Free Subscription

Vol 1/ No. 5                                                     May 1999

Lesson of Sowing and reaping

By Dr. John K. Wessly Ph.D.

Ecclesiastes 11:6 "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withold not thine hand:'

One of the wisest men ever lived on the surface of earth King Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes in his old age therein he narrates the vanities of life. In this passage he emphasizes the necessity of sowing seed in the morning and in the evening. The discussion in this article is centered upon what we should sow to reap a spiritual fruit in our life. We often attach the parable of sowing to the spreading of the word of God. On other token, we have to sow the spiritual seed in our life to reap spiritual blessings. This must be our top priority. If we do not sow and reap spiritual fruits in our life, our attempt to sow the word of God is futile.

Those of us, who grew up in Kerala, perhaps have seen the sowing and reaping of rice. The common saying among us is that "what one sows is what he or she reaps." In other words when we sow rice, we will not wheat, which is paramount to our Christian life.

When we are born again we gave our heart to Jesus Christ then and thereon, we let Jesus Christ to take control of our life and be indoctrinated by Him. Jesus Christ alone must be our indoctrinator and He alone must be our counsel. We shall not let the world or any individual or even a Church leader to control our life.

It may be difficult to fathom how a Church leader can control our life. Yes they can and they will too. My own experience of growing up in a Christian denomination is a vivid example of it. I recall being discouraged to attend the conventions of IPC or Church of God or any other Pentecostal denominations. I remember, first time I had the distinct privilege of hearing Pastor K. E. Abraham in a convention in Mepral, about half mile away from my home. I was so touched and was so moved by the spirit filled messages and its presentation in a very palatable from by the great servant of God, but when I told about my impression of the sermon to the believers and pastor of my Church, I had to face the biggest discouragement of my life. But God had His divine plan for me and so he taught me to be an independent thinker and to receive His counsel. Now I accept all born again Christians as my brothers and sisters whatever their denominational affiliation may be. Therefore do not let any denominational leader to sow their interpretation of doctrine in our brain. We must receive the word and pray and ask for the divine guidance from our Master. The word of God must be rightly sown in our brain.

In order for Jesus to control our life, we must be in constant communication with Him. This is achieved by a prayerful life. We will be able to go to Him and communicate with Him as our father, if we are His sons or daughters. Our Jesus loves to communicate with His own, communication through his word and through the Holy Spirit. In order to keep our part of the communication end we must read Bible and walk in the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. He taught to start the prayer with "Our Father, which art in heaven." If we want to call Him father we must have father-son/daughter relationship with Him. If you do not have a fellowship you cannot sincerely call Him father. My father was called by many as "Karakkal Papa" We, his children, also called him "Papa". We have the right to call him "Papa" because we were his children. Others called him out of respect. Same way, some people call Jesus "father", though they are not actually his children. In order to have the right to call Him "Father" we must establish a kinship and a fellowship with Him. Our Jesus, while on earth always called the heavenly father "Father", except while he was on the cross. At the cross He yelled "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me" (Mark 15:34), because He was bearing our sins on the cross and at that time He did not have the fellowship with His father. How great our Master is!

In other words, a prayerful and holy life is the basis of our communication with Him. When we sow the word of God as seed in our every day life, no other weed will take root in our life.

A few years back, a young man approached me and asked, "What is the wrong with me going to see a movie".
I asked him "are you a born again Christian."
He replied "yes"
I asked "After you received Christ as your personal savior who lives inside your heart"
He said, "Jesus"
I told him, "If you can take Jesus with you when you go to a movie theater, you can go. Otherwise don't go."

The young man got the message. If we sow movie in our life, we reap the fruits of what we see in the movies. The movies are merely sexual perversions concocted in the minds of heathenistic Hollywood producers. In order to make money, they allure the youth of the world by converting their perverted thoughts into movies. The seed one sow, by watching these perversions will reap sex and violence. The news media and the Hollywood will not admit that the violence against women and society has enhanced drastically after the Hollywood came up with their sex and violence movies. Recently, Prof. Michael Quincik, Professor of communications science at Johenes Gutterberg University in Germany in his research work on 'Media and Violence' has found that the sex and violence has increased in geometrical proportions because of the movies depicting sex and violence.

What the media sow in the minds of the youth is what is reaped in their life. As Christians, we should not watch any of this garbage and do not let our children watch any garbage as well. We shall not sow any movie concoctions in the minds of our posterity. Recently I visited the home of one of the Pastors. There I saw the "R" rated videos, which perturbed me a great deal. It is very difficult for me to fathom the presence of a movie video in any Christian home, let alone in the Pastor's home. I learn some of our brothers rent Malayalam and Hindi videos as a business. I being a businessman myself, cannot apprehend the necessity of making money by polluting the minds of others and at the same time preaching the gospel. Let us not sow perversions, let us sow the tranquil, serene Gospel of Jesus Christ with all severity and sanctity. If not our Indian Churches in the United States will be spiritually dead in the long run.

In order to alleviate such perversions of the world to be sown in our mind always sow the word of God in your mind. While traveling, hear a Christian music or message tape of some spirit filled servants of God. Watch Christian TV channels and Christian videos and encourage your children to do the same. Men, as head of the family spent time with your family in prayer and meditation of the word of God. Personally, my wife and I fast every Saturday and spent around 2-3 hours in prayer and meditation with our children. This has encouraged our children to walk in the path of the Lord. Always sow spiritual things in our life. Do not talk about anybody or anything that will diminish our relationship with Jesus Christ. Our relationship and fellowship with Christ is more precious than any position or portfolio in the Church or organization personally, I have to make a confession : I desired position and power within the Church organization. But I lost all of it when I had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ in 1994. Still I feel, I have a long way to go to achieve what Jesus desires of me.

Let me remind you of a verse we often read during Holy Communion, 1Corinthians 11:23, "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you". Do not deliver any message to the people, if you have not received it. The message is not what one study at the Bible school, but what is practiced in our life and enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Bible schools gives the guidance to study the Word systematically and I am for it. But education at the Bible school cannot be construed as the divine guidance of the Lord. Ministers of the gospel are not hired, but called by God.

Let us all stand united, without criticizing any ministry, for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We shall not do or say anything to hurt the gospel of Jesus Christ, because He is all we need in our life.