Mark Adams Via Bulletin Gold
In 1877, James A. Harding (for whom Harding University
is named) went to Clark County, Kentucky, where he held a
gospel meeting. When asked how the meeting went, one of
the elders at the congregation responded, “It was not much
of a meeting.
Oh, brother Harding did his usual powerful preaching,
the attendance was fair, but the results were negligible. Only
little Jimmy Shepherd was baptized.”
God doesn’t always perceive things the way that we do.
When we work hard to serve people in the name of Christ
and few respond to our message, it is easy to think, “The
results of my work are negligible.”
But we must never underestimate the power of one seed
that really takes root. In the case of little Jimmy Shepherd,
the sole response to Harding’s preaching in that guospel
meeting, he stayed dedicated to the cause of Christ all of his
life. He is better known to some as James W. Shepherd.
While he was in college, he began preaching. In 1883, he
helped to establish the Berea Church of Christ in Madison
County. In 1888, he left with his family to do mission work
in New Zealand for several years, preaching all around the
country, as well as in Australia.
Upon returning to the states, he worked from 1905 to
1912 as the office editor of the Gospel Advocate, where he
both wrote and edited some works that have been treasured
for decades.
In Luke 8:8, Jesus is teaching a parable about a sower.
Though much seed might never take root or grow, the seed
which does take root can produce “one hundred times”
what has been sown. Every seed you plant matters, because
only God knows just how much good can be done when a
person plants a seed through a single act of Christian
conviction.
Groveland, FL