Sow & Sleep

This Sunday after church, our Sunday school group is planning an evangelism blitzkrieg.  We will be knocking on doors in the surrounding neighborhood and in the dorms on campus.  We will be armed with tracts, flyers, and cookies.  Our goal is to meet people, share the gospel, invite them to church, pray with them, or simply give encouragement (with love and cookies). 

We have done this for several years with mixed results.  We have had many doors shut in our face, but there have also been a few people whom we have cultivated a relationship with.

Although this evangelism en masse event was my idea this year, I must admit that I am a little apprehensive.  Talking to people is not my strong suite.  God saw fit not to include that gift in my basket.  That doesn’t excuse me from my duty to share the gospel, though.  It just means I have toe (faithfully) try harder, and pray harder.

I tend to worry about what to say, or what technique to use.  I’m scared I’ll do something stupid and mess up the opportunity.  I am comforted in this by God’s sovereignty.

Mark 4:26-29

²⁶ And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, ²⁷ and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. ²⁸ For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. ²⁹ But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Notice that the sower is only responsible for sowing the seed.  The sower cannot cause the seeds to germinate and grow.  He simply sows the seed and then goes to sleep.  The sower doesn’t know how the seed grows, he just watches it until harvest time.

In the same way, it is our responsibility to sow the word.  God changes a person’s heart to accept the gospel, not me.  God causes the growth, I only sow and sleep, He does the rest.

So in the end, what I say, or how clever or funny I am is not as important .  My job is to be faithful and obedient and simply go and do, trusting God to take care of the rest.

So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. – 1 Cor. 3:7

Fiery Faith

Daniel 3:16-18

Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king…"If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

I cannot think of any text that better exemplifies genuine faith.  In the face of agonizing terror and death, these three young men put their trust solely in God.  They had no promise of divine intervention, no assurance that God was going to save their lives.  They laid it all on the line in obedience to God’s law.  They trusted in God’s sovereignty, knowing that He has the power to save them if He so willed. 

God did indeed save them from a fiery death in the furnace.  Notice how the characteristics of their faith were different from some of the modern conceptions of faith.  They were not protected from the flames with positive thinking.  They didn’t bind up the flames in the Lord’s name.  They didn’t rebuke the fire, inciting the power of God through their magic words.  Nor did they stubbornly insist that the flames don’t really exist if they just really, really believe without doubting.  They didn’t bargain with God, or make empty vows.

They simply submitted to God in faith, trusting to decree their fate. They placed their confidence and their lives in the hands of the Almighty.  This is genuine faith in action.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a jerk like me.

I graduated from high school eight years ago.  In that time, I have lost touch with my former classmates.  But living in my hometown, I sometimes run across my schoolmates from yesteryear. 

That happened to me last week.  I was at a meet-the-teacher night for the Mothers Day Out my son will be attending.  As we were waiting for it to begin, all of my attention was on my boy.  He was determined to collect every offering envelope and visitor card from the pew in front of us.  As he began throwing the leaflet confetti into the air, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

Standing there was a fella I graduated with.  To be honest, I wasn’t all that excited to see him.  In high school he was a real jerk, or at least that’s what I thought.  I always felt he was arrogant and rude. 

As I stood up to shake his hand, I was startled by the full enveloping bear hug thrown at me.  I quickly realized that something was different.  He smiled and we talked for a minute.  He was kind, friendly, and genuinely caring.  All that went through my mind was, “Hey, this cat reminds mf Jesus.”  We only had a minute to converse because the program was beginning, but that meeting left a strong impression on me.

I was reminded of the power of the gospel to genuinely change people.  I need to be reminded of that from time to time.  It gives me encouragement and hope, for if God can change a jerk like him, then He can change a jerk like me.

1 year, 365 days, 88 posts, 841 hits, 9 states, 7 countries, one purpose

for His glory