No Harvest Without Faith

No Fruitful Harvest                      Return to Main Menu     Without Faith 

Mark 11:22 NKJ    So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God."

My son and his friends are part of a phenomena creeping across our country.  In his yard three blocks from downtown Charlotte NC, in a completely urban area he is planting seeds in a garden plot.  Most of his friends involved do not know much about gardening and Anthony  mostly observed as he grew up watching my father grow his garden.  This spiritual context of this is:  When you plant seeds you are showing faith in God for the growth of the fruit.  We plant the seeds but God through His creation grows the plant, the stems, the leaves, the fruit and the seed to do it again next year.  In addition, God provides the air and the water required to grow everything.  In preparing and planting a garden, if we did not have faith that the seeds would germinate and produce fruit, we would not plant the seeds.

We find our lives as a garden with the seeds being the Word of God for our lives.  Just as we prepare soil to receive the seed, we must prepare our lives to receive the Word of God.  Just as a farmer nurtures the soil, so to must we nurture our lives through prayer and Bible study to allow the seed to grow.  And, just as the seeds bear fruit and more seeds to be planted, so to we must plant the Word of God in the world around us.

In our productivity of planting the Word of God in people around us, we must understand that although the harvest is important, for us the plating of seeds is most important.  People cannot know Jesus if we do not plant His Word in them, directly and by our example.  Plant seeds, nurture, be still, then watch what God can do with our work.

During my teaching days, in my classroom, I have a sign that says it all:

The Judgment of my day is based not on my harvest
But Rather,
By the service I give in sowing the seeds that I plant.

Show your faith, pray, study the Bible, and plant the Seed of God in the people around you.  Set the Good Example and watch the harvest of your seeds grow.  


Thanks be to God

© Lonnie Coggins        
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Publication  0121

m341054  4810

Planting Seeds and Keeping Faith

Planting Seeds and Keeping Faith

Matthew 8: 5-13   an excerpt:

8 The centurion answered, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, "Go,' and he goes, and to another, "Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, "Do this,' and the slave does it." 10 When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, "Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith." 

As a gardener, I have learned many things about God from His nature.  It is the gardener that selects the right place, prepares the soil by plowing, removing weeds and rocks, makes the rows as it should be done, and plant the seeds, and continues to nurture the soil and plants.  But ... IS . IT... the gardener that makes the plants grow and bear fruit?  Not by any means!!  It is the gardener who has faith and does the necessary things for God to then take over and grow everything as it should be done.  I just had to have faith to do my part my earthly father had taught me as a child.

My wife and I opened up an old garden area this year where my father and mother grew a garden over 20 years ago.   I had faith that where father had his garden for 40 years I too could have a garden.  I cut my first cantaloupe from that garden today from exactly where he had planted the same.  It could have been sour and I would have loved it, but it was just as good as if daddy had planted the seed.  You know why it was sweet!  God had grown that cantaloupe for me just as he had done for my father,  I just had to have faith to do the same as my father would have done.

Just as the Centurion had faith in Jesus to heal, he did his part by humbly coming to Jesus for what Jesus could do in his life.

How often we fail to see the need for greater faith in our own life such as faith like the Centurion had in his.  It is through the Holy Spirit God grows our faith, as we are pretty helpless to do so for our selfish selves.

To have the Holy Spirit in your life, we must pray, and pray and pray everyday; share our faith with others, plant seed and bring others to the Faith, believe as the Centurion, "stand still" and watch what God can do in and for your life (Exodus 14:12-14).
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My earthly father taught me more than a bit of gardening skill, in his own private way he set the example depending on our Heavenly Father.  Amen.