Plant Seeds

“For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ Like 13:7

In Jesus’ parable, a man has been waiting for his fig tree to bear fruit but for three years, he has been frustrated. He tells his gardener to cut it down. This gets me to thinking about myself. How much fruit have I given to God in the last three years? 

I have been reading “The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected” by Nik Ripken. Dr. Ripken is a missionary, part of the Persecution Task Force Team, and in 1998 he visited Communist China in order to interview Christians to see how they keep their faith in the midst of harsh oppression. He met with about 170 church leaders, 40% of whom had been imprisoned for their faith and tortured for at least three years. They told Dr. Ripken, “Prison is our theological seminary. It is where we go for training.” He met Pastor Chang, an 83 year old man who had just been released from his third prison stay. He was first thrown into jail for becoming a believer. The second time it was for leading others to faith in Christ and the third time was for leading a house-Church movement. 

He said that in jail they were abused and tortured, but small groups of believers could not be stopped from meeting for fellowship and study. They encouraged each other, and discipled new believers. There was, according to Pastor Chang, a huge church-planting movement within China’s prison walls! When these inmates were released, they would either join house churches or help start new ones. Eventually there were too many pastors to imprison, that the Communist Party made its own state religion, but it was too late. By the early 60s, the house church movement had spread like wildfire, that even arresting leaders like Pastor Chang could not stop it. 

When Christianity was first outlawed following WWII, there were about hundreds of thousands of Christians. By 1983, the estimate reached ten million, and today, tens of millions of Chinese identify as Christians. By 2030, China will have the world’s largest population of Christians! 

Why can’t we be as passionate as the Chinese people when they get to know Christ? Let us be more eager to plant seeds of hope, joy, and love wherever we are! The Holy Spirit is with us always!