It's Spreading!

As you read this today, I should be sitting at AT&T stadium watching the San Francisco Giants whooping (hopefully!) the San Diego Padres!  My older son and I have been planning this for months, so needless to say I’ve been looking forward to this special time with him.  It’s also the first time that I’ve been away from my wife for more than three hours for probably two years!  But she is in good hands and will be spending time with a good friend.

I had mentioned in yesterday’s post about giving my potted garden some attention and was thinking as we went for a walk later in the day, about the clover that has gotten into many of the pots.  I would assume that the seeds were either blown in or dropped by a passing bird, but however it was accomplished, they definitely invaded about a half a dozen of the various plants including one of the zucchini’s. 

Even though I have had my own lawn and garden care business on and off for many years, I still do not like to weed (unless I get to use the string trimmer!).  But I guess that I should be thankful that the plants are in pots which made the pulling of the weeds to be a simple task.  It is interesting to me to see how a destructive weed like this can spread so rapidly from plant to plant.  If left in the ground they would eventually take all the nutrients from the soil that was meant for the plants and they would die off.

Our scripture in Colossians 1:6 alludes to this same idea when it talks about how “This Good News is present with (or in) you now.  It is producing results and spreading all over the world as it did among you from the first day you heard it.” (God’s Word ©)  The difference in this context is that the Good News or Gospel is a good seed that brings life wherever it goes.

Paul told his listeners that the Gospel not only spread like wildfire through their church and their city, but was doing so throughout the known world at that time!  And it wasn’t being spread by the wind or by the birds of the air, but by people like you and me, living and sharing it through their lives and by their words.

During my second year at Bible School I had a class entitled “Personal Evangelism.”  I was a little nervous about the class as I remembered talking to a friend who had attended the original Seminary I was signed up to go to back in the 1970’s.  They also had to take a mandatory class with the same title.  They were given a step by step approach to helping someone to get saved and then dropped off in a city park on a Saturday and told not to return until someone accepted the Lord!

So, even though I had been in the ministry for many years, I was still a little anxious thinking that we might have to do the same thing.  Most times when I talked about the Lord with strangers it just sort of came up as part of the conversation.  I had never gone out with the planned intention of getting someone saved.  My fears were quickly put to rest when the Pastor who was the instructor for the class talked about how personal evangelism is just living God before people (hummm… kind of being like a Living Letter… where have I heard that before!) and being sensitive and watchful for open doors to go a little deeper within the conversation, and when the time is right to ask for a decision… similar to what I had already been doing!

That makes the spreading of the Good News of Jesus Christ to be an easy and joyful task!  Most people want to know why you smile as much as you do.  Why you don’t let negative things get you down, and why you’re so positive all the time!  It is like you are doing them a large favor – and you know, you are!

So go ahead today!  Be a part of the spreading of the Good News that is “spreading all over the world as it did amongst you from the first day you heard it.”  Have a wonderful day.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”