Sunday Morning Starters

Who are you?

Do you know?

Why are you here?

Have you decided?

Where are you going?

Are you sure?

Who are you bringing?

Have you tried?

Jason Moore

Hospitality and the Believer

Scripture: Genesis 18:1-8

Song: Room In God’s Kingdom

Our family’s first kitchen table was a piece of plywood perched on cinder blocks. (I stubbed my big toe on one of those blocks pulling up to the table one morning when I was only half-awake.) The family who sold us the house left two metal patio chairs that we used for seats. We completed our dining arrangement with a couple of lawn chairs. When visitors came, my sister and I shared a piano bench and bumped elbows while we ate.

Our furnishings were meager but we never hurt for company. Around that plywood table my folks first studied the gospel with two elders and a preacher that drove the 20 miles out to our place. It was around that table that Mom entertained the saints and friends that came to visit frequently. Someone inevitably bumped a knee on the cinder blocks or leaned too heavily on one corner so that the other end lifted and we all had a laugh.

Hospitality is not the privilege of the wealthy nor the activity of preachers, elders, and deacons. It is a function of the believer, the child of Abraham. Abraham’s faith is seen not just when he set out for Canaan but when at age 99 he ran from his tent to offer rest to some passersby. Don’t wait for new furniture or to move from an apartment to a house to practice hospitality. What makes hospitality for you and the recipient is not the furnishings and decor. It’s the heart. It’s that you’ve tented together.

Jason Moore

Made Like His Brethren

Scripture: Hebrews 2:14-18

Song: I Walk With The King

There’s a fairy tale told of a king who dressed as a peasant and mingled with the citizens of his dominion in order that he might know how the common folk fared. He found that not everyone was satisfied with his rule and that the reports that he received from his stewards were not at all reliable. Some of his servants took advantage of the peasantry and their crimes were identified in the people’s minds with the throne itself. Others doctored their figures and couched them in language intended to flatter the king and secure their own advancement in the court. The king was outraged and set about finding ways to manage the affairs of his kingdom with more direct supervision.

This fairy-tale theme is found in nearly every culture. In the advent of Jesus Christ however, it meets reality, but a reality of a nobler sort. Jesus is the king who dressed as a peasant and mingled with mankind. However, He was never ignorant of our affairs though we were unaware of His. He came close in order that we might see that He was never so far away as we thought.

While we as common folk of this empire may find ourselves taxed and burdened, let us not forget that the inflation of our burdens is not the will of the King but the wages of sin. And let us not forget that we walk with the King who stepped down from the throne that He might hang on a cross.

Jason Moore

The Strength In Grace

Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:1-13

Song: Am I A Soldier Of The Cross?

“Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Exercise can make you strong. So can a healthy diet. There is strength in numbers. Learning the use of a weapon can increase one’s might. There is a power in persuasive speaking, in money, and in creative genius. Men have confidence in all these things. But how can a man find strength in the grace that is in Jesus Christ?

By his faith. By believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who tabernacled among men. If Jesus was pleased to suffer as our sacrificial lamb, is He less concerned for our well-being now that He has ascended as our High Priest?

By sensible reflection. There is no power of wickedness in heaven or on earth that is mightier than the power of sin and its constituent, the grave. If the grace of Jesus delivers from that power what foe will He permit to overtake you?

By price comparison. The believer knows that he has been purchased by the shed blood of the lamb. He will not cheapen God’s grace nor treat as common Christ’s blood by a casual or hypocritical participation in the kingdom. The price paid and love expended was too great for such.

The grace of God is power. Legal power satisfying the debt of sin. Moral power convicting sinners of wrong. Disciplinary power teaching men how to live. It is the only strength that is sufficient.

Jason Moore

The Lost Coin

Scripture: Luke 15:8-10

Song: The Love Of God

The parable of the lost coin was used by Jesus to admonish a supposedly religious people who had no compassion for sinners trying to reform their lives. In fact, they pointed their fingers and spoke in hushed, self-righteous tones about the past crimes of those who repented at the preaching of Jesus. There was no rejoicing, only suspicion. No commendations were offered only raised eyebrows and quips like, “We’ll wait and see.” You surely know one who recently repented. Possibly a new convert. Perhaps a restored saint. Maybe someone who has often made a path down the aisle. Perhaps they’ll make many more before it’s over with. To express gladness over their trying is not too much to offer is it?

