazon Associate, Abiding Together earns from qualifying Amazon purchases.)

The Abiding Together shop is open! Take a peek at some of the fun new things we have for you, including the all new “quit talking to the dang snake” mug!

Sponsor:

This episode is sponsored by Pilgrimage to Beauty. Their mission is to create a transformative experience of true rest and retreat, for couples or individuals wired for adventure.

Pilgrimage to Beauty believes that traversing the world, cultures and even our own street can teach us so much. Gaining knowledge of other peoples and lands gives us a genuine curiosity to learn and experience even more of what the world has to offer. 

Their aim is to give you a unique once in a lifetime experience that transforms and renews your spirit, no matter your vocation or state in life. Their next trip is to Guatemala in March 2020, so check it out quickly!

Discussion questions:    

1. What struck you from the podcast?
2. What is the terrain of your heart? What does the soil in your life look like right now?
3. Where do you need to dig in the dirt and let God bring in His light and cultivate the soil?
4. What do I need to steward well in my life and what do I need to prune back?
5. What are the weeds that need to be pulled out in my heart?

Journal Questions:

1. Reflect and journal about this scripture: Matthew 13. What does it speak to you personally? 
2. What are the thorns that choke the good seed in your life? Where do you need to seek the true face of Jesus?
3. What is the fruit being born in your life? What do you think God is trying to show you about your soil?

Quote to Ponder - “Learn the lesson that, if you are to do the work of a prophet, what you need is not a sceptre but a hoe.” ― St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Scripture for Lectio Divina -  Matthew 13: The Parable of the Sower

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see;  though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;

  you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

For this people’s heart has become calloused;  they hardly hear with their ears,

  and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

    hear with their ears,  understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 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. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”