The Unseen Increase

"I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase".

1 Corinthians 3:6 (1599 Geneva Bible)

I want to share a story with you today. It is a story about a Christian man and the unseen fruit from his efforts in being faithful to the Great Commission. Many of the details of the story are a bit uncertain and the man's name still remains a mystery; though it is thought that he was perhaps a deacon or leader at a Baptist Church in a small town in central Florida.

It all started about 15 years ago, when the man would stand across the street from a small public High School. The man never caused a fuss, he would simply hand out gospel tracts to students on their way into school. He used a type of tract that was made similar to a small comic book, so the tracts became very popular and were passed around from student to student throughout the day.

In one particular class there was a young atheist. Though he thought religion was for weak minded people, he would read the comic strip styled gospel tracts just to pass the time and see what Christians believed. Each tract had a different theme and taught different things about Christianity, therefore the young atheist was exposed to the concepts of sin, judgement, Law, Grace, Atonement, the Resurrection, the Second Coming, and other Christian truths.

Though the man who gave out the tracts may have never seen any fruit from his labor, the fact is, God used the seed that was sown all those years ago to bring a wonderful increase. You see, as a direct result of reading those gospel tracts, that young atheist was born again about 7 years later! Not only was he converted to Christ, but he was also called of God into the preaching ministry where he has been being used -within both Pentecostal and Baptist churches- to preach the Gospel.

I am well acquainted with this story, not because someone told it to me, nor is it because I read it in a book, but because I lived it! This is the story of how God used one faithful man and a handful of gospel tracts to reach ME! As I look back now, I can see that it was those gospel tracts that were a key element of God's plan to redeem me.

I wanted to share this story with you to encourage you to do something to reach the lost! Even if you are too shy to talk to people, you may be able give out tracts, and God may use your efforts to reach someone who could end up preaching the gospel to thousands more! You can never know what God will do if you'll just be faithful! Just sow the gospel seed and water it often, then trust God to bring the increase in His own timing -even if it takes years and you never see the increase with your own eyes!

Soli Deo Gloria!