…Sow.

Dr. Chuck Kelley, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, said many years ago, “”Southern Baptists are a harvest-oriented denomination living in an unseeded generation.” Jesus Christ, in the Gospels, highlights the principle of “sowing, growing, and reaping.” I’m particularly thinking of Mark 4:26-29. Mark states:

“The kingdom of God is like this,” he said. “A man scatters seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day; the seed sprouts and grows, although he doesn’t know how. The soil produces a crop by itself—first the blade, then the head, and then the full grain on the head. As soon as the crop is ready, he sends for the sickle, because the harvest has come.” (CSB)

I’m not going to give a running commentary on this here, I’ll let the Word do it’s work in your own heart. It’s pretty self-explanatory. However, I will say this–I want 2019 to be a year that I sow gospel seed with those I encounter. Though I find myself so despicable and so wretched more often than I want to even confess, I know the seed that I bear as an ambassador for Christ is good seed…imperishable seed (1 Peter 1:23).

So…what am I do to? The same thing a farmer does. He casts the seeds. He trusts the process. He waits for the harvest. That’s preciously why the Bible illustrates these principles in the kingdom realm. God is sovereign over His seed. God superintends the process. God gathers the harvest. He has given me the seed. I must cast it liberally, trust the process, and let God sort out the harvest (1 Cor. 3:6).

I must sow.