Last week we did a study on the principle of sowing and reaping. We looked at the life of Jacob - who won his inheritance from his brother Esau by trickery. In order to suit him for the role our Father wanted him to play, Jacob was led into a series of situations that exposed him to the results of actions very much like his own. In this way, he could be humbled - made teachable - and so he developed a character which enabled him to be Israel - the father of the 12 tribes of Yahweh's chosen people. Of them it was said: "For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. " (Deu 7:6)

Now, there are examples of this with different "heroes" scattered throughout both Testaments.

Jonah, who was washed up on the shore of a country he had fled: "And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey." (Jonah 2:10, 3:3)

There was Nebuchadnezzar, who endured 7 years of madness before lifting his eyes to Heaven: "And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured Him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation." (Dan 4:34)

There was also Saul, who was thrown from his "high horse" before truly serving the God of his fathers: "For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." (Gal 1:13-16)

This week, though, we may look at a more personal application of this principle. We know that all these mentioned sowed seeds of discord, injustice, doubt and fear, and that our Father in His love and wisdom allowed the harvest - given to teach them a batter way, even the way of Christ -as seen most directly in the last example.

But now, what about the other side of the coin? Okay, we have seen all the _bad_ examples, but the principle works both ways: "For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." (Gal 6:8) This is not only a warning, but an encouragement. Yes, if we sow bad seeds we get thorns, BUT, we may also plant more pleasant flowers. We can "plant" more desirable trees, and have them blossom and bloom for us.

Did you know that gardening was the first job man ever had? It's the world's true "oldest profession," for as it's written: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed." (Gen 2:7-8,15)

This is one of the reasons why there are so many references to plants, and vines and trees in the Scriptures. Nature appeals to a deep, noble part of human beings - not because our ancestors were monkeys - but because our first home was a beautiful, holy garden. So many of the Messiah's parables dealt with growing: wheat, vineyards, seeds, mustard trees, corn... He spoke often of people this way: "Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." (Mat 7:17,20)

By our "fruits" we shall be known, and last week we (briefly) mentioned what the "good fruits" were: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." (Gal 5:22-23) In a Christian, these fruits will be seen, all of them, to one degree or another. The next two verses say: "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." (Gal 5:24-25)

But consider the analogy: will a sapling bear fruit? Will a young stalk be heavy with mature results? Christ put it this way: "For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." (Mark 4:28)

We must "grow" these attributes in ourselves; or more accurately, we must let these fruits be grown in us by the true vine and husbandman. The Savior said: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman." (John 15:1)

"And He said, 'Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: but when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.'" (Mark 4:30-32)

Do we see how this is? Even the smallest seed (in both nature, or of those attributes which our Father puts in us) can grow to be a mighty tree, if the seed is good, and the tending is fitting. Now, we know that the seed must be good, for God creates it in us, and He does not create anything but that which is good and perfect - so the question is: how is it grown?

The younger a tree is, the more careful we need to be with it. For that reason, Paul says things like this: "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another." (Rom 12:10) "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ." (Rom 14:1,10) "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." (Rom 15:1-2, Gal 6:2)

We do not judge those weaker in faith than ourselves - however, this does not mean we must not encourage them to grow, and we must surely rebuke sin and error in all - be they greater or lesser than ourselves in faith: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." (2 Tim 4:2) With sound teachings and longsuffering, or patience, we can share what we have learned with those around us.

Even the elders (in both years and church office) are not above reproach, although since they are of reputation, we may need to take more care where correcting them is concerned: "Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses." (1 Tim 5:1, 19) Still, as verse 20 says, "Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear."

What enables us to help others, though, is to have these same seeds of the spiritual fruits being actively cultivated in ourselves. "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." (Mat 7:3-5)

Notice He does not say not to help others, only that we first make sure we see clearly. Make sure you have the seeds of faith in yourself which will bring forth these fruits, if you seek to help others. "Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth." (Rom 14:22)

Here is the matter: we need not worry about getting those seeds. No, we have those already - whether we feel we do or not - if we have accepted Christ: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2Cor 5:17) "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col 1:26-27)

We see a duality there. We are both in Christ and having Him in us. We are in Him, in that we walk according to the way He walked, and He is in us in that those attributes we mentioned before are present in our nature by His Holy Spirit. These are they which lead to salvation, and that is wonderful, because never in Scripture does it say that these things will be ours someday, that we will one day develop love, or peace, or kindness. It says we have them: "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," (Rom 5:1) ... for example.

