If you want to see someone come to
Christ, the most effective way to make this happen is to
establish a relationship with that person. When you are open
and honest with a person, opportunities to show your faith
will abound. You won’t always get to present the gospel with
words but your actions will speak for you.
When you are able to be self
controlled in a situation when everybody else is flying off
the handle, people are going to see it. When you are able to
love an annoying coworker that everyone else talks badly
about behind their back, people will know that you are
different.
When people see that you have
qualities that only Christ can give you, they will come to
you with questions. When you tell them that it is only with
the help of God that you can do these things, you will plant
a seed.
We have examined the different types
of soils that the seed falls on. As you live your life for
Christ, you will scatter seed on all types of soil. You’ll
see some snatched away as soon as it lands on a hard heart.
In the life of others, you’ll watch the seed grow only to
witness the storms of life destroy it or the cares of the
world choke it out. But you’ll also see seed that lands on
good soil that will in time produce fruit.
All of this takes time however. There
is a long term commitment that needs to be made. Recall the
story of the African farmer who sows his seed in tears
because his family is starving while he plants the last
grain they have in the ground. If we want to see a harvest
there will be times of pain and sacrifice. But if we believe
in the harvest, we believe that in the end it will be worth
the sacrifice.
Let us return to the analogy of soil
one last time. When the seed is scattered, there is no way
of knowing whether the soil is good or bad. Only when the
soil does not take root do we know that the ground is hard.
It is not until the plant is blown over or choked away do we
realize that it will not produce fruit.
What is the only way we can determine
all this? It is only with time. It is said that hindsight is
20/20. It is only after the fact that we realize whether we
have succeeded or not. On earth, we don’t get the benefit of
spiritual hindsight too often.
The seed that you plant today may not
bear fruit for a long time. It may be years later when
someone is going through a tough time that they remember how
you faced a difficulty. It may be at that point that they
finally realize what you had said about getting strength
from God.
The seed you plant may not grow until you work the soil (and
sometimes rework and rework the soil.) Remember that the
average person must hear the gospel seven times before they
accept it.
Seeds take time to grow into plants
and plants take time before they can bear fruit. If you grow
a garden, you know it takes months for most things to bear
fruit. But if you would plant an orchard, you would wait
years to find a fruit bearing tree. Don’t be discouraged if
your efforts seem to go unnoticed or do not get the results
that you wish.
As with plants, sometimes you notice
when the first fruit starts to form. Other times you walk
out to the garden and realize that you have tomatoes growing
and wonder how long they’ve been growing. This is the case
when people become Christians as well.
Some people can remember very vividly
when they came to Christ. They remember where they were at,
who they with etc. Other people have no clue when they were
really saved. They came to church for a while and listened
to the sermons and thought about them through the week. They
didn’t go forward at an altar call and didn’t say “the
sinner’s prayer.” But one day they woke up and realized that
they understood what salvation was about and that they
believed Jesus Christ died for their sins and rose from the
dead on the third day.
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Fired Up
