Harvest Laws for Holy Living - 2 - The Law of Planting

David Tidwell recalls an incident from his personal life that illustrates the importance of making right choices. He writes: I have a recipe for homemade yeast rolls that has turned out pretty good in the past. It had been a long time since 1 made them, but I decided to make a batch for a special occasion.

I made a trial batch a few days before to see if I still had the knack. They tasted pretty good but did not rise properly.

I decided I knew what went wrong with the practice run, so, with recipe in hand, I started making a new batch.

After I had let the dough rise for an hour, my wife asked me if we had any more flour. "Yes, look on the bottom shelf," I replied.

"Oh, no!" she said.

Instantly, the sick feeling you get when you know you have goofed came over me. When I had finished one sack of flour and still needed another two and a half cups, I grabbed the sack of cornmeal instead of the sack of flour! I know the difference between flour and cornmeal, but I wasn't paying enough attention.

I remember how I had once irritated my father that way when I was a kid. He sent me to the corner grocery for lettuce, and I brought back cabbage!

Thinking I might have a new creation that would find its way into the nation's recipe books, I had made out about ten "rolls" and baked them. They were awful, They looked like corn bread cookies that didn't rise.

We depart from God's recipe for our lives by making bad choices, sometimes through carelessness or ignorance. Our lives are made up of choices. Things go well when we make good choices and really badly when we I make bad choices.

You'll do well if you ask God to help you in making choices. Choose wisely when selecting friends...Many of life's choices seem of no consequence at the moment but later are recognized as watershed moments which affect the rest of your life.

We are not smart enough always to know what is best. If we are willing to let God have His way, He will guide and direct us to make the right choices (Proverbs 3:5-6).

When you are reaching for flour, make sure the sack does not contain cornmeal.

Life is filled with choices...choices that affect us on an everyday basis in everything we do, which means that our everyday choices are highly significant. Our choices affect us and others in dramatic ways whether we see it immediately or not. That's why it is so important that we grasp the Biblical instruction of Harvest Laws for Holy Living, which are set forth clearly in God's Word. These are really heaven laws for human life here on earth, and they impact us on a daily basis.

Last week, in our introduction to these laws, we gave an overview of the seven laws of sowing and reaping, so today, we want to examine the first of those laws.

  1. The Law of Planting

The law of planting simply says this: We only reap what has been previously sown. What we reap was originally planted either naturally or deliberately, and what we reap will either have positive or negative results in our life and/or the life of others. Sometimes the results will be in the form of blessings, while at other times, the results will be blighted.

An interesting facet of this first law is that sometimes we reap something we may have never personally planted, but someone else did plant. Often, it's the weeds others have sown in our field, but there's no way out of reaping the harvest.

We only reap what has been previously sown! To be honest, the implications of this harvest law can be startling as well as staggering. So, let's take some time to delve into

  1. The implications of this Law

We begin with the positive, as we assess

  1. The delightful implications

What blessedness there is in realizing that we receive a host of benefits from the Lord for which we have done no labor or planting. He simply gives them to us as part of His grace. In many respects, God is gracious to all men, whether they recognize it or not. cf. Acts 17:24ff; Isa. 55:7-11.

Whenever God gives, and whatever He gives, it is always His very best, especially to those who refuse to settle for anything less. So often, we take God's second best because we don't want to pay the price to have His very best!

And just revel in this glorious truth: we reap the salvation planted by Another for doing nothing more than believing the Gospel, repenting of our sin. God has given man the greatest gift of all in His Son, Who became man that we might have life by faith in Him. We did nothing to obtain it or earn it. It is God's free gift for undeserving sinners.

But we can also reap what others have done on our behalf. All of us, in one way or the other, have reaped great harvests based on the labors of others.

Think of this: A good number of years ago there appeared in the "Christian Advocate" the following: America rests upon four cornerstones: the English Bible, the English language, the common law, and the tradition of liberty. But liberty, language, and the law might have been drawn from the Bible alone. Had we brought nothing with us across the sea besides this supreme book, we might still have been great. Without this Book, America could not have become what she is and when she loses its guidance and wisdom, she will be America no more. Did we bring the Bible to these shores? Did it not rather bring us? The breath of the ancient Prophets was in the sails that drove the tiny Mayflower. It has been said that South America was settled by the Spanish, who came to that land in search of gold, but North America was settled by the Pilgrim Fathers, who came in search of God. That is what made the difference.

Oh, beloved, do we realize the far-reaching implications of our choices on the lives —our children, our family members, our co-workers, our friends? The teaching of Scripture on being an example to others stresses this very point. Being a good model is a form of sowing that can result in reaping Christlike changes in the lives of others.

This is illustrated for us by the Lord Jesus in John 4:31-38. The principle is this: Do what you can, while you can, leave the results with God.

These are some of the delightful implications of this first harvest law. But as is so often the case, positives have corresponding negatives, so let's next consider

  1. The disastrous implications

We not only enter into the blessings God and others have bestowed, but we may also reap the results of the wrong others have sown both before us and around us.

What is happening in our cities across our nation is that we are treasuring up unto ourselves "wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God" (Rom. 2:5). It is of concern to us because, if the Lord tarries, it shall affect us greatly.

We have forgotten that God takes the lid off of our cities, and what he sees is a stench to His nostrils!

Edward Gibbon who, in 1787, after 20 years of labor, completed his book The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In it he attributed the fall of the Empire to the following five causes:

Now that we have briefly surveyed the implications of the Law of Planting, we must hasten to consider

  1. The instruction of this Law

What can we learn from this law? For one thing, it is that we can't do wrong and get away with it. (Briefly explain Gal. 6:7-8).

Secondly, we are responsible for our actions, regardless of what they are. On a national scale, two passages of Scripture call out to us: Ps. 33:12; Prov. 14:34.

The days in which America respected God, His truth are fast fading. As America's leaders sow wrong, believers, unbelievers alike will reap the awful consequences. Perhaps in the centuries to come, some- one will excavate the ruins of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on which are inscribed the words of Ps. 19:9, quoted by Lincoln in his second inaugural address: The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

It behooves each of us to do whatever it takes within Biblical principles to sow only godly seed, not only for our own benefit, but for the benefit of those around us. I repeat: all of our choices have consequences, both good and bad.

What kind of seeds are you sowing?