We must not forget that we don’t stand in the shoes of the woman who lit the lamp and swept the floor, but in the place of her neighbors who heard news of her find. The saving of a sinner has cost us nothing. We’ve neither born the loss of their departure nor suffered the cost of their retrieval. Yet if God, bearing the expense of both, rejoices at their return, it is a small thing for those of us who are but spectators of God’s salvation to rejoice with Him. It also should not escape our attention that we were once the missing coin. Maybe our insensitivity at times to the sinner is the product of a our own insensitivity to the grace of God. God forbid.

Jason Moore

Seven Deadly Sins

Scripture: Proverbs 6:16-19

Song: Purer In Heart, O God

When God hates something, that something is despicable indeed. Sin is sin. But some sins mark not a lapse of faith but a hard, recalcitrant heart.

Proud look. The person with no respect for authority. The face of a generation with gritted teeth, pouting lip and furrowed brow. God hates it.

Lying tongue. The man with no respect for truth. No activity is so cowardly nor will any so harm a relationship. To tell a lie is to be a child of the devil, the father of lies.

Hands shedding innocent blood. The person with no regard for life. God help a nation of persons that justifies the disposal of unborn innocents as if they were removing unseemly warts.

Heart devising wicked plans. The one with no fear of judgment. Many will find on that day that the words “I didn’t mean to” stick in their throat.

Feet swift in running to evil. Persons with no regard for conscience. “No Fear” is more than just a T-shirt logo. It denotes a people who “Ain’t a carin’.”

False witness speaking lies. Persons who have placed their hand on a Bible or crossed their heart to swear oaths that one day will judge them.

One sowing discord among brethren. It is a hard heart indeed that disrupts the unity purchased with the blood of God’s own Son.

God can help the sinner but not the obstinate will. Avoid with all diligence the peril of these sins.

Jason Moore

Sunday Morning Starters

Look your best.

Pray your best.

Sing your best.

Think your best.

Give your best.

Hear your best.

Do your best.

He gave His best for you.

Jason Moore

Looking to the Hills

Scripture: Psalm 121

Song: O Worship The King

A young Jewish boy, just barely a teen was taken from his family by an invading army never to see them again. He was marched off with other prisoners of war, young intellectuals, whose genius the enemy would exploit in order to strengthen their political and military machine. The boy was taken to a foreign land with an alien language and culture. His talents and acumen were harnessed by a nation that became the eventual destroyers of his own people. The boy’s name was Daniel.

Dozens of like stories could be told about men of faith in the Bible who endured sore trials for the sake of righteousness. Daniel became a prophet. But he was just an orphan when we first read about him in the book that bears his name. There was nothing miraculous about his captivity. There was no romance in his imprisonment, no glamour in being taken from his family and used by the enemy. He was just a boy. An orphan. But a believer.

How did he do it? Whence came his help? He looked to the hills. Three times a day he opened his window toward the West, toward the hills of Judea, and prayed to Jehovah. His help came from the Lord. Not just when he was aged, but when he was a teen separated from his family. The Lord gave no immediate relief. Daniel lived his life as a captive. He endured perils. But the Lord preserved him.

Look to the hills from whence comes our help.

Jason Moore

The Migrant Family

Scripture: Genesis 12:1-9

Song: Higher Ground

In 1920, James Smith and Mary Daly Moore departed Glasgow, Scotland and settled in the steel works town of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada. They bore Fredrick Robert Moore who married a neighborhood sweetheart, Eleanor Bearman. Fred and Eleanor moved to the States, to California, where they raised three children, the eldest of whom was Rodney Fredrick who was wed to Suzanne Van Deweghe. They likewise migrated to Tennessee where I grew up the eldest of their four youngsters.

The movement of peoples from continent to continent, country to country, state to state is a fascinating story. And it is a common heritage to the stewing populace of our melting pot nation.

Occasionally you cross a peculiar folk who are making a migration of a different kind. Their destination lies not across the Atlantic. The stream they’ll ford takes not so long to pass though the yonder bank is hid from view. They’re seeking to settle not on the Pacific coast. The land where they are pointed is more peaceable still. New and better jobs with higher wages is not what drives them. It is their hope in an age-old promise of a sweeter rest and no more wages that draws them on. These migrant peoples are not the sons and daughters of James Smiths and Mary Dalys. They are children of Abraham who have left this country to look for the city with foundations. Come, go with them!

