What Do You Sow???

It is 4 am and I have been thinking about Father's Day for a few weeks, which is now approaching fast and have been on my mind a lot.

I have been praying and contemplating on what to share this Sunday for Father's Day but also about my father who has some health issues right now.

A scripture came to me as I was driving home from a meeting last week that I had with someone who was encouaging me in my ministry. I thought about how he was sowing into me. He was investing in my ministry and who I was.

The scripture that came to me is Galatians 6:7-10. This is from the Message Bible "Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

This scripture has been in my head for a while now and it got me thinking and asking myself why I am the person I am.

Why do I always want to help people?
Why do I offer grace when sometimes I feel like I want to attack?
Why do I love people that some would say are unlovable?
Why do I want to serve God with everything I have?
Why do I just want to shout "Thank You Jesus"?

Like the song goes "How can I Keep from Singing his Praise".

I realize and understand it is first and foremost because of what God did for me through Jesus Christ dying on the cross for me, which is overwhelming for me to say the least.

To know that someone would give up their life for Nate Gibbons so he could have a better life is truly amazing.

In the next few blogs I am going to share some stories of how people have sown in to my life to help me be who I am in Jesus Christ.

Which brings me back to my dad and what he has sown into this number one second son to help make me who I am? (He always told all three of us we were number one but we had a different birthing order.) This will be the first of a few stories of my dad.

When I think about things my dad has sown into me to help me become the man I am. I think back to when I was in my earlier years and my dad was a Chiropractor and at one point a Free Methodist lay pastor at the time when he first opened his practice.

I could never figure out how come kids in school would tease me about how rich we were because my dad was a Doctor and even I remember the librarian making comments that we probably had sets of enclyopedias in our house because of all the money my dad made.

I never knew that we didn't have much until later in life. At our home macaroni and cheese, boiled hotdogs and white gravy over toast were staples at our house. Sometimes over the white gravy we might even get some hard boiled egg or chipped beef. Once a year we would go to the shoe store and get a new pair of shoes. It was a very unique life. Of course at that time we didn't realize we didn't have much.

As an early teen though I often wondered why during the apple season we would get a bushel of apples and during the peach season we would have a bussel peaches?

It was later as a adult that I asked my dad. Why if you were a Dr. did we get clothes from a second hand store or only get shoes once a year. Or not eat steaks all the time. It just didn't make sense to me.

I found out that my dad was more interested in helping people then he was making money. He would treat people and if they couldn't afford it he would let them work it off or just write it off and not get paid. He would let people pay him with what they had. If they had produce they gave him produce. If someone butchered a cow we might get some of that. In fact I remember my mom making us sandwiches out of cow tongue because someone gave it to us. That was a treat let me tell you.

He also told me that he has never charged pastors or missionaries for his services they are doing God's work and most of them can't afford it.

My dad told me that being a Chiropractor was not a profession but a ministry. It was who my dad was. He wanted to help people with their physical needs so he could help them with their spiritual needs. He didn't want to see people hurting.

Even as an adult he has often told me of the people he has lead to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in His office. He has shared how he has prayed for people that are hurting in his office and wept with them and laughed with them.

One of the things my dad sown into me is that when you more concerned about people and their walk with God than financial gain. It is then that you are Truly Rich.


Thanks Dad for sowning into my life what it truly means to be rich.

It's All Good