Mark:4:1-20

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Seeker Overlay ON

* Once more He began to teach by the side of the Lake , and a vast multitude of people came together to listen to Him . He therefore went on board the boat and sat there , a little way from the land ; and all the people were on the shore close to the water . * Then He proceeded to teach them many lessons in figurative language ; and in His teaching He said , * »Listen : the sower goes out to sow .« * As he sows , some of the seed falls by the way-side , and the birds come and peck it up . * Some falls on the rocky ground where it finds but little earth , and it shoots up quickly because it has no depth of soil ; * but when the sun is risen , it is scorched , and through having no root it withers away . * Some , again , falls among the thorns ; and the thorns spring up and stifle it , so that it yields no crop . * But some of the seed falls into good ground , and gives a return : it comes up and increases , and yields thirty , sixty , or a hundred-fold .« * »Listen ,« He added , »every one who has ears to listen with !« * When He was alone , the Twelve and the others who were about Him requested Him to explain His figurative language . * »To you ,« He replied , »has been entrusted the secret truth concerning the Kingdom of God ; but to those others outside your number all this is spoken in figurative language ; * that * »Do you all miss the meaning of this parable ?« He added ; »how then will you understand the rest of my parables ?« * »What the sower sows is the Message .« * Those who receive the seed by the way-side are those in whom the Message is sown , but , when they have heard it , Satan comes at once and carries away the Message sown in them . * In the same way those who receive the seed on the rocky places are those who , when they have heard the Message , at once accept it joyfully , * but they have no root within them . They last for a time ; then , when suffering or persecution comes because of the Message , they are immediately overthrown . * Others there are who receive the seed among the thorns : these are they who have heard the Message , * but worldly cares and the deceitfulness of wealth and the excessive pursuit of other objects come in and stifle the Message , and it becomes unfruitful . * Those , on the other hand , who have received the seed on the good ground , are all who hear the Message and welcome it , and yield a return of thirty , sixty , or a hundred fold .«

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