The parable of the seed

There was a farmer who lived in Nebraska and grew award winning corn. Year after year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won multiple blue ribbons for the best of the best.

A newspaper reporter picked up on the story and requested an interview. During his time with the farmer he learned something very interesting about how he went about growing his corn. He discovered that every year he distributed his corn seed to his surrounding neighbors.

Puzzled, the reporter asked, "How can you afford to share your best seed with your neighbors if they are entering the same competition as yours each year?" The blue ribbon farmer did not hesitate to give his answer, "Don't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors are growing inferior corn then cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I want to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."

The question is asked over and over to me and others that do foreign mission work. "Why go to Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Brazil, etc., when people in our own backyard need help?" I like to use this story to convey my point. The United States is, and has always been, the "melting pot" of the world. People come here from all over the world, especially Latin American countries. If we want our country to be a strong Christian nation, a nation that not only believes in God but believes in the truth of the Bible and what it teaches, we must indeed cultivate and work the fields locally like the Nebraska farmer in the story. You know he tends his fields with utmost care. But, we must also reach the nations of the world, teach them the gospel, teach them the truth, give the the best of what we have so that their influences, once they arrive, will help, and not hurt, our communities. By reaching out to the world we in return help ourselves as well.

"Go unto all of the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. " Mark 16:15-16; "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Matthew 28:16-20. When you read these 2 passages of scripture, known as the Great Commission, it has a different ring to it, when you look at it through the eyes of a Nebraska corn grower.

We need workers. The fields are white unto harvest (and around here with the cotton ready to be picked this is a great analogy). Jesus wants workers in the local congregations. He wants workers in the neighborhoods, in the countryside, in the cities, and in the States. And Christ wants workers in the foreign mission fields. "Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field." Matthew 9:37-38. It is not a request... it is a command.

The choice is not IF you will work, it is WHERE you will work.

TR