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DESIRES FOR OTHER THINGS?
-Spurgeon, "Sown Among Thorns"
"...and the DESIRES FOR OTHER THINGS come in and
choke the word, making it unfruitful." Mark 4:19
I will not enumerate all those "other things",
but all things except the things of Christ and
of the Father are "other things."
If anybody spends his life on any object, however good,
short of the glory of God, the good seed is choked by the
'inferior' object.
One person is eminently scientific, and he will do well if his
science is used for holy purposes, but it can be used to
choke the seed.
Another person is a great proficient in the arts, and he does
well if the arts are used as a mule for Christ to ride upon.
But if art is to ride upon Christ, then it is evil enough.
I met with a clergyman many years ago who was going a long
distance to find a new beetle. He was a great entomologist,
and I did not blame him for it, for to a thoughtful person
entomology may yield many profitable lessons. But if he
neglected his preaching to catch insects, then I do not
wonder that a parishioner would wish that the beetles would
nibble his old sermons, for they were very stale.
I call it choking the seed when any inferior pursuit becomes
the master of our minds, and the cause of God and truth
takes a secondary place.
The seed is choked in our souls whenever Christ is not our all in all.
You see my drift: be it what it may- gain, glory, study,
pleasure- all these may be briers that will choke the seed.
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