Fruitfulness and The Kingdom

This morning I was reading from Mark's Gospel.  I just needed to read some familiar verses and set my heart at peace.  I love the parable of the sower and today it seemed applicable to me.  Here are the particular verses - Mark 4:18-20 NIV:

[18] "Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; [19] but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. [20] Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop---some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

I think for me the point of focus is fruitfulness. The people who receive the word, but then allow the worries of this life to make them unfruitful are responsive to the word.  It would be important to note that they still grow and mature, they just don't have any ability to reproduce, for that is what fruitfulness really enables.  The whole purpose of fruit, whether it is grain or an actual piece of fruit is to reproduce.

The very next verses talk about putting one's light on a stand that it might give light, and I guess that is the purpose of Jesus' statements about fruitfulness.  Our call is to reproduce that which is planted into us, which is the word of God, the message of the Kingdom.  We are called to reproduce that which can be planted in other's lives, to do so our fruit must be spread or scattered about.  When we are concerned about the worries of this world, we tend to hold onto everything, and have wrong perspective about what is important. We invest in things other than the Kingdom and, thus, have no real fruit (related to the word that was planted in us).

My encouragement this day is to look at the things I am investing in and allowing to concern me.  I am encouraged to look at my life and choose to produce a crop, to be fruitful to reproduce the word of God that has been planted in me.  I had a great example in my father, and I can work to produce fruit the remainder of my life even as he did.  Amen!