PLANTING SEEDS

The Apostle Paul said, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  (Romans 10:9 NASV).

Paul always contrived to bring his hearers to a point of decision.  There was none of the indeterminate, inconclusive talking which we are apt to describe as "sowing the seed".  Our idea of sowing the seed seems to be rather like scattering wheat out of a balloon...  Occasionally, of course, grains of wheat scattered out of a balloon will fall upon ploughed and fertile land and will spring up and bear fruit; but it is a casual method of sowing.  Paul did not scatter seeds, he planted.  He so dealt with his hearers that he brought them speedily and directly to a point of decision, and then he demanded of them that they should make a choice and act on their choice.  In this way he kept the moral issue clearly before them, and made them realize that his preaching was not merely a novel and interesting doctrine, but a life. 

-- Roland Allen in “Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours?” [1927] 

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