The Sowing Series - Part Five - Sowing the Right Seed
Writer Author Sylvia Huffnagle
Christian Article
:
Bible Teaching
- Fiction No
How can Christians overcome with today’s thinking? It take Bible thinking to be a real Christian witness and to overcome.
When calling people to salvation or to serve the Lord we sow the seeds of the benefits that are promised in the Bible. But in teaching Christians how to live, it is far more powerful and effective to teach not from the angle of what do Christians stand to benefit, though that part should not be excluded, but from the angle of us being servants of the Lord. We should teach from the angle of our being members of the body of Christ.
Here’s how it works:
Many today are trying to give Christians incentive to walk in God’s way by listing all the earthly and heavenly benefits for doing so. The Bible does tell us of earthly and heavenly benefits for the obedient, but there is a more powerful incentive.
When a person receives God’s offer of salvation, they come into covenant with God. On their end of the covenant they are to trust and obey Him--they are to receive Him as their Father. On His end He is to be Father to them--that is be their parent, guardian, and provider. That is the greatest blessing and benefit. After hearing about that, the listener should be eager to find out how it all works. I’m at this time talking about the call to salvation and I already owned that the benefits the recipient can expect right now are of the utmost of importance and should be elaborated on.
Once you have convinced them that it is entirely in their interest to repent and be reconciled to God, it is time to go into thorough detail about God’s brilliant and perfect plan to save them. They need to understand that they are about to enter into Christ’s crucifixion--their carnal desires are not to rule in their lives anymore thus God provided for our lower nature to be crucified. So it’s repentance, crucifixion, and then new life or the resurrection from the dead.
That’s how it works. If they don’t understand that, how are they going to live the new life in Christ which is a life based upon their new desire to please the Godhead rather than to please their carnal nature? That’s where the power lies. Any gospel that does not teach that is not the true gospel.
Now once the sinner has repented of doing things their way and has received Jesus into their heart, they are cultivated ground ready for proper sowing.
The angle for this stage is to emphasize Jesus. Magnify Him. Teach all about His nature, His attitudes, His way of life. Belabor the details of His beauty, His love, His sacrificial nature, and the monumental task He completed when He ascended into heaven to start His High Priestly Ministry. The desired result is for the new believer to be stirred to a high state of love, appreciation, admiration, and gratitude toward Him. This state should be nurtured regularly.
Teach them all about His High Priestly ministry and teach them all about the empowerment we have through His acts and His presence.
Then weekly the new or young converts should be taught how to relate their conduct to Jesus and their part as a member of His body. Christianity is not a single player effort. Each Christian in the local body is a designated member of Christ’s body and should be fitly joined to the other members. The teacher needs to stress this point--that the body works together for the cause of Christ. It’s not we work together for the common good. It’s not we work together to promote the church. It’s we work together to continue Christ’s work.
As you teach them to relate their activities to Christ and His body, you also teach them how to conduct their affairs and progressively learn to walk in love--teach them to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. The power lies in worshipping Jesus in one’s heart and conscientiously living one day at a time in an manner that will promote Jesus’ cause.
It’s all about Jesus. Convincing people to receive Jesus is about them--what will happen to them if they do or they don’t, but once they enter into covenant with God, it’s about being about the Father’s business. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Light. What else is there?
News flash: My outline is not original--this is the way the Bible handles things.
So as soon as a child is old enough to go to a Sunday School class, he or she should be taught to relate their conduct to Jesus. Examples of how to teach little children:
You do not teach them to be kind and to be good. When you do that, they know they ought to be that way, but if they don’t feel like it, most times they won’t have the power to do it.
You teach them about Jesus with the goal of causing them to love Him. Once you have them wanting to be like Jesus and to make Jesus happy, then you teach them how: Tell them like this:
Jesus is kind to people and He wants us to be kind to people too. Jesus is our example of how to behave as children of God. Every time you are kind, Jesus smiles.
You teach: We show grace to others, because God showed grace toward us and gave us the Spirit of grace. That means we try to bless people just because Jesus wants us to. We don’t have to feel like being loving toward somebody, we do it because we have Jesus, the lover, in our hearts.
Teach them to be generous by telling them: Jesus is the wisest man in the world and He said: It is better to give than to receive. Learn to be a giver and you will see what He means. Give them the scriptures that assure us of a great return on our investment, because that makes it easier for them to let share generousl
To teach patience, you say: We are patient with people because God is patient toward us. Read scriptures that talk about the importance of patience.
You use pictures to show Jesus ministering to people and you tell the story that goes with the picture and don’t stop there--teach them that as Jesus is, so are we in this world. Teach them that Jesus is the light and now He is in heaven helping all of us, His body on the earth, be light for others.
On and on it goes everything is taught from the angle that we have been bought with a price and we are no longer our own--we belong to God and this is a very good thing because He is the most wonderful Father. Teach them that Jesus is our shepherd and this is very good, because we need a shepherd and He is the most wonderful Shepherd.
Nurturing the crops:
Nurturing is done by repetition in teaching them what the full armor of God is and how to put it on.
Harvesting takes place when the student blossoms out and begins to show their areas of expertise.
Along the same lines as likening the teaching of believers to sowing and reaping, we can use the illustration of team effort in building a magnificent building.
It is imperative for Church leaders to build on the firm foundation spoken of in Eph:2:20: And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
This means that the information God has given us through the prophets, and the apostles, and Jesus Himself are the foundation that we build on. There is no other. So new believers must be taught the things that are taught by these three sources. Not just what Jesus said, not just New Testament, but the history of God’s dealings with mankind and the books of the prophets must be taught.
If any of this information is ignored, disregarded, or distorted the building will not be godly. It will not be magnificent. It will not glorify God.
Also the building materials must be of top quality. Not wood , hay, or stubble, but silver and gold. Wisdom, faith, and love are the precious metals in the Bible. Biblical wisdom is heeded. Biblical faith is tried. And Biblical love is exercised.
© Sylvia Huffnagle
Editor's Comment:
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