A missionary once gave us a plaque. It read, “Bloom where you are planted!” I kept that little saying in a corner of my study for years and years! The picture above says that as well, to my mind anyway. Corn, growing in an odd place. At a shopping center!
Last Summer, near a bookstore I often visit (just off Interstate 85 northeast of Atlanta), we saw this unusual sight. I mean corn was growing, as well as squash and other vegetables, in every conceivable place! Making the BEST of wherever it found itself!
Today’s Bible Lesson …
James 5:17 relates an event from the life of Elijah. “And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” The earth, rain, fruit! (To a small degree, that’s what’s happening in the picture from the mall.)
Now, what about you and me?
It is so easy to say, “I shall bear fruit … after we move.”
Or “after I graduate.”
Or “after the baby is born.”
Or “when I finally reach the mission field.”
Or simply … “later!”
But Scripture urges us to be (via the Power of the Holy Spirit) fruit bearers NOW!
WHEREVER we are.
Joseph bore fruit in Potiphar’s house.
Job in the slough of hardship.
Jeremiah in the face of persecution.
Hosea in the face of rejection.
Paul seemingly “in every circumstance.”
And Jesus … the Supreme Fruit Bearer … even from “Calvary!”
What kind of fruit?
Maybe souls won to Jesus.
Maybe godly character in one’s life.
Jesus said the following, in His Sermon on the Mount. “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” Matthew 7:16
Is someone today living in an awkward situation?
Under adverse circumstances?
Then, with earnestness, I advise you to … “Be not weary in well doing: for in due season you shall reap, if you faint not.” Galatians 6:9, no matter where you are.
This may not be the best Bible meditation I’ve ever written, but it certainly speaks to our hearts in this sense: “Redeem the time!” There is only a short “season” in which to bear fruit, Psalm 1:3! And indeed “the time of the harvest” may be short, Jeremiah 8:20!
Wow!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Speaking of fruit: “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.” So said Solomon in Proverbs 11:30. This can be done … no matter where!