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Mark 4
NIrV The Illustrated Holy Bible for Kids
Then ­Jesus said to them, “­Don’t you un­der­stand this sto­ry? Then how will you un­der­stand
any sto­ries of this kind? The seed the farm­er ­plants is G
­ od’s mes­sage. What is seed scat­tered on
a path like? The mes­sage is plant­ed. The peo­ple hear the mes­sage. Then Sa­tan c ­ omes. He t ­ akes
away the mes­sage that was plant­ed in them. And what is seed scat­tered on r ­ ocky plac­es like? The
peo­ple hear the mes­sage. At once they re­ceive it with joy. But they have no r ­ oots. So they last only
a ­short time. They quick­ly fall away from the f ­ aith when trou­ble or suf­fer­ing c ­ omes be­cause of
the mes­sage. And what is seed scat­tered ­among ­thorns like? The peo­ple hear the mes­sage. But
then the wor­ries of this life come to them. ­Wealth ­comes with its ­false prom­is­es. The peo­ple also
long for oth­er t ­ hings. All of t ­ hese are the k
­ inds of t ­ hings that c ­ rowd out the mes­sage. They keep it
from pro­duc­ing f ­ ruit. And what is seed scat­tered on good soil like? The peo­ple hear the mes­sage.
They ac­cept it. They pro­duce a good crop 30, 60, or even 100 ­times more than the farm­er plant­ed.”
A Lamp on a Stand
J
MARK 4:21–25
esus said to them, “Do you ­bring in a
lamp to put it un­der a l ­ arge bowl or a
bed? D
­ on’t you put it on its s ­ tand? What
is hid­den is m
­ eant to be seen. And what is put
out of ­sight is ­meant to be ­brought out into
the open. Who­ev­er has ears ­should lis­ten.”
“­Think care­ful­ly a
­ bout what you hear,” he
said. “As you give, so you will re­ceive. In fact,
you will re­ceive even more. Who­ev­er has
some­thing will be giv­en more. Who­ev­er has
noth­ing, even what they have will be tak­en
away from them.”
The Light from God’s Lamp
Is Meant to Be Seen
The Story of the Growing Seed
J
MARK 4:26–29
esus also said, “Here is what G
­ od’s king­dom is like. A farm­er scat­ters seed on the g
­ round.
Night and day the seed c ­ omes up and g
­ rows. It hap­pens wheth­er the farm­er s ­ leeps or gets
up. He d
­ oesn’t know how it hap­pens. All by it­self the soil pro­duc­es g
­ rain. F
­ irst the s ­ talk
comes up. Then the head ap­pears. Fi­nal­ly, the full g
­ rain ap­pears in the head. Be­fore long the
grain rip­ens. So the farm­er cuts it down, be­cause the har­vest is ­ready.”
The Story of the Mustard Seed
A
MARK 4:30–34
gain ­Jesus said, “What can we say ­God’s king­dom is like? What sto­ry can we use to ex­plain
it? It is like a mus­tard seed, ­which is the small­est of all s ­ eeds on ­earth. But when you ­plant
the seed, it g
­ rows. It be­comes the larg­est of all gar­den p
­ lants. Its branch­es are so big that
birds can rest in its ­shade.”
Us­ing many sto­ries like t ­ hese, ­Jesus s ­ poke the word to them. He told them as much as they
could un­der­stand. He did not say any­thing to them with­out us­ing a sto­ry. But when he was ­alone
with his dis­ci­ples, he ex­plained ev­ery­thing.
Jesus Calms the Storm
W
MARK 4:35–41
hen eve­ning came, ­Jesus said to his dis­ci­ples, “­Let’s go over to the oth­er side of the
lake.” They left the c ­ rowd be­hind. And they took him a
­ long in a boat, just as he was.
There were also oth­er b
­ oats with him. A wild s ­ torm came up. ­Waves c ­ rashed over the
boat. It was a
­ bout to sink. ­Jesus was in the back, sleep­ing on a cush­ion. The dis­ci­ples woke him
up. They said, “Teach­er! ­Don’t you care if we ­drown?”
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