Jason Moore

Giving Thanks For Our Brethren

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-8

Song: When We All Get To Heaven

“We give thanks to God always for you all.” There were problems in Thessalonica as with any local church. But Paul gave thanks for the brethren there. He did so frequently—“always,” he said. Have you given thanks in your prayers for this local church? Have you “remembered without ceasing” the activities of your fellow believers?

What recent “work” or evidence “of faith” have you seen displayed by a fellow saint? Surely there is one. Thank God for this contribution to the kingdom. Then tell your brother that you did so. Have you not recently witnessed some “labor of love” performed by one believer for another? It might not have been done for you. But it was done for one of your family—your Christian family. Thank the Lord for such charity and let your brother or sister know that you appreciate their kind heart.

Is there not some aged saint whose “patience of hope” in the face of pressing circumstances you admire? Thank God for giving you such an example of courageous hope and let that hopeful saint know that you’ve been encouraged by their example.

If a soldier of the cross like Paul could find reasons to give thanks and if he could find qualities of character to commend, then we surely could do the same. A part of edification is praying for one another. Another part is telling one another that we’ve been offering such prayers of thanksgiving.

Jason Moore

Trends of Apostasy

Scripture: 2 Peter 2:12-22

Song: Break Thou The Bread Of Life

“There will be false teachers among you” (2:1). We must be wary. Not alarmists but sober. Not over the “churches of Christ” but “among you,” within our own local fellowship, over ourselves. What are the warning signs of such apostasy?

Imbalance (vv. 12, 17, 19). Blind, brutish instinct that sees everything as relating to one’s own peculiar doctrine or practice.

Caustic, malicious practices (v. 12). Departure from fair, logical, amiable exchange to bitter, irrational, and abusive treatment of persons and ideas.

Pompocity (v. 13). Spirit of arrogance surrounding those who fancy themselves “in the know.”

Licentiousness (vv. 13, 18, 19). Loosening of moral restraint resulting from an unbalanced diet of teaching.

Shrewdness (vv. 13-14). Use of subtle and underhanded methods to win a following.

Covetousness (vv. 14-16). Change of religion into a profitable enterprise.

Intolerance (v. 16). Stubbornness toward correction and hatred for dissenters.

False assurances (v. 19). Salvation is understood to be based on principles other than grace and faith.

Impracticality (v. 18). Teaching which expresses social, intellectual, sensational, or political aims rather than a way of life and service.

"Many will follow their destructive ways” (v. 2). We likely don’t consider ourselves prospects for apostasy. But it can happen. Especially if we fail to keep intimate contact with God’s word.

Jason Moore

Householders of Nazareth

Scripture: Matthew 13:52-58

Song: Who Will Follow Jesus?

The householder of the parable stands in contrast to the Nazarenes who were offended at the teaching of Jesus. Their stumbling is a lesson to us.

We are all scribes of the Book—or we should be. That is we should be students of the word. Not professors, but students. And not merely book learners. Bible study should be more like shop or, still better, lab where Book learning is tested with litmus paper, the crucible, or Bunsen burner. After all, Bible study is not a literary, but a Life Science.

The scribe who is a student of the kingdom has his house in order. That follows necessarily since the kingdom has to do with order. Namely, the order of the king. When a man’s life is ordered by heaven’s reign everything is in its rightful place.

The kingdom follower’s treasure consists of those truths which have become his prized trinkets. He has adorned his life with them. He is conversant about them. And his treasure continues to accrue. New discoveries are added to the old. At times he even discards myths he once held to be true.

Behold the folly of the Nazarenes. They were not scribes but parrots of their culture. They were not kingdom students—they didn’t like taking orders. They had no room for new learning. They were content with the shag carpet and beads of the old era. You see, there’s more to housekeeping in the kingdom than keeping house. Learn the difference.

Jason Moore

Sunday Morning Starters

Think—It’s His Day.

Remember—I’m His Child.

Believe—He’s my Savior.

Imagine—I’m His Chosen.

Consider—They’re my People.

Suppose—He comes Today?

Jason Moore

Our Gang

Scripture: Proverbs 1:10-19

Song: Oh, The Things We May Do

“Gang” has a bad connotation in our times. There are legitimate gangs. In fact we all have Our Gang. Even within the local church there are tighter circles of believers. Often the term “clique” is disdainfully applied to these groups. But even Jesus had His inner circle—Peter, James, and John. A gang is good when its members are bent on one another’s edification, are not exclusive in their affections nor harmful or self-righteous in their deeds. This certainly is no excuse for partyism.

