IN FOCUS: Plant seeds here, near & far from here

A couple of Thursday mornings ago, I pulled into the spot where I usually park, down on P2 in the Baptist Building. (That’s the second floor of the basement.) I looked around and realized, “Something’s missing.” What was missing was the last pallet of multimedia discs we called the Texas Hope 2010 CDs.

Texas Hope 2010 was the dream of Randel Everett as he came to be executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas to share the hope of Christ with the state of Texas. The CDs were tools we used. There are remarkable stories about where they went and what they accomplished.

The CDs literally traversed the state and the world. We got reports that some of them even went with our soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan. Some went to other parts of the world. They went to every corner of the state.

One of the stories I like best comes to us from Amarillo. A Hispanic family there received a copy of the CD. No one thought much about it, but the 10-year-old boy in the house asked if he could look at it. He returned a few minutes later to ask his family if he could do what the CD said he could do. That was to ask Christ into his heart. Not only was the boy saved, but a family that had fallen away from church renewed their commitments. It is one of many stories that have come our way.

I see the CDs as seeds that are planted. They are spread virally as they are handed from user to user. Where they go, they plant the seed of the hope of Christ where they land. Some land on fertile ground, some land among the rocks or thorns. But they are planted and continue to be planted.

The last group of CDs went to the Texas-Mexico border, where they will cross and head to Guadalajara to be used as witnessing tools at the Pan American Games this summer. Athletes will be there from all over the Americas, and the seeds will be planted.

God has promised that his word will not return to him void. I hope you will pray with me that God will use these last seeds as they are planted to change lives so that the hope of our Lord will live in the lives of people all across our world.

We are now involved in Hope 1:8. My prayer is that God will use our convention, every association, every institution, every church and every Christian to share the hope of Christ to each of our Jerusalems, our Judeas, our Samarias, and to the ends of the earth. My pastor puts it in a way that translates better. It is the desire that each of us—all Texas Baptists—will share the hope of Christ here, near here, far from here and to the ends of the earth.

The seeds must be planted in all of the ways at our disposal. I pray each of us will plant where we live and join the harvest.

Steve Vernon is associate executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.