In England, growing up, I enjoyed the wheat harvest when the wheat turned from green to golden yellow. Now in California I enjoy seeing the bright oranges contrasting with the dark green of the leaves. We have a few fruit trees in our yard but we are really bad gardeners and we fail to give the trees the appropriate care to make it more likely that there will be delicious fruit. We have had a few sour oranges and a dry grapefruit. Thankfully the limes seem to just happen and we enjoy adding the juice to all sorts of different food and giving away the surplus.

In the parable of the sower (Matthew 13) there are many seedlings that do not reach maturity. They are more disappointing to the gardener than the small dry grapefruit because the seedlings never bore any fruit and the seeds that were taken by the birds were non starters. Fruit is not only delicious but it also has the capacity for more of the same plant to grow. The original seed, if it grows effectively, can produce multiple seed producing fruits and the result is wonderful.

In Matthew 13:23, Jesus explains that “the seed that fell on good soil represent those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” This is God’s will, and surely the goal of the church, that those who hear the good news about Jesus will understand the truth, and mature and multiply in the sense that they will help others to become productive children of God.

A Christian is not the smug, pew filler that I used to be. I was smug because I thought that I had done what was necessary by being in church, but I was no more than a seed on a hard piece of English stone floor, waiting to grow. There was so little truth to listen to and I did not understand that I needed to respond. Thankfully, Jesus put me in the equivalent of fertile soil when I went to college and arrived in a good church. The Bible was taught faithfully and as I listened I started to grow.

It seems that the hearer needs to be alert and listening and the message needs to be clear and true. It is so easy for all of us to be selective in our hearing. My children are adept at ignoring instructions to help but quick to hear any mention of food! The seeds that successfully reached maturity are like people who understand that without Jesus they are hopelessly lost. They hear and apply every one of His words to ensure that they grow up as God’s children rather than as a stunted, self absorbed seedling that shrivels up when in difficulty. The seed that becomes productive is like a true follower of Jesus who is not seeking his own comfort and pleasure but instead, like Jesus gives up his life. In John 12:24 Jesus says,”Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”

Many people want to have the reassurance of being connected to Jesus. They marvel that He rose from the dead and they believe that He has the power to successfully rescue us from the curse of death. They are right to trust Jesus but many are tempted to avoid the self sacrifice that we are called to. Unless we die to ourselves we remain a single seed, but God’s vision is for us to produce much grain. It is only when we focus on loving Jesus and others instead of ourselves that we truly start to do what pleases God. My other blog posts about the seeds discuss the reasons that they fail to reach maturity (and fulfillment). They are stunted because they are like people who are focused on themselves, put off by persecution, money and other worries.

Instead we should be focused on pleasing God. He can be trusted with our lives and He can handle our troubles. There is no time to focus on these personal distractions as Christians must join Jesus in far more important work than feeling sorry for ourselves. He wants us to join with others to reach out to “the lost”, to those who do not yet know how much He loves them. First we need to give up our lives to follow Him: “If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life you will lose it but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” When we give up trying to control things and trust God we are re-born as a new creation, a child of God with Jesus leading us. No wonder that we can now be productive, and bold, as Jesus is the one who through us can bring about a fantastic ‘harvest’. If we labor alone we will remain a single seed but when we die to our own ambitions we will belong to Christ and we will be producing much “grain”.

I was like a seed sitting immobile on hard stone. I was preoccupied with myself and I prioritized my pleasure and my success above spending time with God or helping others. Once I was placed in a church where I was taught the truth about Jesus, I started to change and by the time I was in my second year at college I was becoming more excited about helping others and teaching the Bible than pursuing my personal dreams. Now my desire was to please Jesus and this gave me fulfillment. I wanted others to grow into a relationship with Christ and I was eager to share the great news that God himself came to earth to die for you and me that we could be set free from the power of sin and death. I continue to share this message of great joy and I hope that others will become like seeds that are productive, bearing fruit and living abundant lives.

Christian women respond: Persevere and become spiritually mature. God’s harvest is beautiful and impacts the world.

www.WomenRespond.com

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