Good Crops or Bad Crops

When a farmer sees a crop like this he is either delighted envious or frustrated.The one who is deighted is the one who owns the farm or is someone who has the Christian attitude of loving their neighbour as they love themselves and therefore just likes to see others succeed. (Somehow I think there is a shortage of those who feel that way).

Probably there are quite a lot of farmers like me who just feel a bit frustrated and if you analyse the reason for our attitude you may well find that we were mixed farmers; there is an old saying that dates back to the days when there were “blacksmiths” heating steel and people soldering with soldering irons that were heated in a fire, that says: “Too many irons in the fire and none get hot”. Which simply means that if we attempt to do too many things at the same time we run the risk of neglecting them all to some extent. I was interested in growing crops once, but much of my time was taken up by attending to sheep and cattle, so I was what some people call an “After Farmer”. You see an “After Farmer” prepares the wheat field that is ready for preparation “after” he has crutched the sheep and later although the weeds need spraying he really can’t fit that in until “after” the sheep are shorn and so on. Consequently his crop is mediocre.

There are a number of things that can spoil a crop; one of these is the presence of weeds that help themselves to the available moisture so the wheat plants start to dry off. Another very important problem is an inadequate amount of fertiliser available. The crop may exist in such a paddock but will not yield a worthwhile crop of grain. Furthermore when healthy plants are growing together they tend to support each other from being flattened easily by wind gusts.

There is a real parallel here between the crop of wheat and people like us who want to change our ways and live good Christian lives. Paul pointed this out to the people of his day in his 2^nd letter to the Corinthians  chapter 6 and verses 14 to 18 by telling them to not fellowship with people who were behaving badly by saying: “what fellowship has light with darkness?.... come out from among them and be ye separate”. In other words, just as weeds undermine wheat plants; fellowshipping with those who do wrong things can undermine us. That may sound judgemental but it isn’t meant to be. God loves us all and we are to do likewise. However if (to take a radical example) you have been on drugs and have decided to break the habit, it would be a mistake to continue going to parties where drugs are used because the pressure of your peers would be hard to resist. New Christians, those who want to live a changed life need to fellowship with others of like mind and what better place than at church, because there they will get the equivalent of the Superphosphate and Nitrogen that make the wheat plants grow and just as the healthy wheat plants support each other in windy weather so we are supported by the friends with whom we fellowship if things get tough. Of course there is also plenty of support available by reading the word of God and asking God to “Deliver us from evil” as Jesus said we should. (in the Lord’s Prayer).

We must realise too that we don’t all have the same gifting or abilities: Jesus said that even in good soil some plants will produce 100 fold, some 50 fold and some 30 fold. Likewise He knows that we don’t all have the same ability and therefore He never expects us to do what we are not capable of doing but to just do our best for Him and we will receive His recognition of “well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25: 21).

Remember though that it may be alright to be an “After Farmer” but it is never alright to be an “After Christian” everything in our life should revolve around our Christian ethics and our Christian way of living.

Best wishes as you consider this.     Tom.