Category: Education

New Testament : The Parable of the Sower

Let’s talk about The Parable of the Sower? What Is the Parable of the Sower? The Parable of the Sower is recorded in three of the four biblical gospels. The human heart is like receptive soil to the seed of the Word of God. Jesus used this analogy in the Parable of the Sower. The Parable of the Sower is recorded in three of the four biblical Gospels – Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:1-15. The human heart is like receptive soil to the seed of the Word of God. Jesus used this analogy in the Parable of the Sower. The soil that the seed fell on represents four categories of hearers’ hearts, four different reactions to the Word of God: the hard heart, the shallow heart, the crowded heart, and the fruitful heart.

Some seeds fell on the pathway where everyone walks around. Our hearts may be like this pathway where anything can come and go without any restriction. But God doesn’t want it to be like that. He wants our hearts to be holy and a good ground that produces good fruits for Him. Let us not allow every teachings and the advice which leads us away from the word of God to fill our hearts and control our lives. Let us protect our hearts with the word of God which protects the field as a fence within which no birds or beasts that destroy the field could enter.

The Parable of the Sower (sometimes called the Parable of the Soils) is a parable of Jesus found in the three different Gospel books of The Holy Bible in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15. Speaking to a large crowd, Jesus tells a story of a farmer who sows the seed and does so indiscriminately. Some seed falls on the wayside with no soil at all, some on rocky ground with little soil, some on soil which contains thorns, and some on good soil. In the first three cases, the seed is taken away or fails to produce a crop, but when it falls on good soil it grows, yielding thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold. See more details on the The Parable of the Sower video on YouTube.

Later, Jesus explains to his disciples that the seed represents the Gospel, the sower represents anyone who proclaims Jesus is the messiah and Son of God, God the Father himself. The various soils represent people’s responses to it, The first three representing rejection and not holding onto their faith while the last one represents holding and growing their faith until the end. The Parable of the Sower story begins with a farmer in this farmer who had a big huge bag of seeds. He decided one day that he was going to go into his field and he was going to start sowing seeds.

Now wait for a second here I’ve heard of sewing machines and sewing clothes, but I’ve never heard of sowing seeds. What does “The Parable of the Sower” mean? Well, sowing seeds actually just means to scatter or to throw seeds. So the farmer went to his field, he started to scatter seeds around and throw seeds around into the field. Some of the seeds fell onto a path while other seeds fell onto Rocky soil. Still, others fell into the soil with thorn bushes. And finally, some seeds fell into good soil. Now after some time, the seeds that fell onto the path were snatched up and eaten by birds.

Another kind of heart that Jesus talks about is one that falls in rocky soil. It’s a kind of soil that is very shallow because there’s rock underneath it and the seed falls and it germinates immediately. It just shoots up right because the roots don’t get very deep. And yet the sun comes out and persecution happens and because the word hasn’t had any deep rooting in the person’s heart, the pant shrivels under persecution.

Affirmations methods for prosperity creation

Vision boards guides for making money? If you are feeling happy and positive about your desires, and you are constantly motivated in your thinking, then you are already applying the Law of Attraction and Manifestation. If you are experiencing or imagining what you desire now, you are obviously happy about it. If you are anxious, worried and unhappy, then at these moments you are using the Law of Attraction in the wrong way. Then you are attracting the things you don’t want in life.

What is needed for the Law of Attraction and Manifestation to work? Think about your desire a lot. As if you are experiencing it now. Have total faith in your desire. Believe that it will manifest into your life with any doubts. Imagine your desire is real, in the present NOW. Not in the past or in the future. Visualize your desire. Actually see yourself and feel yourself experiencing your desire when you visualize. Affirmations. Speak words to yourself which will gradually stick in your subconscious mind. Say positive things to yourself, as often as you can.

The art is in coming up with the most relevant Emotional Freedom Technique statement that really gets to the core of the issue and is not so global that it misses the mark. This is where an experienced practitioner would be able to guide a client in the right direction. That way you can achieve even greater, and quicker results. So easy, even schoolkids do it! This said, even twelve year old school children are learning and using the tapping cure in the playground. They are having amazing results. If you would like to learn the art of the Emotional Freedom Technique, you can download our EXPLORING EFT eBook by clicking HERE, or directly from the product shown below. Read even more information on What are subliminal messages?

It only takes a moment. Think of 3-5 things that you are grateful for in your life. You can focus on the big things from your life, or even just the little things we often take for granted. As you can see, these are really simple things to do, and they take no time at all. They can be a great way to start creating your productive morning routine. This week try choosing just one of these, and practise them daily in your morning shower.

