Does God ever give you a gut punch? He did that just a few days ago when I watched a missionary story from the other side of the world. It was short but poignant, and it punched me in the belly button and brought a few tears too.
One thing that shook me was the final statement that the missionary made. He was questioning himself and said, I wonder if what I have done will make a difference. This question comes to a missionary's mind now and again as they ponder how vast God's world is and how tiny one’s work is.
As I thought, and identified, with his sentiment, the Lord brought a verse to mind that I had used recently in a youth talk. It was this one in John 12:24, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
When, in Matthew, the sower sowed his seed, it was the Word of God. Here in John, Jesus indicates that the seed is the life of the servant. Jesus talked of his coming death, and he knew the future of each of his disciples too. Each would die a seemingly untimely death.
Dawn and I are currently living in an agricultural area, and it is fascinating to watch crops grow. It sounds funny, but we can see the wheat, corn, and sugar cane growing each week. Yet, when one plants a seed in the ground, it seems that a funeral has taken place. A hole is dug, a seed goes in said hole and is covered with soil. A little water is sprinkled over the spot, and that’s it. The funeral is over.
Why is it that planting the seed is a sad yet hopeful celebration? It’s because you are saying goodby to the seed in hopes that it will do what Jesus said. You eventually want to see results. So you plant in good faith, hoping that the seed’s death will bring a good return.
Mission life is like that. The other day I talked about how that BMM Brazil is in trouble. Our numbers are dwindling. We have a few veteran missionaries and very few young couples who have come to help. The correlation to the missionary video that I watched and what I wrote the other day about the urgent prayer needed email is this, Baptist Mid-Missions missionaries have given their lives to the cause of Christ here in Brazil since 1939. Each has come with the expectation of a harvest. Each realized that there are no guarantees to this type of work. We can only depend on the Truth of God’s Word and His faithfulness to His promises. Both of which we know to be sufficient! Dying seeds produce what God desires, and we know that he promises that His Word will not return to Him without accomplishing His purpose. We all know that the work is His and not ours. However, we so often want to be a part of the harvesting outcome.
John MacArthur said that being a pastor is the only job on earth where if something good happens, he can't take credit. And, if something terrible happens, he is usually to blame. I laughed along with the group of pastors who was listening to him, knowing that missionary work is like that too. So, God does something similar to what He did with Gideon. He limits the army’s size so that only He gets the glory when the battle is won and the harvest gained. So, have a few seed funerals and let God work His grace in each to get the credit for his precious harvest.
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