On Easter morning in 1958 at the end of the Sunday service at Calvary Baptist Church in Los Gatos, California, I walked down the aisle responding to the invitation offered by Dr. Blaine Bishop to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I walked forward carrying a seed of faith. As the Bible says, it was a very small seed but that one seed was all the Lord needed to begin His work in my life.
The choice I made that day 65 years ago has been the best decision I ever made. The next best decision was in 1969 when for the first time I saw a beautiful young woman named Janice Parry walking across the campus of Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon. When I saw her, I made the decision to pursue her and introduce myself for the first time. That was 53 years ago.
I didn’t always steward my original seed of faith well. There were a few times in my growing-up years when it would have been hard to see any evidence of that seed, but it was always protected by the Lord until I came to my spiritual senses. Under His care and nurture and my growing obedience to Him, it has multiplied into a field of blessing I could never have imagined.
That original seed planted in faith has produced offspring seed each one enlivened by the resurrection power of Jesus. As Paul said, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (I Corinthians 15:14). When the resurrection power of Jesus Christ is alive and functioning in our lives nothing is impossible.
Today, I am praying that many will bring their seed of faith to Jesus so that He can plant a field of promise in their lives that when fully in bloom will become an amazing sight to behold. It will be a field of harvest for His glory.
the angels are pleased to wave you triumphantly as first fruits of Jesus’ resurrection, my brother!
I am immediately reminded of Philippians 1:6.
Happy Easter Garris and Jan!
We’re spiritual birthday twins…kind of, ha! Me, Easter Sunday 1976, TrinityBaptist Church 12th & B in Springfield. (Easter Sunday when I was invited to stumble into a church. 😜)
Like you, my second best decision was Dan, who was/is still better than I deserve but we serve a God of grace.
Easter blessing on you two!
Wow, what to say….thank you Garris for this post. Wow for the reply posts. Easter blessings to all.
In our own ways, each of us is blessed.
Amen
“It all started with something so small.” This reminds me of an inspirational story I recently read about a sunflower farmer in Wisconsin. In 2007 Steve Kaufer noticed one rogue sunflower that was different from all the rest. He collected the seeds from it (there were twelve). The following year Steve says, “I felt God nudge me to plant them, that something good would come from it.” On April 1st of this year, Steve started selling seeds that originated from those twelve seeds. His business is Sunflower Steve Seed Company, and he says it all started with “a little flower created by the grace of God.”