Thorny Heart

The Thorny Heart

Series: In Pursuit of Relational Knowledge

Parable of the Heart Soils

When it comes to the Thorny Heart, the thorns were already present before the message of the Kingdom was sown there. These represent anxieties, worries, cares, the seduction of wealth and interests in things other than God’s kingdom.

The thorny heart is also the cowardly heart. It holds on to what it knows, for fear that surrendering control to the Lord will forfeit the good life for a life centered on the mundane. The opposite is true of course which is the lie, this heart believes.

We only covered the anxieties, worries and cares of this life in this teaching. We will address the seduction of wealth and the lust of othe things entering in next week.

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Zechariah Spirit

Not by might or power but by My Spirit says the Lord

Thru the Bible: Zechariah 4-5

Zerubbabel is the one being spoken about in the vision and he was of primary importance in God’s plans for Israel.

The mountain set before Zerubabbel is almost certainly the overwhelming task of completing the temple but God encouraged him with this now famous phrase, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord.”

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Stony Heart Parable Soil

The Stony Heart

Series: In Pursuit of Relational Knowledge

Parable of the Heart Soils

The Stony Heart is the type of Heart Soil which is unable to receive the seed of the word to any meaningful depth due to the abundance of stones riddled throughout the soil.

• WHAT are these stones?
• What kind of heart is shallow?
• What does the sun represent?

The stones are selfish interests in the BENEFITS of the kingdom without any COMMITMENT to the kingdom.

That in itself defines the heart as “shallow” as it would in any relationship.

At the first sign of opposition, affliction or persecution due to their affiliation with Christ Jesus the Stony Heart will forsake the Gospel Message.

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Zechariah heart

Zechariah & Haggai tag team Israel towards heart change

Thru the Bible: Zechariah 1-3

Like Haggai, Zechariah is dealing with the post-Babylonian Jews in Jerusalem.

Their efforts to rebuild the temple got halted just after the death of Cyrus the Great and was not permitted to continue until the reign of Darius I. This was an unknown gap of time lasting no more than 8 years.

During this time the few Jews who returned to Judah, had been establishing themselves – building houses, rejuvenating wells, planting crops, processing harvests… in general, just getting on with the business of life.

Once Darius I came into power and decreed that the work should continue the response of Israel was somewhat lacking. However, when Haggai prophecied to them, they immediately began enthusiastic work on the temple.

Literally just 2 months later is when the events in this book of Zechariah began.

Zechariah means “Yahweh remembers” and God did indeed remember His covenant with them recorded in Deuteronomy 28-30 and was making certain to encourage these people that He WILL keep His promises.

Through Zechariah God offers Israel hope!

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Wayside heart Parable

The Wayside Heart

Series: In Pursuit of Relational Knowledge

Parable of the Heart Soils

Today’s lesson is focused upon the first of the 4 hearts in Jesus’ parable of the heart soils and that is the Wayside Heart. This is also correctly termed the Pathway heart, the heart of ignorance and the hardened heart.

We addressed all that Jesus said about this heart from Matthew, Mark & Luke, comparing them as we took note of what was distinctive of this heart in both the parable and in Jesus’ later explanation of the parable to His disciples.

We discovered that there are at least two different types of hard hearts though they both share a common cause or root. One can be helped and the other must change first before it COULD be helped. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day often fell into the worst type of hardened heart, while even His Own disciples often fell into the other.

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