Vision for Mission: Nurturing an Apostolic Heart

Append i x

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The Laws of Sowing and Reaping, continued

VII. Law Seven: No Matter What Kind of Harvest You Have Reaped in the Past, You Can Reap Anew If You Will Only Sow Anew.

A. The biblical support

1. Eccles. 11.4-6 – He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. [5] As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. [6] In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. 2. Hos. 6.1-3 – Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. [2] After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. [3] Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth. 3. Matt. 13.23 – As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty. 4. 1 Cor. 3.6-7 – I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. [7] So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

B. The exegetical interpretation

1. Through the grace of God, we need not be limited to perennial harvests of what was sown before; with the renewal of the seasons, hope springs eternal!

2. God gives the growth, so we can always seek his face for a new, richer harvest.