The parable of the sower reveals four different reactions to spiritual matters, in particular - to the good news of pardon and life from Christ. What influences our response against our deepest and eternal interests? Christ tells us how we may change.

Early in His ministry, Christ challenged the Jews, proclaiming a spiritual resurrection for all who 'heard' His voice, and a future bodily resurrection. Again, He asserted His divine sonship, authenticated by the Father through His mighty works, and through the scriptures - especially Moses.

The startling question 'Wilt thou be made whole?' exposes the human indifference to salvation, broken only by Christ's initiative in opening the heart to mercy. Here are lessons in salvation; also - Christ's unambiguous assertion of His divinity, which became the real basis of all hostility.

Far more than 'sundry' good wishes, here are Paul's five conditions for the presence of God: the maintaining of joy; living a full-spectrum Christian life; knowing how to gain comfort in trials; being of one mind with believers; and being a peace-maker.

What do we lose by forgetting God and the soul, and building our lives without interest in these things? Society currently urges us into unbelief, but here is how God reasons with us about the purpose of existence and the way to eternal life.