5/16/25

Luke 8:7 NASB95 “Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out.

Have you ever thought about where you live? I am not talking about your address, your town, state, nation, or continent. I am instead talking about where you live your life out. How much of your time is spent in the thorn thicket? Where you feel the need to complain about all the messes in your life. They stick you constantly and cause you to struggle.

We tend to blame God for the thorns, but if we look back, we see it is because of sin that we are there. Genesis 3:17-18 NASB95 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field.

The thorns were not there until sin brought them out of the ground. It is tough to live in the thorns and not sin. When we get into the thorns, it seems as if you can't even get out. So we continue to sin, which brings more thorns. We then get stuck and sin more, and there come more thorns. However, God gave us an illustration out of the cursed ground that shows us He is capable of bringing beauty out of the thorns. He has raised up out of thorns the beautiful rose that has a pleasing fragrance and a look that brings smiles to the faces of those who see it. These are just pictures of what real good would rise up from the thorns. Something of such beauty that it would draw all men unto Him. John 19:5 NASB95 Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the Man!”

They crucified Jesus wearing a crown that had grown from the cursed ground of Adam's sin. Our sin as well caused those thorns. However, He aROSE from the grave providing the beauty of life.

While I suggest you spend as much time as possible with the family of God (This is where the wheat chokes out the tares), you need to still know. That while it is hard to bring life from death, salvation from wrath, and beauty from thorns, God Almighty has done it. He did it through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son!

Give God's seed a better opportunity to grow in you. Come and be nourished in church, spend time with Christians, because if you don't, the thorns may choke out His seed before it takes root.

If it takes root however, He will raise you to the beauty of life eternal out of the thorns of this dying world!

Love Bro. Scott