Still think it doesn’t work? Self-improvement methods should be approached in exactly the same way. You need to know how to use these techniques properly. You can’t just say, “I am achieving my goals, I am rich, I am happy”, and then go straight back to thinking negatively, and worrying. There is absolutely no benefit in just repeating a few words for a very short time. How can you expect to accomplish anything by visualising, and at the same time worrying and having doubts about your ability to get what you are visualising? See more details on Vision Boards.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed explained

Bible stories : The Parable of the Mustard Seed? The Parable of the Mustard Seed was taught in rhetorical hyperbole. Here, Jesus uses a shrub/tree coming from a seed (John 12:24) to represent kingdom growth, consistent with other tree/kingdom references (Ezekiel 17:23 and Daniel 4:11-21). The seed’s growth attracts the presence of evil—depicted as birds (Matthew 13:4,19; Revelation 18:2)—to dilute the church while taking advantage of its benefits.

Matthew 13:31-32 tells the parable of the mustard seed: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.” Using parables, Jesus related truth through intriguing stories with familiar settings. Our grasp of this parable hinges upon a correct understanding of its key elements: the sower, the mustard seed, the great tree which grew from it, and the birds which perched on its branches.

Jesus told us this story and he says that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. It’s one of the smallest seats, but when planted, it grows to become one of the biggest garden plants that even birds can come and perch and find shade and shelter. You know that’s pretty crazy is that all of us, when we were about one week old inside of our mother’s belly, we’re about the size of a mustard seed. After two months, we were the size of a blueberry. For months we were the size of an Apple, and at nine months, just before we were born, we were about the size of a watermelon.

You know, some of us have grown pretty big since then, but even the tallest and biggest person is still really small because we live in such a big world. Did you know that it would take about 350 days to walk around the world? That’s 30 million seconds, but guess what? Even our world is really small. Our world could fit into the sun about 1 million times, but you know the craziest thing is our God is even bigger than the sun. In fact, our God is bigger than anything you could imagine. Now, that’s a pretty big God, but you know, Jesus tells this story because he wants to tell us that when we get a little bit of God into our lives, that that changes everything.

Our God likes to use really small things and really small people to do really big things. We use David who is just a small boy to take on a giant named Goliath. He used a man named Gideon who was the smallest of his family to be the leader of an army. Jesus when he was on earth, even went to eat at the house of a very tiny man named [inaudible] who was so small that in order to see Jesus, he had to climb into a Sycamore tree. Now, that’s the really cool thing about God is that no matter how small we are and we all are very small, he still wants to use us. Discover even more details with the The Parable of the Mustard Seed video on YouTube.

Yet the kingdom is not to be evaluated by its humble, nearly invisible origins. For just as a mustard seed grows into the largest of garden plants, the kingdom of God finally grows to such an extent that no one can miss it (v. 32). History bears out the truth of our Savior’s teaching. He started out with twelve ordinary men whom He appointed as Apostles and a handful of other followers. He lived and died in what was considered a backwater province of the Roman Empire, and He is mentioned only in passing in the secular historical sources of that time. But since the time of Christ’s ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension, the kingdom of God has been steadily growing. His church is found around the globe, and it grows even in the most hostile lands. The mustard seed is well on its way to becoming the mustard plant.

Let’s talk about Fruit of the Holy Spirit

Fruit of the Holy Spirit explained? Peace – eirene: Peace means everything good within relationships: harmony, friendliness, safety, order, rest, and contentment. First Corinthians 3:3 asserts that the opposite—strife—is from the flesh. Patience – makrothumia: Patience here does not refer to keeping your temper or waiting out an inconvenience. It actually means longsuffering in the face of persecution or abuse. It brings to mind 1 Corinthians 13:5-7 and Jesus’ silence while He was being whipped and beaten (Isaiah 53:7). Kindness – chrestotes: The Bible never tells us to be “nice.” “Niceness” often comes from a fear of what others will think or do. “Kindness” is much harder. It encompasses the moral goodness and integrity required to know the right course of action with the strength to choose it.

Galatians 5:22-23: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. The fruit of the Spirit is what grows in us as born-again believers and helps us to show the love of God to those who don’t know Him. The closer we grow to God, the more of the fruit that becomes evident in our lives.

The “Fruit of the Spirit” is a great passage of scripture for kids that immediately gives them something they understand and can relate to-fruit! This series of lessons gives you a great opportunity to include activities, crafts, songs and games revolving around cheerful, colorful objects. Purple balloons (grapes) and other vibrant colors can be part of your visual representation of the fruits. Fake fruits are often available in craft stores for additional props.

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness and Temperance; against such there is no law.” Let’s get to know each manifestation of the fruit of the spirit in better detail. Depending on how many of these manifest and at what level of activity or intensity will show you how close to God a person is.

Self-control; Moderation or self-restraint in action or statement; It is control over your entire being (body, soul and spirit). A person who has self-control is mild and calm, avoids extreme behavior, and exercises self-restraint in both actions and speech. After all, temperance and love are the bookends that hold all the other fruit in place. So now you know what exactly Jesus meant when he said in Matthew 7:20, “Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.”