We must pay attention to where we fit in our gang. Some are entertainers like Alfalfa. Others like Butch always pick fights. There are Stymies who offer levity and born leaders like Spanky. Fellahs like Buckwheat talk funny but offer fresh ideas. Others like Porky always need a baby-sitter, while guys like Froggy show up just when you’re about to croak. We each bring something to our gang and we must see that our “something” is good and proper.

A gang offers some anonymity to its members. We will dare in a gang what we would not dare alone. Neither Spanky nor Alfalfa would have been a Woman-hater by himself. But in a gang no one person bears the risk. The risk lessens by as many times as there are members within our gang. That’s the challenge. The herd instinct must be resisted. Enjoy being with the gang. But don’t lose your identity. God will judge you not the gang.

Jason Moore

The Activity of Worship

Scripture: Psalm 100

Song: Worthy Art Thou

There is no higher tribute that you can pay to God than that of your worship. We honor God in other ways. By serving our families. By dealing honestly in the marketplace. By being neighborly. However worship distinguishes itself from these other activities as an enterprise in which the sole purpose is to exalt God. The activity and the end are one and the same. There is no alternative end to worship. The sole concern of the worshiper is to glorify God. That consideration makes true worship a grave concern to the believer.

Worship is not wholly removed from the other activities of our lives. For instance no matter how grandiose the worship, if the life of the worshiper is ungodly, the sacrifices of praise he offers are spotted and unclean. It is also unlikely that a man who continues to live in sin will offer in worship anything more than empty promises of reforming tomorrow. God deserves better.

Worship properly conceived is the climax of a life that has cast itself upon the altar to God. It is an event in which man divorces himself from the mundane and devotes his thoughts and energy wholly to God’s praise. It’s hard work. It requires that you expend that which is dearest to you—yourself. For a moment come. Stand alone before God’s throne. Look at Him. Speak to Him. Sing to Him. Thank Him. Praise Him. Make a joyful shout.

Jason Moore

God's Favor Toward Noah

Scripture: Genesis 7:5-16

Song: Standing On The Promises

120 years Noah preached without a single response to his message of coming judgment (2 Peter 2:5). And you say we live in bad times?

Twelve decades the patriarch labored on a vessel to escape a disaster the world had never before witnessed. And the quest to build your life on the foundation of unseen events and distant promises seems a challenge to you?

One century plus twenty years the man who found grace in the eyes of the Lord worked alone. So you’re tired? Frustrated that no one seems interested in the project? Convinced that your hardship is a sign of the Lord’s disinterest in you?

The Lord asked Noah when he was 500 years old to begin building the ark. You think it’s time for you to retire from service in the kingdom? Is it time for the younger generation to take over?

Day one in the ark: rain… Forecast day twenty-two: thunderstorms… Day thirty-four: showers… Day forty: more precipitation. And you had a bad day?

One year and ten days Noah dwelt with his family in a veritable floating barn. And you feel cramped in your present quarters? You feel like you’re getting nowhere fast?

We need to visit men of faith like Noah. We need to sit in their homes and converse with them often. Their stories were written for our learning.

Jason Moore

Our Light Affliction

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:2

Song: We Have An Anchor

Dogs barking at two o’clock in the morning and cars cutting us off on the freeway have a way of testing our spirituality. It’s kind of embarrassing actually. Our patience runs thin over such trivial matters. Anger ruptures the surface with volcanic force spewing vituperations of ash and smoke. The lava barely has time to cool before another lilliputian inconvenience works itself under our crust and we’re heaping coals and belching fire again.

Maybe you’re of a different climate. Your reaction to adversity is cool indifference—when things don’t go your way, you retreat into hibernation. Perhaps you’re the type whose mood one day is sunny and warm and the next in the eye of a tropic depression. Still yet, you may be that rare personality whom others avoid because like the city of Seattle you forecast rain 360 days a year.

How short is our fuse! How often we despair! How small is our faith! How weak our vision!

The apostle who five times received thirty-nine lashes, thrice beaten with rods and shipwrecked, once stoned, stranded a night in the deep; often on journeys and in perils of waters, robbers, countrymen, Gentiles, city folk, wilderness, sea, and false brethren; in weariness, toil, sleeplessness, hunger, thirst, fastings, cold and nakedness. This same apostle wrote of “our light affliction.”

Methinks he saw the goal much better than me.

