Volunteers

“What does it matter? Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice.”

Philippians 1:18 CSB

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”

James 1:17-18 CSB

Volunteers
Good seed
In good soil
Can bear good fruit
Despite bad intentions.
Seedlings volunteer
In the merest bit of soil in sidewalk cracks
And the fecundity of compost heaps;
Dandelions and oak seedlings will sprout
In the most carefully tended beds,
Despite diligent efforts
At inhospitality.
The life inside the tiny caskets
Cannot be contained
When ready to burst its bonds.
God’s living and active Word-seed
Will find a way to press down
Into hearts of God’s choosing,
And upward in eternal life
And abundant fruit.

“Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly, , because you have been born again — not of perishable seed but of imperishable — through the living and enduring word of God. For ‘All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.’ And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you.”

1 Peter 1:22-25 CSB

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.