{"id":1647,"date":"2017-11-13T14:51:24","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T19:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/?p=1647"},"modified":"2017-11-15T18:54:19","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T23:54:19","slug":"good-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/13\/good-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/u><\/strong><\/h6>\n
I breathe in the fresh sea air\u2026I look out over the water, and then, land,\u00a0and watch the gulls circle once,\u00a0as if in respect for him. Everything becomes still and quiet. I stand among the people who have gathered here by the sea to hear him. They say he\u2019s the Messiah\u2026<\/h6>\n
Thousands of people are here as far as the eye can see. Some want to kill him\u2026others just want to see what he\u2019ll do next\u2026some are sick and diseased. Women and children, who normally wouldn\u2019t hear the scriptures, listen intently. He is different; he doesn\u2019t speak like the rabbi\u2019s in the temple. His countenance is peaceful and gentle. Yet he has authority and power but with humility and meekness.<\/h6>\n
I saw him heal a man who was blind. That got my attention. Today I just want to hear his words. I\u2019ve never heard anyone speak the way he does. His words make me want to be different. I believe, he is, the Messiah.<\/h6>\n
I notice there are no scribes or Pharisees here\u2026I guess it would be beneath them to come to the sea-shore. I\u2019m glad they\u2019re not here, they\u2019re always causing division and confusion. Although it doesn\u2019t seem to bother this man, this man called Jesus.<\/h6>\n
There in a ship he sits and begins to speak. A sower went out to sow seeds\u2026some fell on by the way side; birds came and ate the seeds that had fallen. Some fell on stony places, there wasn\u2019t much soil, they sprung up but because there wasn\u2019t much soil, when the sun came up they were scorched; they had no root, they withered away.<\/h6>\n
Some of the seed fell among thorns but the thorns grew and choked out the seed. But some fell in good ground and grew strong and produced fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold and some thirtyfold.<\/h6>\n
As Jesus talked I began to see exactly what he was saying. He is the sower, his word is the seed, we are the soil. He\u2019s talking about people\u2026I have the feeling that only those who are enlightened by him can understand what this story really means. The man next to me is irritated and wants to leave he\u2019s hot and tired and his little boy is beginning to be restless too. The words of Jesus mean nothing to him.<\/h6>\n
But the woman on the other side of me is crying; Jesus\u2019s words are touching her heart.<\/h6>\n
And me, well I\u2019m ready to follow him wherever he goes\u2026His words are seed that are being planted in my heart. Praise the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, my heart is good ground, the roots grow deep. He is the Messiah! I will follow him.<\/h6>\n
This Parable is found in Matthew 13:1-23<\/strong><\/h6>\n
By: Marla Shaw O\u2019Neill February 3, 2016\u00a9<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I breathe in the fresh sea air\u2026I look out over the water, and then, land,\u00a0and watch the gulls circle once,\u00a0as if in respect for him. Everything becomes still and quiet. I stand among the people who have gathered here by the sea to hear him. They say he\u2019s the Messiah\u2026 Thousands of people are here…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8aPxH-qz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1647"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1662,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions\/1662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}