What are you Sowing?

What are you Sowing?

by David Brenneman 

‭"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." 1 Peter 2:9-12

A life that is separated, a life that is different. 

How separated and different are you from the world around you?  

Christ-Like people aren't to be wearing what could be considered "worldly camouflage". We should not be blending in this world so much that we are really no different from the lives of the sinful people surrounding us in whom do not have the hope of salvation in Christ Jesus. 

Does your life proclaim anything pointing people to the hope, the calling, for the salvation found in Jesus Christ?

We really don't want to get to Heaven, to stand before Jesus, and hear Him say "You could have had reward here in Heaven, but you had your reward on Earth while you were there."  

As a very commonly used example of Dr. Charles Stanley, you reap what you sow more than you sow much later than you sow. He often referred to it as the rules of agriculture that apply to real life. 

"Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer person is decaying, yet our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

To read of priestly duties in the Old Testament, these lives were hardly worldly. To fast-forward to the ministry of Jesus, the life of a Disciple was likewise to be different...add to it..."Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20.

So what, my Dear Reader, are you doing to cultivate a life lived for Jesus in your life? 

What are you investing in? 

Who are you investing in?

When your day's time is chartered how much of life is spent on living life for Jesus?

Very recently the passing of Billy Graham was remembered by many. 

Of all the things available during his brief stay on this Earth...of all the potential thrills and excitement available to him...do you think for a moment that he 'missed out' on 'living'?

Truth of the matter is...what all the world offers isn't even in the same ballpark as what is gained in a right relationship with Jesus. Do you for even a split second believe that the Disciples missed the potential lives they could have lived had they not followed Him?

Undeniable truths are this:

Jesus is returning. 

We will give an account of our lives before Him. 

Judgment is coming to this fallen world on a scale nobody has ever seen in all human history.

All people live in their assigned moment in human history for His honor, for His glory, according to His plan and purpose. 

When you go out into your day, what are you sowing? Are you sowing dissensions? Are you weeding? Are you presenting infomercials on peace and prosperity rather than what a life in Christ Jesus is about?

Are you at all loving God with your everything and loving others? Are there any seeds in your ground needing tending to? Are there obstacles that need to go that aren't at all helpful in you growing in Christ Jesus?

Are you after your reward in this life or are you after what brings Jesus Christ the love, honor and glory He deserves?

We are not our own, we were bought with a price, the shed blood of Jesus Christ...are we living a life that reflects that unsurpassed value of what it cost Jesus to save us?

When you get to Heaven, will you be happy or sad at the truth of how you now see your life as it was?  

Food for thought at the very least. 

If I didn't have my time with Jesus in the morning's I would know what to do. If I didn't pray on my way to work, it would be a sadly barren time. If I wouldn't end my day in my Daily Bible, and some reading in the books of Psalms and Proverbs, it wouldn't be right. If I didn't talk to Jesus during my day when my heart needed to, worry would set in rather than a prayer. 

How much of your life is sowed with the intention of being a life in Christ Jesus?

"He began to teach again by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, “Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear. As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven. And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” Mark 4:1-20.

All NASB 1995 and NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C) Lockman Foundation.