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The Struggle Of The Seed Pt. 2

    In the first part of this two-part series, we talked about tilling the soil and the time and patience it may take while we are preparing the ground and planting the seed. Once the seed has been planted, or the Gospel has been told, it can be really frustrating (not to say that tilling the soil isn’t frustrating as well). Once they have heard the Gospel, it’s easy to want everything to happen immediately. To expect, even, as soon as they hear the Gospel they are immediately going to accept it, immediately going to change. We think, “All that hard work tilling and now this! I thought this was the easy part!” Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen immediately. Let’s go back to 1 Corinthians 3:6,
“I [Paul] planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”

    The way that this is worded leads one to believe this process took time. There is a chain of events we can follow to determine this as fact rather than speculation.  We are going to momentarily be looking in Acts 18, where it explains the founding of the Corinth church.

           Acts 18:1-2 talks about Paul coming across Aquila and Priscilla, “After this, he left Athens and went to Corinth, where he found a Jewish man named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla…” Acts 18:9-11 is when Paul was about to leave to go to the Gentiles, “Then the Lord said to Paul in a night vision, ‘Don’t be afraid, but keep speaking and don’t be silent. For I am with you, and no one will lay a hand to hurt you, because I have many people in this city.’ And he stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.” Paul stays for a year and a half in Corinth. In this time, the Church (in Corinth) is formed. Paul is now leaving Corinth in Acts 18:18, “So Paul, having stayed on for many days, said good-bye to the brothers and sailed away to Syria. Priscilla and Aquila were with him.” Take note that Priscilla and Aquila go with him. Verse 19, “When they reached Ephesus he left them there, but he himself entered the synagogue and engaged in discussion with the Jews.” Paul has now left Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus while he continues his way. This is where we find Apollos. In verse 24 it reads, “A Jew named Apollos, a native Alexandrian, an eloquent man who was powerful in the use of the Scriptures, arrived in Ephesus” As you keep reading, you will find how Priscilla and Aquila took him in and discipled him giving him more understanding of scripture. He then wanted to go to Ephesus so they took him there. This is where it all comes together: In Ephesus, Apollos ministers over the Ephesus church which is what Paul was talking about in 1 Corinthians 5:6, Continue Reading...

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The Struggle of The Seed Pt. 1

     Sometimes one of the most frustrating things about living out the Great Commission is when we share the Gospel but don’t see it take root. This is something that I, personally, struggle with; I guess this can fall under the prayer for patience. I hate seeing when someone just doesn’t seem to grasp it. They respond with real, genuine thoughts so you know they are processing it, it just feels like, based on (re)actions, the words are falling on deaf ears. So what do we do when this happens? What does the Bible say about it?      One of the things that I constantly have to remind myself of is that it is a marathon, not a sprint. However, another good example is the germination process of a seed. Midterms are over so I’ll do my best to give the basic gist of the analogy. In case you didn’t know, germination is the process of the plant growing from sapling to full bloom. Here is a basic overview according to Study.com,
  “First the seed grows a root to access water underground. Next, the shoots, or growth above ground, begin to appear. The seed sends a shoot towards the surface, where it will grow leaves to harvest energy from the sun. The leaves continue to grow towards the light source in a process called photomorphogenesis. Below is a seed emerging from the ground during germination.”
     There is no need to get any more technical with the process as long as the idea remains. My reference passage is 1 Corinthians 3:5-8,

  “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.”
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God At Work

“I would try to share the gospel with them, but they are far too sinful to be saved.” Ever heard that? More so, ever thought it? I am willing to bet that at some time that thought has produced itself in your head, even if just ever so briefly- I have. It doesn’t take a scholar to figure out what the Bible says on this and I’m going to give a small example. I was spending time in my Bible tonight when I came across Ezekiel 3:18-21. It reads,

  “If I say to the wicked person: You will surely die, but you do not warn him-you don’t speak out to warn him about his wicked way in order to save his life-that wicked person will die for his iniquity. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. 19 But if you warn a wicked person and he does not turn from his wickedness or his wicked way, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have saved your life. 20 Now if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, and I put a stumbling block in front of him, he will die. If you did not warn him, he will die because of his sin and the righteous acts he did will not be remembered. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. 21 But if you warn the righteous person that he should not sin, and he does not sin, he will indeed live because he listened to [your] warning, and you will have saved your life.” (HCSB) Continue Reading...