“Back to the Roots of my Earthly Father… Sowing and Reaping”…

by Margrett Dawson Wallace
(Pelham, Georgia USA)

“Back to the Roots of my Earthly Father… Sowing and Reaping”…

I want to share what I have been taught and I have experienced in this life about “Sowing and Reaping”; a very important feature of teaching in the Old Testament and in the New. At the very outset, in creation Jehovah God established the principle that never alters, never has altered, and never will alter, that whatever is sown produces a certain crop "after its kind".

When God created the herbs, the trees, He created them in this fashion that in them they had the ability to reproduce "after its kind" (Gen.1:11). We know from observation and it has been from the very beginning that an apple seed brings forth an apple tree and eventually produces apples, so that principle is all through the Scriptures. In moral matters, in spiritual matters, the teaching provides the same principle. What we sow; we reap.

"Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours." (John 4:34-38)

Sometime, between the months of March and April, I shared with a friend, Art Thomas, the acres of land that my earthly father, Edress Dawson, had left to his eleven (11) children. His Edress father had left the same land to his children of which my father was one of his sons. This land has been passed down to the third generations of Dawson…I am of the third generation. I, further, shared with my friend that “the land will be here forever…it isn’t going anywhere…what can we do.


The first and second generations have gone; they have served their day and generation. Now we live in today with our opportunities, and the Lord is speaking to us when He says, "lift up your eyes, increase your vision, have a look round about and see what can be done. Seek guidance from the Lord and He will give the direction that is necessary, and be thoroughly committed to His interests and take part in some of this reaping activity or the sowing activity so that there might be something for the pleasure of the Lord".

What the Lord is encouraging us to do here is to see the possibilities that lie in this kind of work. We bemoan the low condition of things today, both individually and collectively. I am sure we have all been deeply concerned as to this condition of things, and if we continue to moan about it or be concerned about it and do nothing about it; then it will never improve; but if we look around to have our vision increased and enlarged by the Lord Himself, and if we are all as a result actively engaged in doing something in the reaping and the sowing, however small it might be, then things are going to change. And so the Lord is encouraging us, not only to do something that is important, but to see to it that the very practical principle of fellowship is involved in it too, the reaper and the sower rejoicing together.

With this principle in mind, my friend immediately shared his vision about "Raising a Thousand Acre Farm”…to help others. Thus began the preparation of the land for…“Sowing and Reaping”.

There is no disciple of the gospel that has ever gone forth to serve the Lord and had success in his work who could say that it was all the result of his prayers and his service. No servant worth his salt would ever say such a thing. He would readily admit that every success he had had in the Lord's service was because others were praying and others had worked in some way or other and that both he and they were working together to secure this fruit for God. So it must ever be.

We are not all called to be sowers, we are not all called to be reapers, but we can all do some little service, we can all plant some seed. I am sure that every kind act that is given is some seed sown. Every word spoken for the Lord is some seed sown. Every quotation of the word of Jehovah God to a soul in need is seed sown. Every word of God quoted to another human being for his encouragement is seed sown. Every kind act shown toward either converted or unconverted is seed sown. This is how we do it, and all this in the aggregate, in the power of the Holy Spirit is going to produce fruit.

It must be on the basis of the Scriptural principle, if seed is sown it bears fruit. But the Lord is indicating we must do something about it, we must make sure that we are actively engaged in this kind of work. We look on some field, we see that something needs to be done and then we do it under the direction of the Lord.

And we do want to know more about rejoicing. The Lord said the reaper and the sower, when the work is all done, when something is accomplished for the Lord's glory, rejoice together. I think it is wise that we make sure we are under His hand, after all, He was saying to them, 'Look round about you, look on the fields', He was directing them and we can be sure of this, that if we are under His direction we shall be led unerringly into the field of His choice for us so that something will be produced for His pleasure and His glory. "......for they are white already to harvest."

We live in a country where I believe we are well supplied... “He created in six days” everything we need to live this life.

My friend shares with me this concept…“If we only go once a month into the garden what kind of garden do we expect to have; what kind of flowers do we expect to grow…the weeds will take over and everything will be overgrown and out of hand”. As another friend shared…“We must stop making excuses for our lack of…”

On March 17, 2012…there was a gathering of ‘like minds’ to get together and share. In 2 Corinthians Paul tells us of the principle of fellowship…because other persons are in need, and we have got to be diligent to meet that need. In this case it was a material one but I want to apply it in relation to our collective experiences, our collective energies.

If we sow sparingly, that is, if we attended the meeting for personal gains and to show others our material gains, well, that is sowing sparingly, this is not supporting the interests of the Lord.

If our prayers are only made with local interests and not globally, this again is sowing sparingly. We are to examine ourselves, how much energy, how much time do we put into fellowship matters in a local sense? Sometimes we are looking for a great deal from the fellowship, but what do we put into it? The apostle Paul is insisting here that we sow bountifully, that we put something in with a view to getting something out expectations.

That is a known principle in the garden. What folly for anyone to look at the earth and say, 'Well I hope that some turnips come up here, I would like some turnips', and not to sow some turnip seeds. What folly! And yet sadly this is the attitude that we can adopt towards the Sower, when remarks, such as ‘why is he spending so much time in Pelham…with her’, are made. Are we not questioning another “PASSION(S)”. We want to get something out but oh, how sad it is that we put nothing in! How can we expect to get something out if we make no endeavor to put something in? So Paul says, 'Brethren, sow bountifully and there will be a bountiful reaping! and there is nothing so happy in one’s life and experience and service as being devoted, doing something, putting something in so that there is something available for others.

The happiest service is to be a provider for others (Acts 20:35). Every soul that provides is provided bountifully for himself. This is a principle that is seen again and again and it is worthwhile putting into practice.

Let us sow in this way, let us be prepared to sow even though it means tears, pressure, difficulty, scorn, misunderstanding, provided that what we reap is for the pleasure of God and the blessing of others. May it be so for His name's sake… for it all began in 1898, with Edress Dawson, continued with Margrett Dawson Wallace in 1940, and continuing with Art Thomas in 2012...at ‘your inner-voice.com.

Thanks for allowing me to share…the dreams and visions of “Returning to the Roots of the Land of my Earthly Father”. “Never to live this life again”…