NIV Butterfly Garden Holy Bible Book of Mark, "Prayer Is..., Getting to Know Jesus | Page 6

861  l   Mark 4:36 him, and they told him, “Your moth­er and broth­ers are out­side look­ing for you.” 33 “Who are my moth­er and my broth­ ers?” he asked. 34 Then he ­looked at ­those seat­ed in a cir­cle ­around him and said, “Here are my moth­er and my broth­ers! 35 Who­ev­er does God’s will is my broth­er and sis­ter and moth­er.” quick­ly fall away. 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 t ­ hings come in and ­choke the word, mak­ing it un­ fruit­ful. 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.” The Parable of the Sower A Lamp on a Stand Again ­Jesus be­gan to ­teach by the lake. The c ­ rowd that gath­ered a ­ round him was so ­large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, ­while all the peo­ple were ­along the ­shore at the wa­ter’s edge. 2 He t ­ aught them many ­things by par­a­bles, and in his teach­ing said: 3 “Lis­ten! A farm­er went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scat­ ter­ing the seed, some fell ­along the path, and the ­birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on r ­ ocky plac­es, ­where it did not have much soil. It ­sprang up quick­ly, be­cause the soil was shal­low. 6 But when the sun came up, the p ­ lants were s ­ corched, and they with­ered be­cause they had no root. 7 Oth­er seed fell ­among t ­ horns, ­which grew up and ­choked the ­plants, so that they did not bear g ­ rain. 8 Still oth­er seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and pro­duced a crop, some mul­ti­ply­ing thir­ty, some six­ty, some a hun­dred times.” 9   Then ­Jesus said, “Who­ev­er has ears to hear, let them hear.” 10 When he was a ­ lone, the ­Twelve and the oth­ers ­around him a ­ sked him a ­ bout the par­a­bles. 11 He told them, “The se­cret of the king­dom of God has been giv­en to you. But to t ­ hose on the out­side ev­ery­thing is said in par­a­bles 12 so that, 21 He said to them, “Do you b ­ ring in a lamp to put it un­der a bowl or a bed? In­ stead, ­don’t you put it on its ­stand? 22 For what­ev­er is hid­den is ­meant to be dis­ closed, and what­ev­er is con­cealed is ­meant to be ­brought out into the open. 23 If any­ one has ears to hear, let them hear.” 24 “Con­sid­er care­ful­ly what you hear,” he con­tin­ued. “With the mea­sure you use, it will be mea­sured to you — ​and even more. 25 Who­ever has will be giv­en more; who­ever does not have, even what they have will be tak­en from them.” 4 “ ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’  a  ” 13 Then ­Jesus said to them, “Don’t you un­der­stand this par­a­ble? How then will you un­der­stand any par­a­ble? 14 The farm­ er sows the word. 15 Some peo­ple are like seed ­along the path, ­where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Sa­tan ­comes and ­takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Oth­ers, like seed sown on r ­ ocky plac­es, hear the word and at once re­ceive it with joy. 17 But ­since they have no root, they last only a s ­ hort time. When trou­ble or per­ se­cu­tion ­comes be­cause of the word, they The Parable of the Growing Seed 26 He also said, “This is what the king­ dom of God is like. A man scat­ters seed on the g ­ round. 27 Night and day, wheth­er he s ­ leeps or gets up, the seed ­sprouts and grows, ­though he does not know how. 28 All by it­self the soil pro­duc­es ­grain  — ​­first the stalk, then the head, then the full ker­nel in the head. 29 As soon as the ­grain is ripe, he puts the sick­le to it, be­cause the har­vest has come.” The Parable of the Mustard Seed 30 Again he said, “What ­shall we say the king­dom of God is like, or what par­a­ ble ­shall we use to de­scribe it? 31 It is like a mus­tard seed, ­which is the small­est of all s ­ eeds on e ­ arth. 32 Yet when plant­ed, it grows and be­comes the larg­est of all gar­ den ­plants, with such big branch­es that the birds can ­perch in its shade.” 33  With many sim­i­l ar par­a­bles ­Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they ­could un­der­stand. 34 He did not say any­ thing to them with­out us­ing a par­a­ble. But when he was ­alone with his own dis­ci­ples, he ex­plained ev­ery­thing. Jesus Calms the Storm 35 That day when eve­ning came, he said to his dis­ci­ples, “Let us go over to the oth­ er side.” 36 Leav­ing the ­crowd be­hind, they a  12 Isaiah 6:9,10