If you have “ears to hear,” as Jesus would say, I invite you to lose yourself with me in two parables from Mark 4 which teach us about the amazing growth of God’s Kingdom.

Summer is nearly upon us. Many of us are done with school. Some have just a week to go. The weather is consistently warmer. The mosquitoes are buzzing. And with summer comes sunflower season—at least for me.

These profound words of Jesus were spoken on the day before he would suffer and die. They were spoken first to a group of men who had been with him for three years, who had grown to love him, who depended on him.

Our ascending Savior’s victorious body language in Luke 24 sets the tone for the Christian life.

I’ll never forget sitting across from her trying to explain the gospel. Mary was the president of the condo association I had been doing grounds work for during my second year at Seminary. I had been praying…