It does, however, seem to indicate that the responsibility is ours to develop them, at least to a degree: "Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more." (1Th 4:1) "But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." (Heb 3:13)

We are to encourage, reprove and deal with one another kindly, and in this way we help not only them, but ourselves to grow. We see that God has put the seeds of these characteristics in ALL of His children - if we have accepted Christ, His Spirit does live in us, and we do all possess these things. Because of our spiritual level of maturity, however, these may not all be fully developed in each of us. This will be the work of time, and the Spirit, and the loving encouragement of other members of the Body.

Now we can conclude by taking a little time to see exactly what OUR role is in the process of developing ourselves into a bountiful harvest. Let's look at two examples of women in the Bible, and their offspring.

The first woman, Eve, contained the seed of all of humanity. She was so named for that reason: "And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living." (Gen 3:20) At some point, they began to fulfill their command to be fruitful and multiply: "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, 'I have gotten a man from the LORD.'" (Gen 4:1)

So now we have this woman, surely full of faith in the Father, as she used to speak to Him on a fairly regular basis. And except for her one listed slip-up, she seems to have lived a praiseworthy life. Yet we see that with Adam's contribution, Cain didn't exactly turn out the way it was hoped. Let's look at another woman: "And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary." (Luke 1:26-27)

Now this woman also conceived a child, but not by a human being, as did Eve: "And the angel answered and said unto her, 'The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshdow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.'" (Luke 1:35)

Now, we need to be careful here, because Adam and Eve also had Abel and Seth, and the rest of God's human family - but what we see here is that things can go wrong where human efforts are concerned. Do we see this?

A "seed" in the woman (and we could get into how the term "seed" is applied to gender, but I think it's fairly clear enough from verses like Gen 3:15 and Rev 12:17 that it can be spoken of in terms of both male and female); anyway, a "seed" of the woman Mary combined with the Holy Spirit, brought forth a sinless life, Christ. A "seed" of the woman Eve combined with Adam and brought forth Cain. Of the "good" children mentioned, we have Abel (whose name means "breath," very like that of spirit) and Seth whose name means "recompense," or to make up for something.

In us, we all have these "seeds" of the fruits of righteousness in us, but if we put our own, human efforts to it, things can go wrong. With the Spirit's help, however, we can produce this Christ-like life, that will be pleasing to the Father. We will come to that place where man's effort is replaced by the Spirit's... as recompence for our helpless labors, which we surrender to Him. Remember how often the Spirit's presence is likened to rain! "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." (Hos 6:3)

And it is this rain, and not the gardener's efforts, that makes the harvest grow. "And He said, 'So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.'" (Mark 4:26-29)

We see from the verses that the man himself does not know how they harvest grows, but he does (in verse 29) reap the benefits of his labors. It is not his to order the steps of his development, for the earth brings forth the crops "of herself," and our only role is to stay there. By this I mean, we are not even the vine upon which the fruit truly grows.

We quoted this before: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman." (John 15:1) Christ is the vine, and it is He who brings us what we need, be it nutrients, times of peace, even trials to help us to grow. But as long as we remain ON the vine, connected to the source of life, and not fleeing these opportunities to improve, we will be shaped, pruned, and will grow into beautiful results. Satan will try to use our emotions against us: frustration, anger, impatience, fear.

"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice." (Eph 4:31) These are the very things Paul cautions us to put away, for when we are clean of them, we will never want to leave the vine, no matter how circumstances may rise against us. God is called "the great physician," and He has never lost a patient. The only reason people are not healed is if they will not come to His office, or do not accept His prescription, or leave before they complete their treatment. All that remains is for us to put ourselves fully in His hands, and then the fruits are ours to enjoy.

David.