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Let's Get It Done Right This Year.............

 

     With the 2022 year coming to an end, this is a opportunity to look forward to the upcoming year. With time to plan for efforts to progress now would be a great time to move on to other creative objectives to prepare them through the next year. Finishing school, completing projects at home or at work, taking long overdue trips and many other focused efforts to give ones attention to. Let’s be honest, there are enough things to occupy anyone’s time, resources and efforts for years to come and still never complete many of them. Now that most have had time to breathe and possibly review their progress thus far, it is a great time to reorganize those efforts to ensure that the things that really matter get done. I am not talking about a honey-do-list of activities. I am suggesting that each of you would reevaluate what you have done and what you need to accomplish or, at a minimum, be aware of what it is that you need to be involved with in the new year.

As the Bible gives an agricultural picture of the method by which a seed is planted in the soil, this provides an example of the process that each Christian is effected by the Word of God.  Take a look at John 4 to see what Jesus had described as the type of persons who emerge from the careless or, careful handling and application of the Scriptures.

     John presents several types of people and only one seed that is being planted. The constant sowing of the seed in each case is only effected by the type of material that it is sown in and, further it is effected by outside elements that have been focused to either destroy the seed before it even grows or, to cause it to eventually die before it can produce. These are identified as persons who have been exposed to the Word at some level and yet, there are no long lasting effects. There are stages of plant growth just like there is in our spiritual maturity. A seed planted must die and then there is a root, then the shoot, and finally the fruit. This applies to each of the stages as they run their course whether the fruit is good or bad. What I mean is that there is always an outcome. There is always something produced from either doing it right or doing it wrong.  

As we consider the stages that a Christian must navigate, know where you are by the fruit. If no fruit, has the root even started or has the seed died. It could be that the result is bad fruit and it continues to produce more bad fruit. Here is a place for purging as this cycle can be accepted and the result is that the person would never really know what a good fruit is.

Mark notes that Jesus did give hope as He stated that a seed on good soil will produce 40, 60 and even 100 fold. The key is that the ground, the soil has been prepared and the process will have to run its course. This is not an overnight fix just as planting a seed today will not fill up the fruit baskets tomorrow.

     So for the remainder of the year, seek the Word of God and let the Spirit lead you in your understanding. There is much to be done and the Christian can hardly spend their time toiling in a dead field. The effort must involve a constant connection to the things of God that create in us good soil that can be used to plant and eventually recognize the good fruit of a mature producing tree……