“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for
whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
For the one who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption, but the one
who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Galatians 6:7-8
While spending a day at my grandparents’ farm, I
hit pay dirt! I found a collection of
old radio broadcasts, on cassette tapes.
Gunsmoke! The Green Hornet! Fibber McGee & Molly! Sherlock Holmes! I was a kid in the candy store! I had known about these broadcasts through my
family, even listened to a few syndicated broadcasts of Dragnet with my brother.
Having these priceless treasures to listen to, I couldn’t have asked for
more.
My favorite of these old broadcasts was (and
still is) The Shadow. I managed to start collecting more of this
series on tape (20 broadcasts). The
crime-solving vigilante, with the ability to “cloud men’s minds”, rendering himself
invisible. He’s just plain cool! “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of
men? The Shadow knows!” I loved hearing that phrase, following the
eerie theme song of The Spinning Wheel. At the end of several of the shows, another
line was often spoken by The Shadow: “As you sow evil, so shall you reap evil.” Sounds like the words in Paul’s letter to the
church in Galatia, doesn’t it?
Quite true that Paul and the fictitious Shadow,
were saying the same thing: whatever choices you make from within your heart,
and equal result will befall you. If you
choose to live a life of deceit, corruption, greed, and sinful pleasures; you
can expect greed, corruption, deceit, etc. to happen to you in return. No good will come of it. Allowing evil to dwell in our hearts will
only envelope our lives in a world that only knows evil. The result is…well, a scorching hot outcome!
The good news is, we don’t have to look forward
to that end. We can choose to do what is
desirable by God: honesty, respect, helping others, following God’s command to
the letter, spreading His message and Light.
By sowing these choices, making these spiritual habits the very essence
that lives inside of us, will lead us to the Promised Land. It will lead us to that spectacular dwelling
that God created, of which the apostle John was allowed to see and record for
us; giving us a glimpse of the glory to come (see Revelation). Here come those goosebumps I get every time I
think about what John saw. I want to end
up there! I want to reap a good harvest,
after planting good seeds in good soil!
Remember this, you may be able to hide certain
wrongful actions and desires from those around you but God, as The Shadow says,
KNOWS!
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