Ever been to Ridgeway, S.C.?  On Main Street there’s an old general store a friend of mine told me about.  I went up there because I wanted to see such a store.  While I was there, I bought a pair of overalls because I thought they would make a perfect souvenir from an old country store.  The store turned out to be as neat as I had hoped – unpainted, unvarnished floors, an old skylight, shelves full of every imaginable item of clothing, farm implement, and kitchenware. It was a lot like a museum where everything was for sale.  I’ve never forgotten it.

            Years later a man named John Ruff joined our church and mentioned he was from Ridgeway.  I started talking about this store and he said, “That’s my store.  It’s been in my family forever.  Come back and I’ll show you around.”  I took him up on it.  Back in the warehouse of the store I ran across a seed rack that he said was from the 1800’s.  Think of that.  Tomato seeds, turnip seeds, watermelon seeds all sitting around with perfect potential but never producing anything.  As the Lord Jesus said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies it will bear much fruit” (John 12:24).  We have the seeds of the Gospel in our Bibles and, if we are converted, in our hearts, souls, and minds.  At the end of your life will the seed God has placed in your life look like Mr. Ruff’s seed rack – interesting, old, and unused – or will it look like well used, sown, and multiplied sources of joy in eternal life in the lives of the people with whom you shared them?

            I’m listening to a piece of music written in 1721 titled Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach.  While this kind of music is not everyone’s cup of tea, my mother taught me to love it.  I’m glad she did.  I do still love it.

            Question:  Do you know the names of any of your relatives or what they were doing in or around 1721?  I don’t and have almost no interest in finding out.  Very few people do know unless they become interested in family trees.  Bach wrote this 288 years ago and it is still bringing joy to me and to others.  If you could do something today that would last at least 288 years, would you do it? 

GOOD NEWS!  We can all do something that will last that long and longer.  While at a worldly level I probably cannot do anything that will last that long (although you never know), spiritually I can and so can you.  My college roommate is coming to see me today.  What he did with and for me from 1966 – 1970 will live on in my son and daughter and in the lives of those converted to Christ under my ministry. (“My” is in the sense of identification rather than possession).  All of us who are in Christ have been given something that will last forever but only if we get it into the lives of others.  Unfortunately, most of us treat the Gospel like some garden seeds I’ll tell you about in my next blog.  The Gospel must be shared, and when you do you are doing the only thing I’m confident will bring joy to the lives of others 288 – indeed millions – of years from now.  The seed of the Gospel produces crops that last forever.