Plant Seeds

“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Matthew 9:38

Jesus sends each of us out into the harvest with these words, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15 and Matthew 28:19). In Luke 14, we read the story where the master says to his servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

I feel that never has there been a time when so many people need to hear the good news, and we have the easy means to spread it. In the apostles’ time they had to walk to far places and speak to crowds without a microphone, without any advance advertisements. They would even be stoned, put in jail or run out of town for doing so. Today, we have the freedom to speak to our office mates, the people we meet, and even place our messages of hope on social media. We can follow Jesus’ mandate to preach the gospel where we are with what we have. We never know whose heart is ready soil to receive the seed we are planting.

A well known evangelist was invited to preach at Washington High School. When he called to say he could not make it but was sending a young man in his stead, the principal asked, “Who are you sending?” 

He answered, “Billy Graham.”

“We don’t know him, we don’t want him. We will just cancel the event.”

“Just try him out.”

The Youth for Christ rally pushed through on May 12, 1945 and after it, the well known evangelist asked the 26-year old Billy Graham, “How did it go?”

“I don’t know. Only one young boy came forward to receive Christ.”

“Did you get his name so you can pray for him?”

“Warren Wiersbe.”

Warren Wiersbe who died in 2019, was a Pastor, Bible teacher, conference speaker and prolific writer of 150 books. His Sunday sermons were broadcast on the “Calvary Hour” radio program. He became the Director of the Back to the Bible Radio Broadcasting Network. 

But we do not have to be an evangelist to plant seeds for the harvest. Stephen Baldwin of the celebrity Baldwin brothers, was evangelized by their Brazilian nanny. When Stephen and his wife Kennya hired Augusta, they noticed that she was always singing about Jesus in Portuguese. Kennya got so curious, she asked why every song was about Jesus. Kennya was taken aback when Augusta burst out laughing.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

“Quite frankly, I think it’s a little bit funny that you think I’m here to clean your house.”

To Kennya’s amazement, Augusta told her that someone prophesied if she went to live with the Baldwins, Stephen and Kennya would one day come to faith in Jesus Christ and be involved in ministry.

Stephen recounts, “Augusta goes on to tell my wife that before she had accepted the job, she prayed with her pastor and some church members in Brazil. I haven’t told this part of the story a lot. She had a dream and saw me, saw my wife and saw my first daughter Aliya.” And that is how the former bad bad boy Stephen Baldwin became a Christian. 

Let us just plant our seeds where we can, and spread Jesus’ message of love and hope when we can.