SOWING PEACE

"Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness." (James 3:8)

James chose peace as the seed because true righteousness can't grow where there is discord. Unrighteousness grows like weeds in an environment where uncertainty and anxiety abound. Evil loves discontent and restlessness. Mind you, James doesn't use the word "peacekeepers," but "peacemakers." People who try to get rid of strife through kowtowing or weakening their principles fail in bringing about a deep and lasting peace. Peace for the sake of expediency is fragile, at best.

Peacemaking runs deeper than peacekeeping. To sow the seed of peace is to press a truth gently yet firmly into the soil of another's heart. When peace prevails, that which is "right" is given room to flourish. We can see circumstances for what they are. We are able to choose the right path.

Peace is a powerful seed in your hand. Sow it in the midst of a sinful world that is too contentious to discern right from wrong. Speak words of peace to those in your church who have lost their sense of what love is and Who loves them dearly. Let dissension and discord pass from your hearts so that the stranger in your midst might be wooed to the Righteous One. 

-- Joni Eareckson Tada in “More Precious Than Silver”

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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