Jason Moore

The Promise Makers

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5:1-5

Song: Stepping In The Light

Society is built upon the giving and receiving of promises. Couples exchange vows at the altar. Employer and employee are contracted together. Your grocery receipt declares that on a given day you paid such and such a price for the listed goods. When a motorist gets his license, he makes an agreement with other drivers to obey the rules of the road. Promises, promises. They’re everywhere.

Promises, in spite of the adage to the contrary, are made to be kept. To speak of a solemn promise is to be unnecessarily wordy. For a promise is a promise. It is solemn in the very nature of the case. For a promise is a living thing. It springs to life when you make a commitment. And it either expires naturally when your vow is fulfilled or prematurely when your vow is terminated by design or neglect.

The life of a promise is a fragile thing. Some are aborted no sooner than they’re conceived. Some are breached. Some endure a lifetime of constant abuse. Some vows are born because of poor planning or the failure to say, “No.” But once begotten, a promise becomes your responsibility. To break a promise is to injure a living thing which you created by an act of your own reason and will.

A promise is the progeny of man. Animals can’t make one. It’s of freewill parentage. You have a choice when you make a promise. Don’t make one unless you’re prepared to keep it.

Jason Moore

Sunday Morning Starters

Plan for a better service:

1. Better Prayers—Ask and ye shall receive.

2. Better Listening—Seek and ye shall find.

3. Better Opportunities—Knock and the door shall be opened unto you.

Jason Moore

The Kingdom Price

Scripture: Matthew 13:44-46

Song: There Is A Habitation

The parables of the buried treasure and the costly pearl illustrate the two ways in which a man may find the kingdom, or perhaps the ways in which the kingdom finds him. One man stubs his toe—he wasn’t looking for it. Didn’t know it was there. He just happened upon it. Another wanders looking for something and finds in one place everything he needs. The marvel of providence is that the kingdom is discoverable for all men.

What is commendable about these two men is not their discovery. It is the reaction to the discovery that has merit. The parables teach that the kingdom belongs only to those willing to pay the price.

Many a European emigrant sailed the Atlantic in hopes of securing a home in the New World. They sold their houses, lands, and possessions. They uprooted their families and launched out for uncertain shores. Some found new homes and new freedoms. Some staked claim only to graves in the deep or to perils greater than those they’d left. Whether they lived or died, they all paid a price.

The kingdom is for all. It is a New World with “houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and farms along with persecutions, but in the age to come, eternal life.” It will cost you something. In fact, it will cost you everything or nothing at all. It’ll cost you something today. If not, you might want to check and see what you paid for.

Jason Moore

The Sloth Colony

Scripture: Proverbs 6:6-11

Song: We’ll Work Till Jesus Comes

Sloth is sin. You may have a lazy streak. If so, you need to change your stripe. Sloth is sin. Even the ant knows better. Our colony could learn from his for we have more than one variety of sloth:

Procrastinator—He always has a first class blueprint but never breaks ground. He’s often a busy man, just busy with the wrong things so that his good intentions go unattended.

Materialist—He works hard to acquire things and quality things. But he’s slothful when it comes to spiritual investments. He’s always building bigger barns while his soul is up on blocks.

Hobbyist—The respectable sluggard. The product of a wealthy society where there’s ample resources for trivial pursuits. The hobbyist finds time and money for fishing and hunting, golfing and little league. But ask him to work in the kingdom and he’ll tell you how he’d like to, but… .

Rationalizer—He has a doctor’s excuse for why he wasn’t at work. Something urgent always comes up. The only thing you can plan on with the rationalizer is that your plans will fall through.
But he’ll have a good excuse.

At the Judgment, I wonder if the little ant won’t take the witness stand after the people of Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba and condemn the idleness of our generation. God has given you today. Will you prove yourself worthy of His gift?

Jason Moore

God's Attention-Getters

Scripture: Psalm 97

Song: Lord, I Believe God’s

The average man has 2.21 phobias. The average woman has 3.55. By the way, men are all afraid of being thought cowards, so the averages balance. Several phenomena mentioned in Psalm 97 constitute humanity’s most common phobias.

A ceraunophobiac is afraid of thunder. Astraphobia is the dread of lightning. Nyctophobia is the fear of darkness. To have pyrophobia is to be morbidly scared of fire.

Isn’t it interesting that we have no clinical name to describe a pathological fear of God? Yet He is the maker of lightning, thunder, darkness and fire. Men are impressed with these expressions of His power—even to the point of morbid dread. But the fear of the Lord is far too scarce.

