Fun facts: Those shakers you hear in the beginning are shekeres from West Africa. They are strung and covered on the outside with dried white seeds that are called “Job’s Tears.” Playing them over this song is a prophetic word that “Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping with seed to sow will return rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves with them.” Psalm 126:6
Just Soil, the title track, was written from the parable of Mark chapter 4 in the Bible which describes our hearts as the soil in which the Word is planted. People have been teasing me about my obsession with this parable for years even to the point of threatening to buy me potting soil as a joke (because, ironically, I kill everything I try to plant). But this parable captured my attention because it’s actually about our hearts. I found this parable when my heart was broken open by panic attacks and anxiety. He healed me through sitting with Him and letting Him teach me this parable, taking one thing out of my heart at a time and holding it up to me.
“Can I have this?” He would ask me.
“Yes.” Was my response, sometimes more willing than others.
And as I sat with Him, the more I saw the depths of my sin, and became sick of self, I determined to “lose my life to find it.” And I found it by letting the words of Jesus wash me out, replacing the religion with relationship, replacing the control with dependence, replacing striving with rest, replacing fear with faith. The more He asked to take out of my life, the easier I said yes, because I realized He was doing this not to humiliate me or hurt me, but to set me free. And that is what I started to call “returning to trust.” It’s when you realize forever that God is actually good and “FOR YOU,” in every situation you have been in. He has always defined goodness, not me. I can be victorious over sin and fear because He said I could be, and repentance becomes a way to life, not an embarrassing exposure to be avoided.
Some hearts are full of rocks (fears and trauma that cause us to lose boldness and leave true faith in the heat of trials), thorns (love and deceit of money, worries and cares of this world, desire for other things), and some hearts are so dry you cannot even get the seed to penetrate the soil. It is stolen by the enemy. So the invitation is to allow God to break us open and soften our hearts again by the fire and living water of the Holy Spirit. And if we are far from this, we can just decide to move to a position of trusting reliance with God by apologizing for our rebellion (even our unintentional resistance), repenting of our sins (as defined by scripture), and accepting Jesus and His message into us to help us become who He meant us to be from the beginning…just children in a garden. What is your heart condition? Dry? Rocky? Thorny? Or good soil?
Here’s the parable…read it for yourself and ask God to show you…what’s in your heart?
“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11 He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12 so that,
“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’[a]”
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.” Mark 4
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At Beloved Creative Studio, we celebrate the love of God and loving God through writing, art, and music! Our family tries to serve others with the gospel of Jesus Christ, in love, generosity, hospitality, word and action. We also consider as our family all of those who confess Jesus as savior and the only way to the Father- those who live loved and led by God. Because Jesus died and His blood covered the ransom for me from sin, I can be who I was created to be. I am free from sin’s grip and free to obey God from a heart of love. I run in the path of His commands with lots of room for joy and hope for the future. Beloved was a name given to me by Him as a name under which to do creative projects, and He invited me to take on His name for His fame.
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