Have Your Cake and
Eat It?
Various aid
agencies give poor communities in
Africa maize seed in order to plant a crop
for the following year. Sometimes, however, the people
eat the seed in order to satisfy their immediate needs
which means that they end up with a bigger problem the
following year. I suppose it must be hard to take good
edible maize and bury it in the ground with the hope of
a crop in six months when you are hungry today. In first
world countries the same happens but in a slightly
different form when people get into debt to borrow on
the future in order to meet some immediate need or
desire.
Things like
getting into debt or eating the seed which should have
produced next year’s crop are very short-sighted, but
not as foolish as doing the same thing spiritually.
Jesus said: "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a
grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it
remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his
life in this world will keep it for eternal life."
(John 12:24-25, NKJV). While we recognize the
foolishness of eating the seed of tomorrow’s harvest,
most do not recognize how much we do the same foolish
thing in the spiritual. We all want to eat our cake
today and still have it in the future. This is
impossible!
What am I
talking about? I am speaking about one of the central
messages of the gospel. Just as you cannot eat the seed
and have a crop, you can’t have your life in this world
and in the future world! You cannot have your happiness
now and in the life to come! You cannot have your riches
in this life and in the coming Kingdom! You cannot have
the praise of men and of God! You cannot have a life of
pleasure and comfort and the approval of the Master!
Jesus said: “No one can serve two masters; for either
he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will
be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot
serve God and mammon." (Matthew 6:24, NKJV).
Unfortunately
too many Christians are short-sighted about the future.
They want all the comfort, pleasures and worldly
acceptance now as well as the blessings of the future
life. They want to serve the Lord with the minimum of
sacrifice and discomfort and reap the maximum benefit.
This just does not work. As much as you cannot have your
cake and eat it, you cannot have your life now and in
the future. You have to make a decision. Am I going to
sacrifice the seed and bury it in the ground and hope
for a more abundant harvest or am I going to satisfy my
immediate urges and eat the seed today. Am I going to
get the most out of this life and forgo the blessedness
of the Kingdom or am I going to sow my life, time,
money, talents, time, pride and skills into the Lord’s
work and look to share in the great harvest of the
Kingdom?
The little boy
had to give up his lunch before Jesus could multiply it
to feed the multitude, Moses had to throw down his staff
before it could be turned into the “Rod of the Lord” and
Jesus had to die before He could reap the harvest of
souls that will make up His Bride. So before the Lord
can take anything of yours and make something of it, you
will have to surrender it to Him. There is just no ways
you can multiply the talent by trying to save it. The
wise servants who gained more talents had to risk what
was given to them by trading with them.
The wonderful
thing is that when we do finally stop clinging to things
and loose them for the Kingdom’s sake, the Lord is able
to multiply it many times over. " He who sows
sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows
bountifully will also reap bountifully." (2
Corinthians 9:6, NKJV). That is the principle of sowing
and reaping – the size of the harvest is in direct
proportion to the amount sown. Look at the harvest that
Jesus continues to reap, but look at the cost of the
seed He had to sow. Then there are others who have so
much to invest, but sow sparingly and yet expect a great
return.
If you knew
there was an investment that was a “sure thing” where
you could get a five hundred percent return on your
investment would you invest the change in your pocket,
or would you take every thing you have and invest it,
knowing that soon you would have everything you invested
returned many times over. Yet we know that what we
invest in heaven is a “sure thing” and the dividends are
manifold more than our investment, but we invest the
small change of our lives, time, money and abilities.
Surely we should sell everything and put it all into the
greatest investment of all time! After all, this is what
Jesus did.
“Again, the
kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field…
and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has
and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is
like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he
had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all
that he had and bought it." (Matthew 13:44-46,
NKJV).
Remember the
harvest may not be in this life. "And let us not grow
weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap
if we do not lose heart." (Galatians 6:9, NKJV).
Many times we become discouraged because we seem to be
sowing and sowing and there is never a harvest, but the
harvest will come, but it may only be in the future
Kingdom. That is not a bad thing because any harvest we
may gain in this life is temporal, but we will be able
to enjoy the benefits of what we harvest on the other
side of the resurrection for a lot longer. One of the
perversions of modern Christianity is that people are
taught to expect instant returns – but that is foolish.
The Bible does not promise a yield in this life even
though occasionally there may be one.
"Therefore
be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See
how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the
earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the
early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish
your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand."
(James 5:7-8, NKJV).
Anton
Bosch
antonbosch@sbcglobal.net
www.abcd.co.za/offi
www.abcd.co.za/plumbline
Tel 818 846 5520
Fax 818 846 4357
3310 West
Magnolia Blvd
Burbank, California
91505-2907
USA