THE PROBLEM WITH VOLUNTEERS~ SUNDAY SCRIPTURE

I live in the beautiful farmland of Lancaster County Pa... Heart of Amish Country! The word most often used to describe this area is BUCOLIC... 

byo͞oˈkälik

adjective

1. 1. of or relating to the pleasant aspects of the countryside and country life.

   "the church is lovely for its bucolic setting"

   synonyms:

   rural, pastoral, country, countryside

   We have rolling fields and beautifully kept farms as far as the eye an see... and in the summer we have corn... lots and lots of corn...

   
   

   Corn is prolific this year! Very very healthy and tall... and it was much taller than knee high by the 4th of July!

   
   Soybeans were planted in the field next door to us this year. A lonely stalk of corn here and there stands tall and proud among the bushy soybeans.

   
   

   
   

   The corn stalks look  funny dotting the soybean field! Straggly and lanky and very out of place in a soybean field. 

   
   

    You see, last year that whole soybean field was a corn field. 

   
   

   During harvest last year, a few corn kernels were left behind in the good brown earth and they reseeded themselves. It is a seeds purpose to reseed and produce fruit.  So any left behind corn kernels were just doing what was their nature... they took root and began to grow...
   
   
   

   
   

   A seed that reseeds itself is called a VOLUNTEER. 

   
   

   And a volunteer can teach us a very valuable spiritual truth...

   
   

   SOMETIMES WE HARVEST SEEDS WE DO NOT PLANT OURSELVES

   
   

   
   

This can be both a good and bad thing!

Jesus tells his disciples a parable of a man who sowed good seed into the soil in Matthew 13.  He sowed wheat... but while he was sleeping his enemy came and sowed weeds into the same field.

As the growing season progressed the wheat and the weeds grew up together. At first it was not noticeable because the weeds the man's enemy sowed looked very much like the wheat.

When the man's servants discovered the weeds they came to the master and asked if he wanted them to gather the weeds up.

The master said to let them grow up together for fear that some of the good wheat would be pulled up with the weeds.

At harvest time the weeds were separated from the wheat and the weeds were burned.  The wheat was bundled up and put into the barn.

Jesus tells us that this is is a parable about the kingdom of heaven.



Although a little out of context... we can see the universal truth...


WE SOMETIMES HARVEST WHAT WE DO NOT PLANT



Now here's the thing... we must be vigilant not to let weed seeds... the destructive and evil things of this world become part of our personal world!
Even though we may not consciously plant bad things into our lives, they can creep in! And know this... 

they will creep in! 

They will creep in for sure! That's just the nature of weeds.

The seeds that blow into our lives from other people, books, tv, music, the internet,  etc flavor our lives.., even if we have a Christian filter! They come in as seeds... small and mostly unnoticed and quickly take root. And they want to grow and spread and take over... for that is the nature of weeds!

We must root out and and pull up any volunteer seeds-that-become-weeds in our lives that has even the hint of evil. If left in the good soil of our lives these seeds will grow up and produce a harvest... one that will wreak havoc in our lives. And sadly effect the lives of those around us!





My vegetable garden is a visual reminder of this everyday! Weeds from the farmer's field have run amok in my garden. They have taken root and grown because I was not tending my garden. In the hot days of August when the temperatures are in the high 90's and the humidity matches it, I am not as eager to weed.

So now in the cooler mornings and evening of September I have a mess on my hands! Weeds are everywhere! They are working hard to take the remainder of my veggies hostage.

It will take many hours and a whole lot of work to dig out those choking weeds that have now grown deep roots. I should have spent a little time each evening in August to pull them out when they were just sprouting.

My garden teaches me many great spiritual lessons... some the hard way, unfortunately! 


Here's the one I have learned lately...


I must spend time pulling out anything that takes root that I did not plant in my life! It's vital for a healthy physical and spiritual life!


As I weed my mess-of-a-garden this week I'll be thinking about those seeds I did not plant... and I'll be thinking about any seeds in my life I did not plant. I'll need to weed them too!



Today's Sunday Scripture is a part of a series called...



THE UNIVERSAL TRUTHS OF SOWING AND REAPING






Part I... THE PROMISE IS IN THE SEED 









Part II...TOO MANY TOMATOES