KneEmail - a devotional by Mike Benson associated with Forthright Magazine
Seed
FIVE FARMERS BOUGHT a sack of seed and agreed to plant their respective fields with the seed that came that bag...
The seed was supposedly to have been pure. After some weeks had passed these farmers came together to report their yield. The first report was, "The seed that I took from that bag produced some of the finest rice that I have ever seen." Somewhat chagrined, the second said, "That's odd, for the seed I took out of that bag produced fine-staple cotton." Then, the third spoke, "This is most peculiar, indeed. The seed I took from that bag yielded turnips." The fourth replied, "My seed yielded lettuce." The fifth report was, "The seed that I took from that bag produced wheat."
Can you imagine a thing of that kind? Suppose such really happened, how would you explain it? There would be one of four explanations: (1) Perhaps the seed was impure. (2) Maybe the fields had been previously sown with some other seed that choked out the seed that was taken from the bag. (3) Maybe they misnamed their products -- that is, the fellow who produced rice really produced cotton and thought it was turnips. (4) Unless one of the former three things were true, these men surely did not all plant the seed that came from the same bag.
THOUGHTS: We have the same predicament religiously today. How could one teach that there is nothing to the virgin birth, and another one teach from the same book that the virgin birth is upheld in the Bible? Could both of these men be preaching from the same Bible? How "can two walk together, except they be agreed?" ( Amos 3:3). We cannot differ and both be right. Both may be wrong, but both cannot be right, if their teaching is contradictory. May we restudy the problem of religious division/denominationalism, and, in light of the scriptures, see if it be the problem, or the answer to the problem. The Bible is right, and by it one can come to know exactly what God desires. (George W. Bailey)
KneEmail: "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God" ( Luke 8:11).