One year I planted something known as a tomatillo in my garden. I had never seen this kind of fruit before, but it looked interesting so I decided to give it a try. They grew similar to my tomato plants, and the fruits when mature looked like a yellow or green tomato wrapped in a leafy husk.
The handful of plants that I grew that year grew well and I received many fruits for my labor. They did have a different taste to them though, so I decided not to grow them the next year. But the next spring, growing just on the edge of the garden, do you know what I found? Tomatillo plants. I guess I must have thrown some old, rotten tomatillos into the garden and they grew into some new plants, so I decided to leave them alone and let them grow themselves.
Five years later, I would still find new tomatillo plants growing wild around outside of the garden, and each year I could continue to reap the rewards from those first few plants.
I guess the lesson here is that you reap what you sow. When you sow fruits or vegetables, that is what you get back. If you are going to sow spiritual things, and help others to hear about the word of God, then you will receive your spiritual reward.
Galatians 6:7-9 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
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.
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
You know, when Paul preached to others the truth found in Christ, sowing those seeds of faith into hearts, he didn’t see all of those seeds grow and mature in his lifetime. He started many churches and preached to many people, but the bulk of Paul’s fruit has come over the last 2,000 years. Like the tomatillo plants in my garden, Paul’s reward for the seeds that he had sown continue to still grow each day. As each year goes by, his letters and teachings will be read by more and more people, as more and more seeds become planted. And it all started with his original letters. 1, 2 Corinthians, his letters to Timothy, the Galatians, etc.
It all started with those first seeds, and as his writings have been passed on from generation to generation, his reward only continues to grow. Paul planted but he didn’t see all of the fruit immediately or the fruit that he continues to have today. But his rewards that he will one day reap all started from those first seeds.
Wouldn’t it be incredible to go up to Heaven and discover that the few seeds that you had sown into the hearts of others had grown into hundreds, or thousands?! Thirty, sixty, one hundred.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 