In the early part of September we made a trip by plane over several Western States, some seven miles above the ground under a cloudless sky. From that lofty place we plainly saw patterns of different colored fields, mostly corn, barley and wheat. Those rectangular fields were a beauty not seen from the roadside as we generally pass them while driving in our car. This was not a bird’s eye view, birds do not fly so high, but it reminded us of a God’s eye view. We thought of having zoom lens like movie cameras have, in order to see the individual stalks of corn, like the video cameras at the ball diamond which can zoom to the very outfield to better see the fielder catch the fly ball with his back to the fence.

But God does not need a zoom-lens, He sees each individual stalk all right He sees the lowly sparrow, He sees all. And we did not really need that zoom-lens either, because we remembered that just yesterday we drove a car down the highways between the tall corn rows crowding us on both sides. We knew the crazy-quilt pattern of fields was comprised of thousands and millions of individual corn and wheat stalks, each bearing fruit. We also knew, without, seeing each one, that those plants were bearing the fruit which was inherent in the seed which produced it. Each little corn-kernel which had been planted by the farmer had split open in the warm moist soil, had sprouted and become a corn plant. Each wheat seed had become a wheat stalk and was proudly waving a head full of new wheat seeds. What a marvelous creation!

I have mentioned this before in one of my former letters, but it struck me anew as I beheld that beautiful harvest some thirty seven thousand feet below us that God reveals spiritual things in His natural creation. We are likened to seed and the plant that grows from it. In I Pet. 1 we are told that we are not born of corruptible seed but of incorruptible seed. So we also come from seed as does the corn stalk. Each natural seed embodies in full the reproduction of life from which it came. That much is complete, and can never be added to. Do not make the mistake and think that we might possibly become weeds (tares in the parable) but the seed from which we come is un-spoilable, un-dieble, and incorruptible. That un-spoilable seed was implanted when we were re-born. That most likely happened right after we were born, or it can also take place in a later time. But from that moment we were no longer sons of Adam, dead in sins and misery, but were in the Second Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him we are alive unto God, never to die. Now that that seed has been planted in us the entire question in the future is one of growth and maturity. This alone brings forth fruit that abides.

And now again the analogy. The development in the life of the Christian young person is like the natural life and growth in the vegetable world. As the corn reaches skyward towards the sun, so we reach upwards to our God Who is the source of all life. All we need is to be found in the good soil and environment in which God causes us to thrive. That’s right; we do not work for our salvation, we are told to work out our salvation. Why? Because it is God Who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That “doing his good pleasure’’ means to work for his good pleasure.

The analogy becomes plainer as we go along. The plant found in good soil and with rain and sunshine grows up to bring forth fruit. So we, grounded in Christ, (Eph. 2:10) “created in Christ unto good works” and enjoying rain and sunshine (the teaching of God’s Word by parents, teachers, and ministers) and in the right environment (Christian home, Christian school and church) are ready for, and prepared for works of righteousness. Proof for this is, II Tim. 3:16, 17. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God (child of God) may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” Did you catch the “rain and sunshine” in that description of benefits? Is that proof enough? God said so!

Now by this time (are you still with me?) you may be saying to yourself, “That’s o.k. for older people like our parents or even our grandparents, or our teachers or the minister, but I am yet a child, you surely cannot expect me to understand that heavy stuff.” No, no, that is not too heavy for you. You people who amaze your parents that you understand those weird video games or that intricate Rubik cube can easily understand the simple truth of the doctrine of salvation. Jesus, when He sojourned on this earth, some two thousand years ago was especially interested in children, even the very small children, warned the parents not to prevent their children to come to Him. You remember the classic text, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Oh yes, children are also being addressed when He told the weak and heavy laden to come to Him for His blessed rest. Now do I hear you mutter under your breath that you still don’t really know what it is “to believe”?

All right, let us talk about that for a bit. The Holy Spirit, speaking through the Apostle Paul as it is found in II Cor. 13:5 tells each one of us to, “examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith”. First of all then we must remind ourselves that “without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6) and, get this: this all important truth must be based solely upon Scriptural facts for, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). So you see that unless our faith is established upon facts it is no more than conjecture, superstition, speculation or presumption. Further, Hebrews 11:1 leaves no question about this:  “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Everyone knows that evidence must be founded on facts. So we see then that faith, standing on the facts of the Word of God, substantiates and gives evidence of things not seen.

I want to stress one thing, though. That is that you must not try too hard to believe. For faith is not a force that we exercise, or a striving to believe something shall be, thinking that if we believe hard enough it will come to pass. A well-known minister teaches that, and he calls it “positive thinking”. That may very well be positive thinking, but it is most certainly not Biblical faith.

Heeding all the facts of the doctrine: That we as sons of Adam are dead; That God has chosen us from before the creation of the world; That He sent His own Beloved Son to this earth to take upon Himself our humanity, and in the flesh died for us. For Us. That is the key-word! And, finally, He will, and does give us all spiritual blessings to make us grow and mature in faith. Remember the analogy: The stalk does not reach up to the sun; the sun reaches down to lift the stalk erect. So, we do not reach up to God by ourselves; He reaches down to us in our Lord Jesus Christ to draw us up to His fellowship. Now you are ready to say, “Lord I believe, help Thou my unbelief’.

Now, that was not so hard to understand, was it?