The thunderclap is God’s way of clearing His throat and telling you that He’s in the room. The lightning bolt is His way of giving you a buzz and a reminder that He’s in charge. Clouds and darkness veil God’s throne and caution against approaching His Highness too casually. Fire is His instrument of judgment and should kindle in your mind reflections of Hell and designs for its avoidance.

All of these exhibitions are signs that the Lord reigns. They’re for your good. To arrest you. To cause you to consider God. Listen. Look. Learn. God’s trying to get your attention. Don’t ignore Him. A healthy fear of Him quiets all other fears.

Jason Moore

The Tempter's Attire

Scripture: Genesis 3:1-7

Song: Yield Not to Temptation

The devil dons more disguises than Inspector Clouseau. And he seldom wears the same one twice. Only once, that I’m aware, did he dress as a serpent. But I’ve seen him in lots of other attire.

There’s the true blue friend outfit where he shows up when you’re all alone with handkerchief in hand. He says he understands your frustration and that you deserve better. He tells you a plan to get the others back and make them pay.

There’s the shades and trench coat costume where he lurks in the shadows. He tells you that all is clear. “You’re home free now. No one’s watchin’ and you’ll never get another chance like this.”

Occasionally he shows up with a pillow and a tranquilizer. “You’ve done your part,” he says. “Relax for awhile.” “Let someone else do it.” “Don’t let them take advantage of you like that.”

Other times he sits in the recliner with the remote control, the Cable guide, and Blockbuster card. “I hate all this trash they put in the movies now,” he says. “But what can we do about it and what else is there to do tonight anyway?”

The all-time classic is when he shows up with a calendar and a pencil. “Look you’ve got plenty of time to straighten it out,” he says. “Just do it once more. No more after this. You can fix it next week.”

Yes sir, watch out for the devil. He’s sneaky. I just wonder what he’ll be wearing today.

Jason Moore

Elements of Togetherness

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Song: Blest Be the Tie

Unity in the local church consists of at least three elements according to Paul. The absence of any one of them is a deterrent to unity. They are common sense actually. But they are uncommon common sense because they find too few adherents among religious peoples.

1. Common Speech—“speaking the same thing.” Where there is communication there is community. When communication breaks down community is unglued. It comes apart at the seams.

2. Common Mind—“joined in the same mind.” A community is comprised of those who identify or think of themselves together. They are single-minded folk. A community (com, “together,” + unis, “one”) understands that together they are one. Conversely, when they are apart they are less than one, incomplete and thus vulnerable.

3. Common Judgment—“joined in the same judgment.” Community implies concurrence—its participants running in the same direction toward a common aim. They are animated by the Musketeer loyalty of “all for one and one for all.” There exists a “one another” mentality that judges and pursues one’s neighbor’s interests as higher than one’s own.

All three of these elements work together and to gather. From them derive three obvious means of protecting the togetherness of the local church: Speak to gather. Think to gather. Work to gather.

Jason Moore

Sunday Morning Starters

1. Smile a little wider.

2. Reflect a little deeper.

3. Give a little extra.

4. Listen a little harder.

5. Stay a little longer.

6. Hope a little harder.

7. Grow a little stronger.

Have a Perfect Lord’s Day!

Jason Moore

Law of Proportionate Increase

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

Song: A Beautiful Life

Plant a single grain and with proper care you’ll grow a stalk of two or three ears each studded with several hundred kernels. Sow several rows and you’ll harvest food for the table and seed for next year’s planting. It’s a natural law, the law of sowing and reaping, ordained by God. Sow sparingly, reap sparingly. Sow bountifully, reap an abundance.

The Law of Sowing and Reaping is a principle of Agriculture. But it applies equally to Economics. Small investments yield small profits. Large investments produce great fortunes. It applies to Success. Feeble efforts result in little progress. Prodigious efforts bring like achievements.

However the Law of Sowing and Reaping as it applies to mundane affairs is only a general rule. We live in a world where crops fail, stock markets crash, and strong men are broken. “The Law of Sowing and Reaping,” you say, “works in storybook Utopias but doesn’t always apply in the real world.”

Actually it does. We forget that we dwell in the land of fiction, a place of shadow and imperfection. In the Real world, the Law of Sowing and Reaping is absolute. In the Real world the hairs of your head are numbered and not a sparrow falls unobserved.

The good that you sow today in the form of time or talent, word or deed, wealth or wisdom will not be wasted. It’s not imperiled by any risk. In fact, it’s the only investment you’ll make with any certain profit.

Jason Moore