preaching again

Two Sundays ago I preached, which is a very common occurrence here. There are times when I find it difficult to decide what to preach on and times when it is easy. This time it was rather difficult. I spent most of Saturday praying and thinking about what to preach on. I had several different ideas but nothing would come together. I started to think about how to best to make Scripture personal. I came to the parable of the sower in Luke ch.8. It talks about the different ground that the seed falls on and what happens and why. Right now Zambians are preparing there fields for planting. I asked them to inspect the different fields of their heart. Some fields have been well cared for and continue to produce good fruit. Other fields have been neglected and need work to produce a plentiful harvest. And some ground has never been worked and it will take a lot of work to clear that ground but in the end it will be worth it because of what it will produce. The seeds planted is the WORD OF GOD. GOD provides the seed, rain, and the sun; but we must do the work of getting the ground ready, pulling weeds, loosening the soil, ect. Than after the seed is planted there is much work of maintaining the field, keeping it clean of weeds and protecting it from thieves who would seek to damage or steal the crop.