'Death brings forth fruit'

Harvest time is a lovely time of the year - a time of beauty and fruitfulness. And yet it is a strange fact that behind all this beauty and fruitfulness there is death! Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." And how true it is! Leave a seed in the packet and it remains a single seed; no crop! Grains of wheat have been found in Egyptian tombs three or four thousand years old, but they are now useless. They never bore fruit.

But put the seed into the ground and it dies - and from the death of the seed a crop is forthcoming. The seed must perish as a seed if there is to be a new plant and a crop. Think of the mushy, rotten, dead, seed potato and the growth of fine new ones! This is not tragedy but triumph. The gardener does not plant his seed potato as a tragic waste - he expects a plentiful harvest!

Jesus Christ uses this illustration to show us His philosophy of life. The principle of life through death. The seed must perish as a seed if there is to be a new and fruitful plant. So it is imperative that we must also 'die' if we are to bring forth fruit in our lives and also go to heaven.

We must die to self and bury self interest if we are to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

Self is the essence of sin. We live our lives to please ourselves rather than please God, our Maker. As Frank Sinatra used to sing, "I did it my way".

The Bible insists that we need a change of mind and heart called 'repentance'. In "repentance" I acknowledge and confess my sin before God. I am truly sorry for offending God and I renounce sin. I "die" to sin, and because the essence of sin is self, I "die" to self, self-centredness, self-love and self-pleasing to follow Christ and please Him!

Maybe you think, "What a tragedy! Living my life God's way rather than my way!" That is no more a tragedy than the farmer planting the seed and it dies! It is not tragedy but triumph! Such as live for God will gain eternally - real and genuine spiritual life; abundant life; eternal life and everlasting blessing in the eternal realms with God.