12/17/2025
Hearing the gospel and having it fall on fertile ground within us creates a need for its peace and joy deep inside that is unquenchable. Is this how you are feeling inside? Are you one of those souls in which the gospel of Jesus Christ has found a slight furrow into which its seed has fallen and taken root? If so then despite the season of life you find yourself in, you will be irresistibly called to tend it... time and time again, day after day, you will water and admire it until it begins to bear the sweet fruit of Christ. For all the others of us there will be only darkness and a withering spirit.
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV
As a young man I attended college at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), and over the years since leaving that tough and arduous place, I have noticed that there are those alumni for whom their years as cadets were amazing and invaluable, and others who found that they were overly hard and had driven them to bitterness. Then there were a few who were ambivalent and saw their Cadetship as just a college experience like so many others.
For those that found the experience invaluable there is an inexplicable draw to return there. They might regularly attend sporting events or just come to walk around then campus and reminisce... they might come back once every few years, several times a year, or to attend their class reunions quinquennially (every five years), but they are drawn to remember and must return.
The individuals that found their experience there to be unnecessarily hard, and who have become bitter about it, rarely return... if at all... but even among these there is a small number of them who also find that they must come back to face the demon of their bitterness. This school is a hard and demanding place that holds a memory for them that is incredibly strong albeit distasteful, and they find that they must journey back there at least once to make sense of their feelings towards it, and to conquer their hard feelings towards it.
Then finally there are those who walked through their cadetship convincing themselves that it was just like any other college, and that what they experienced there meant nothing beyond the personal challenge, and the degree they obtained. Amazingly, I have found that even this type of alumni comes in two flavors... those who return for reunions to see old friends, and those who, after leaving, have had an epiphany that reveals to them the unique, intrinsic, and invaluable impact this place actually had on them and their lives.
The strong emotions that the VMI experience brings out in its alumni is similar to that of the seeds of faith which the gospel casts upon those who hear it. You can accept it, or deny it, but no one can be ambivalent towards it. Once heard it demands that you make a choice. Once heard you will feel inextricably drawn to it and must decide how you will either celebrate it, address it, or free yourself from it.
Many who become faithful hear the gospel message and then immediately begin their journey towards righteousness; others hear and begin a process of mulling it over that might take years of growth before it reaches the point where it germinates; and then there are those who reject it entirely and find themselves forever lost to its allure. These unbelievers who reject the gospel travel about in the world not hearing the soft voice of God calling to them... they have distanced themselves sufficiently. Then finally, for those who find themselves to be neither hot nor cold, God continues to call out to them until at last He spits them from his mouth. Their answer to the gospel having become by default… “no”.
“So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”
Revelation 3:16-17 ESV
For those who reject God or maintain their lukewarm position towards Him to the point of being spit out, the gospel of Jesus is lost, and there is no longer any meaning. The spiritual portion of them falls into darkness and atrophies... leaving them to travel life, and the world, lost and alone.
“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 ESV
So, what happens to these lost and wandering souls? What happens to those who see life in the world as their oyster and remain spiritual castaways until Jesus returns? Well, even these will eventually be drawn to Jesus on that final day when they will face their sad judgement.
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."”
John 12:32 ESV
So, the question for each of us becomes this... will we believe? The answer is simple, and must be either yes or no. There is no “maybe” nor middle ground that can redeem us and win us our salvation... only the words “Here am I” will suffice and lead us to spend eternity in the presence of God our Father. Which of these choices will we make? Who will we become?
Prayer:
Father I thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who redeemed me, and the simplicity of my profession of faith in Him and love for you. I thank you for leading me to you, and for the crossroads that I found myself at when you called to me “This is the way!” I am so thankful Father for answering “Here am I” when you called me, and I pray fervently for those lost souls who turned back to a life in the world without answering you. Help the unbelievers Lord and let the seed of the gospel blow around within them until at last it finds a fertile furrow waiting and takes root. I pray Holy Father that you will hold all of them that are lukewarm in your mouth for as long as you possibly can, and that you give them ample time to call out to you before you must spit them out.
You are my God, and Jesus is my savior... let the fruit of my faith be pleasing to your palette always, and my branches be heavy laden with the sweet bounty of a Christlike life. Praised be your name Holy Father, for you are good, and greatly to be praised. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who stands at the door with Jesus as He knocks and calls out to us… patiently waiting for us to open the door and receive the seed of faith you have prepared for us.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
Revelation 3:20-22 ESV
Amen, Amen, Amen!
Rich Forbes