Eventually, Avocados

my sweet little avocado plant

Last summer, my family went to southern California to visit my sister and her family.  On the way back to the airport, we stopped at a roadside farmer's market and bought seven California avocados to bring back home.  Yes, I know that they sell avocados in Oklahoma, but I heard that California avocados are so good.  So good, in fact, that I was willing to carry them by my side for the next nine hours.  (I have several traveling fruit stories in my past.... FYI-don't MAIL bananas in care packages to your fiancé in Florida in the middle of the summer!...of course, duh! Well, love is stupid...or at least, evidently, I was)

Anyway.....

The avocados made it home and we ate them and they were good.  I had memories of my mother putting avocado seeds in water with toothpicks and watching them root.  So I did that.  The seed from one of the avocados sat by my sink for four months, until the roots looked so good that I bought a special pot for it and planted it in dirt.  For the last two months, I have been blowing on this plant to give it CO2 and I actually check in with it and "talk" to it almost every day.  I have even showed my friends.  It's pretty pathetic, but I really love that sweet little avocado plant.  I have big hopes for it.  Like in about 10 years, you can come over and we can eat guacamole that I have made from the fruit that it will bear.  If it grows and grows and then never bears fruit, I will be so sad (yes, I know I need to keep it in perspective).  As much as I love this little seeding, I will be very disappointed if there are not, eventually, avocados. 

To stretch a metaphor, I think that a lot of Christians are like my sweet little avocado plant.  We are growing and growing and getting stronger and taller.  But, sometimes, with all the growth, it really doesn't go much further than that.  We don't ever bear fruit.  The coolest thing about fruit is that it always has seeds.  The avocado has one big honkin' seed, the pomegranate can have 200-1400 seeds....which is why it was considered a "love" fruit in ancient cultures...use your imagination.

As a Christian we should grow and grow, but if we have growth and no fruit, and cast no seed, we are missing the point of our journey completely.

Jesus walked on the earth for 40 days after He was resurrected.  During that time, he taught and ministered to specific groups of people.  It was during this time that he gave two specific instructions as to what his disciples were to do from that point forward 

 

Command #1-

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations- Matthew 28:19 (The Great Commission)

Command #2-

be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth- Acts 1:8 (His last words before he ascended into heaven)

 

These are both "casting seed" commands.  Jesus was physically leaving earth, and leaving with his disciples a command to go and the power to do it (The Holy Spirit).  While it is really good to grow and learn, we have to ask what is the point of the growth?  If it is just to grow in knowledge, but we never share the knowledge, what good does the knowledge really do?  A friend of mine says that we have become "stuffed" with spirituality.  I agree.  We go to conferences, Bible studies, small groups.  We listen to Christian radio, music and sermons.  We go to Mardel and buy Christian stuff.  We spend time in quiet reflection and worship. We get to church on Sunday and maybe Wednesday. Don't misunderstand me, ALL of these things are good!   But, these things are a means to an end....they should be equipping us to go out and make disciples.  Go out and teach and share what we have learned to pupils that will eventually do the same.




The Seed Sower



The Seed Sower is one of the great symbols of the University of Oklahoma.  I am drawn to it and to what it represents.  In the sower's pouch are thousands of seeds, each filled with great promise.  He will scatter the seeds and then care for the seeds and wait for the reward of the harvest.  Imagine what the fields will look like once those seeds in his pouch have grown and matured!


As Christians we are to learn and grow to the point where we have the seeds of truth and knowledge that God has given us.  We are then to scatter those seeds.  There are different types of hearts out there.  Some are soft and will receive the word that you scatter, others are hardened and will reject it and scoff at you.  (See Jesus's parable of the seeds found in Mark 4, Matthew 13, and Luke 8) We are not responsible for what happens to those seeds once we have sown them.  We are also not alone in scattering seeds.  Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 3:6  that he planted the seeds and his friend, and fellow laborer, Apollos, watered the seeds.  But, it was God who eventually caused those seed to grow.  Our job is not to keep the seeds and our job is not to cause the seeds to grow.  But, we are called to scatter the seeds.

Charles Spurgeon, the faithful 19th century preacher, said:

       "The preacher of the gospel is like the sower. He does not make his seed; it is given him by his divine Master. No man could create the smallest grain that ever grew upon the earth, much less the celestial seed of eternal life. The minister goes to his Master in secret, and asks him to teach him his gospel, and thus he fills his basket with the good seed of the kingdom. He then goes forth in his Master's name and scatters precious truth. If he knew where the best soil was to be found, perhaps he might limit himself to that which had been prepared by the plough of conviction; but not knowing men's hearts, it is his business to preach the gospel to every creature—to throw a handful on the hardened heart, and another on the mind which is overgrown with the cares and pleasures of the world. He has to leave the seed in the care of the Lord who gave it to him, for he is not responsible for the harvest, he is only accountable for the care and industry with which he does his work. If no single ear should ever make glad the reaper, the sower will be rewarded by His Master if he had planted the right seed with careful hand.

Our duty is not measured by the character of our hearers, but by the command of our God. We are bound to preach the gospel, whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear. It is ours to sow beside all waters. Let men's hearts be what they may, the minister must preach the gospel to them; he must sow the seed on the rock as well as in the furrow, on the highway as well as in the ploughed field."

 

To some degree I feel like I have been holding on to my seeds for too long.  My husband tells me that I am underestimating the number of seeds that I have sown over the years.  While, this may be true, and I am looking forward to seeing the harvest of my scattering one day in heaven, I know for sure that I could always be scattering more.  I would guess that some of you reading this are wondering how many seeds you have actually scattered.  While it is good for our neighbors to know that we are nice people and for our coworkers to know that we are moral people....that is not enough.  The world is full of nice, moral people that do not know the truth of God.  With how many people have we actually shared the Gospel?  Are we comfortable doing this, or if we are being real, do we think that we should just be super sweet to them and that someone else will tell them about Jesus?

We need to get real.  We need to evaluate our faith journey.  Do we get the real purpose of the race, or are we most concerned for ourselves and our immediate circle of family and friends?  What can we do to actively scatter seed and make disciples and be witnesses?  This can be a sermon that a preacher would make on a Sunday morning, but most of us are not preachers.  For us, it is sharing our testimony and telling of the good things that God has done and the freedom and forgiveness that we have found in Him.  It means actually using the name of Jesus Christ and sowing those truths in the heart of someone.  The seed is powerful!  It is powerful because of God, not because of us.  Just sow the seed.

If you pray about this and think about this for a while, God will put some ideas in your mind.  Some places where you can scatter seed that he has given to you. What type of person tugs at your heart?  It may be kids, teens, someone at school or work.  It may be homeless, sick, elderly, international people.  I do not know what it will look like for you.  But, when they cross your mind and you feel compassion on them, go and scatter God's seeds of love and hope.  Tell them about your Jesus, give them the reason that you hope amidst the suffering.  Go.  Go and make disciples.  Go and be His witnesses.  It is not up to you what happens after that. That is up to God's sovereignty. Just fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith, and run ahead.....scattering seeds all along the way. 

While God expects the faithful to do many things, we must, eventually, scatter seeds.