Planting

The SSB men had their monthly breakfast in October with great “man food” – eggs with meat along with sides of bacon, link and patty sausages, and sweet rolls.  Talk about eating good in the neighborhood (I think that is stolen from Applebees – sorry, but applicable).  The month before we had quiche to which some men reacted negatively.  “We are men – what is that stuff doing here?”  One sent me the title to a 1982 book, Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche.  They survived!

Our breakfasts open with a Red Green flavor – a chant which is a reminder of who men are and what men are to do.  It is:

‘I R’ Chant

I R a man – created out there.  (Gen 2:7)

God’s charge – creation my care.  (Gen 1:28)

Brought inside – a life to share.  (Gen 2:15, 22)

Expected to obey – always, everywhere!  (Gen 2:16-17)

Beset by pride – caught in a snare.  (Gen 3:6-7)

Jesus saved me – His life…my air!  (Gen 3:21)

Studying His Word – a jewel rare.  (Ps 119:140)

Following His will – taking His dare.  (Lu 14:26)

Calling men – Christ to compare.  (Acts 2:38-40)

Serving Him – today, anywhere!  (I Cor 7:35, Heb 12:28)

Then just prior to eating we chanted for bacon.  Here that is:

Bacon my palate did win

Bacon a day to begin

Then bacon again and again

Limited to just ten

Then start it o’re again!

The speaker in October told about his coming to salvation through a number of God things.  It was a good reminder that God is at work over the years and behind the scenes.  In grade school he had exposure to Jesus and the gospel by attending some church VBS outreaches.  Some years later he was exposed to Christianity in the home of his girlfriend and watching the family pray, interact, and seeing Jesus on their walls.  Later came a week with no phone service and God setting him up for a gospel presentation which he embraced with saving faith.  Some time later he was working in a church children’s ministry and found that he knew the songs having learned them way back in those VBS weeks as a child.

The efforts by those Christians back then had planted seeds that eventually broke through the crust of life to produce life and fruit.  Those saints serving back then did not see fruit at the time and do not know that fruit was produced but never-the-less their labors have produced!  Let us be faithful to plant and water.  God, in His time, brings forth increase.

Such reminds me of similar story.  I have often talked about the death of a four-year-old neighbor boy in his father’s arms in which I had a portion of the funeral.  Over the following months the entire family came to faith – glory to God!  Some years later the father told me that when he was young, he had attended a backyard Bible club led by an elderly lady, Bertha VanHorn (our Janice T. so reminded me of her).  Bertha had planted seeds in the heart of the little Mormon boy that came to produce salvation years later.  Bertha had passed years before, never knowing that her work was used by God to bring that soul and those of his family into God’s eternity.

Let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we do not use heart, Galatians 6:9.