The lessons we offer are written on a level that children can fully understand. Paired with our coloring pages and additional activities the lessons can bring this group of attributes to life. Check out our selection of children’s songs to add additional fun and enthusiasm to learning about the fruit of the Spirit. See additional details with the Fruit of the Holy Spirit video on YouTube.

Love – agape: Agape love is not a sentimental, sweet, affectionate emotion. It is a choice to put others first and to sacrifice ourselves on their behalf (John 15:13). This kind of love can only come through God’s power. Joy – chara: Joy is not happiness; that is, it does not depend on “happenstance.” It is independent of our worldly situation. In Philippians 2:1-4, Paul associates complete joy with fellowship and peace in the body of Christ. True joy is the result of a right relationship with God.

The Parable Of The Workers In The Vineyard video and FREE coloring pages for children

The Parable Of The Workers In The Vineyard meaning? When it’s time to pay the workers, the foreman begins with the last workers picked. It’s interesting to note that if he’d paid the early laborers first, he probably wouldn’t have had this problem. But the whole time the foreman is passing out the standard payment for a day’s wages to the late workers, the early workers were probably thinking, “Woah! Look how much money he’s giving them, and they’ve only been here for a few hours!” They probably assumed they were going to receive so much more than the owner originally promised them.

Jesus often uses parables to reveal what the kingdom of heaven is like. He portrays how one enters the kingdom and who the different characters are. In this Parable of the Laborers or Workers in the Vineyard, there are things that He tells the disciples and us about the grace of God and that God is always more than fair. Here is a discussion on this parable and what Jesus means in giving it.

The master of the house would seem to be God and the vineyard is the place where those servants who have been called to work for the master as laborers will enter into the work. The laborers are those who have been called and saved by God. They enter into the work or their calling by God under the guidance of the master, which is Jesus Christ. In another place in the Scriptures, Jesus uses this symbolism of believers being used by God to labor for the Lord as in Matthew 9:37-38 where He says “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

But what if the parable was not about salvation but about the gospel? The workers in the parable likely worked and lived day to day, as evidenced by the fact that the owner continually found unemployed workers throughout the day. The one work day depicted in the parable can be interpreted to culminate in death and salvation or to mark the beginning of a new, secure life in Christ; both interpretations work. The first workers were lucky – they found work quickly, with a man who promised them the standard wage for common laborers. On the other hand, imagine what it would be like to be one of the last workers, having fruitlessly waited anxiously all day for some work so that you could feed your family. Then, a landowner offers you work and you go, glad to have at least a chance to earn some money.

Jesus spent a great deal of His ministry announcing the coming of God’s kingdom and overcoming first-century presumptions by teaching people to recognize that kingdom. And a lot of His parables focused on communicating valuable truths about this kingdom. One misunderstanding that Jesus needed to clarify was the idea that the Jews held a special insider relationship with God. From the very beginning, God told Abraham that all the nations of the world would be blessed through his offspring (Genesis 22:18), but as far as the Israelites were concerned, these other nations would never be as blessed as they were. See additional info with the The Parable Of The Workers In The Vineyard video on YouTube.

The Prodigal Son video and FREE coloring pages for children

The Prodigal Son and other spiritual videos? The parable of the Prodigal Son, or Lost Son, is found in the New Testament of the Bible in Luke 15:11-32. It is the third of three parables in that chapter directed at a mixed audience of tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees (religious leaders), and teachers of the law. All three parables are on the topic of lost things being found: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. Likewise, all three parables point to the heavenly joy over every sinner who repents from sin and turns to Jesus.

This accusation by the Pharisees and scribes set the stage for three parables (the third being the one with the prodigal son) in which Jesus taught these Jewish authorities and us today how God deals with sinners.

In the Gospel of Luke 15:11-32, we are told of a wealthy man who had two sons. The younger son gets up one morning and decides to leave home and go about himself. He asks for and gets his inheritance from his father and he heads off to a strange land. Since he had so much money and possessions, he begins to lavish his substance on vanities – without thinking of his future. He had wine, women, and other pleasures whenever he wanted. Eventually, his profuse and wasteful expenditure costs him all his inherited fortune.

Of all the parables that Jesus spoke, this one featuring the prodigal son may be the most touching and best remembered. Described by Expositor’s Bible Commentary (ed. William Robertson Nicoll, 1889) as “perhaps the crown and flower of all the parables,” this story appears once in the Bible—it is only found in Luke’s Gospel. As we read the account, we can’t help but be captured by the story of a father’s love for his wayward son.

After being hit by difficult living conditions – owing to his foolishness – he decides to humble himself and return home to his father. Instead of being rejected by his father, he gets a warm welcome with gifts and celebration. This gets his big brother crossed and starts a quarrel with his father. His father placates him and reassures him that all that he has belongs to him. Come along with me as we, together, learn the rich lessons in this parable. I divided it into four parts for a much easier understanding. Please do well to open your Bible and read the entire story (Luke 15:11-32). See more information with the The Prodigal Son video on YouTube.

Then, Luke 15: 20-24 says this: “So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”