[Steve Myers] The story is told of a man in England – his name was Horatio Bottomley. He was a famous politician and ended up to be a convicted swindler in Britain. And the story goes that in prison he was given the job of stitching mail bags – this was a number of years ago – but he had to stitch mail bags in prison. Well, one day the chaplain happened to be walking by, noticed him doing his job, and he asked him, "Sewing, Bottomley?" And do you know what he replied? "No, reaping."
Interesting story. So even though he was physically sewing, there was a different type of sowing that went on before he went to prison. And it reminded me of a passage that's over in the book of Hosea. It's in chapter 10, verse 12. And it talks about this principle of planting and then reaping. It says in Hosea, "Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, for it's time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you" (Hosea 10:12).
Boy, this principle is an amazing one, especially when you think of it in terms of Bottomley – that he was reaping what he sowed. And it all works that way for every one of us. We will reap what we sow. It's a principle that Christ reinforced over and over again as well. So let's be sure that we dedicate ourselves to break up the ground, because then when we sow good seed, what's the only thing that can happen? We'll reap a good crop.
