Sow the Seeds of the Good News

Verses:  Ecclesiastes 11:1-6

My thoughts about the verses:

When I read this I thought about the many years that I helped my grandfather in his garden.  You never knew from one year to the next how the crop would be.  One year you might plant and get just a few vegetables to harvest.  The next year you plant the same amount and it becomes an over abundant crop.

I will never forget the year that my grandfather planted his potato crop.  He always put the potatoes in the last two or three rows of his garden.  This one particular year every time you would pull up a plant there would be 5-10 potatoes.  My dad was there for several days digging up potatoes.  They just kept coming and coming.  My grandfather had enough potatoes for the winter and we all had tons of potatoes.  It was the year that everyone on the street got potatoes.  There were still tons by the time he gave everyone all they wanted.

Then there was the time that he planted tomatoes.  He absolutely tomatoes and the first rows of his garden would be plant after plant of tomatoes.  He usually got enough to get us all through the summer.  My grandmother would can quite a few tomatoes but it would never last all winter.  The year that I will never forget is when the tomatoes plants just started to produce tomato after tomato.  I can remember he started giving those away like the potatoes.  Then my poor grandmother painstakingly took days to can all these tomatoes.  She froze tomatoes.  She cooked with tomatoes.  I can remember a few years of having tomatoes that had been canned from this one harvest.

Here is the point I am getting at you never know what you are going to get when you plant.  You might just get enough for your family to enjoy.  Other times you will get more than you ever thought possible.  It is those years that you share your crop with others that you are close too.  You do not keep it to yourself because you want to bless people the same way you have been blessed.

How is it that we as Christians do not follow this same rule?  We are all given more than we can ever harvest.  Christians are blessed with knowing that they have the gift of everlasting life.  We have not only what we have but what others need. Yet do we share this with others?  Do we keep the love that Jesus gives us to ourselves?

We need to remember that Jesus calls us to share the Good News.  We are to tell people how much Jesus loves them.  We are not to keep the gift to ourselves.  We need to sow the seed of salvation.

Imagine what would have happened if the person that first taught you about Jesus never did.  Where would you be today?  Would you still be the Christian you are today?  I know that if I had not been taught about Jesus when I was young that it is quite possible that I would have never found my salvation. When I came out of the closet kicking and screaming I was isolated by the same people.  Yet, because they taught me about Jesus and I had accepted the gift I knew I wasn’t alone.  It was their problem not my problem.  Jesus loved me just the way I was created.  I didn’t have to worry about what they said because I was free through the power of the blood.

When you think back to that person that taught you about God are you not motivated to share the Good News?  We never know what God will lead us to do.  We might reach someone today that has never heard the Good News.  We might touch the heart of someone that feels isolated from God and the Church.  We have to remember that we have to sow the seeds of Good News. 

Plant the seeds that God has given you.  Share the story of salvation.  Live your life letting others see the love of Jesus.  Just like plants need water the seed of the Good News needs our story.  As I write this I wonder is there someone that needed to hear that God loved them.  Did they read this today and accept Jesus.  Did they let go of the isolation that others have placed them in.  It is humbling to know that God may use me in this way.  We have to remember we might sow the seed, we might give it water but it is Jesus that gives it new life.  Take on your commission and spread the Good News so that Jesus can give new life to the seed that you have sown.

Prayer:

We thank you Jesus for your love.  We praise you for your gift of New Life.  We praise you God for your love and strength.  Help us to spread the Good News.  Help us show others through our example the New Life that you have given to us.  We ask that you move in the hearts of those we reach today so that they might find the same love that we have from you.  In the name of the Messiah we pray.  Amen

Questions:

Have you accepted the Good News?  Are you spreading the Good News throughout the world?  Are you living your life as an example so that people can see the gift Jesus has given us?  Are you planting the seed so Jesus can grow the New Life in someone’s life today?  If you are not doing these things is today the day your start?