Sow the Seed

Everything is on the move. Time, sound, development and even this year is moving towards its end. We find people constantly on the move – new places, opportunities, goals. Everything seems to be moving….. except the church.

Pieter looked at the boy in front of him in disbelief. “Do you want to tell me that you have never owned a Bible?”

“Yes, sir, I do have a children’s Bible at home but I haven’t read it in years.”

Another boy stood up and walked over to Pieter holding out a book with 365 short daily Scriptural devotions. “Would this count for a Bible, sir?”

Let me bring you into the picture of what happened above. This did not happen in the seventeenth century but in 2010. Pieter, my brother in-law, is a minister who is doing Bible study with senior pupils of a high school. They are staying in a hostel during the week and Pieter uses his time to bring them closer to Jesus. Astonishingly, he discovered that many of these boys did not own a Bible and consequently know verylittle about Jesus!

This happened not in Hollywood or Hillbrow, but in a rural town in the Free State.

This meant that their parents and/or the church failed to supply the children with the most important Tool for life. At this point one question comes to mind – Why would most Christians decide that to be a member of a church would mean to go to church every Sunday, sit quietly for an hour or less and then go home again to resume life as they did an hour before?

No one is a member of a church! We are the church. As a church we should be walking, moving forward, not sitting.

Jesus did not go to one place and stayed there until He was crucified. He walked from town to town, sharing the promise of life with all the people He met. He walked up a mountain to pray and even crossed a sea on foot to meet the people on the other side.

Jesus is still walking today from one person to the next one who needs salvation, but He needs us to do the walking and talking. That is why Jesus gave us the command that we should follow Him daily. There are 21 verses in the Gospels where Jesus told people to follow Him.

Following does not imply following Him physically when He was on earth with His disciples but also, and especially after His crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and forever after (John 13:36).

Jesus says: “Follow Me”. This is a command. Jesus used a verb, a “doing” word, and we are supposed to be active, doing followers, not the inactive, immobile witnesses of opportunities we have become, allowing moments of value to slip through our fingers.

Many parents assume the church would teach their children everything they need, whilst they forget that they are the church. Attending church is important but it does not stop there. After church Jesus is standing outside, waiting for every believer to follow Him to different people He wants them to minister to. Sadly, after 20 minutes, He is standing there all alone, before He walks to people in need on His own.

He would comfort them but the words that He wants to share, cannot be heard because the person with the audible voice has not followed Him!

The person who is supposed to hand over the loaf of bread, has gone home to have himself fed instead.

Following Jesus is meant for every day of our lives. It is never too late to start. Jesus is still leading the way, pleading, urging, “Follow Me.” Time to do that is moving towards the last opportunity.