My wife and I live in a quiet 55+ community of approximately 125 mobile homes. The neighbors are great and everyone just “gets along”. But, the trees are just planted a little too close to the homes, which, over time, causes the cement of the carports to buckle and need to be replaced.
So, when I saw this picture today, I thought of the power of tree growth and what is possible from a single seed. Jesus spoke of many things, many of them quite simple, yet profound. Below, is the parable of the sower and also Paul’s comments on the true power behind the process. The Bible says...
Matthew 13 ( World English Bible )
1 On that day Jesus went out of the house, and sat by the seaside.
2 Great multitudes gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat, and sat, and all the multitude stood on the beach.
3 He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, a farmer went out to sow.
4 As he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and devoured them.
5 Others fell on rocky ground, where they didn’t have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth.
6 When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away.
7 Others fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them.
8 Others fell on good soil, and yielded fruit: some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.
9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
1 Corinthians 3 ( WEB )
1 Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.
2 I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, not even now are you ready,
3 for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men?
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly?
5 Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him?
6 I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.
7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it.
11 For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble;
13 each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is.
14 If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward.
15 If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.
When seed is sown, no one knows what will become of it. The difference of soil may result in a wide difference in the yield of any crop. For human beings, the soil represents our receptivity to the truth of the God and our willingness to obey its teachings. Our attitudes will affect our spiritual future and ultimately our fate at the final judgment.
More than this, we need to understand the TRUE POWER behind what the seed will do comes from God and not ourselves. Some people will listen and others will not. Ultimately, God causes the spiritual growth of churches. Those who share the word with others are just messengers, nothing more. This is true for even the most talented, most committed and most hard working of us.
Today, remember this my fellow Christian: God alone causes growth; HE alone affects the heart of human beings. Consider this and be humble in all that you do for God!