Suckers

My dad used to have a large garden behind our house.  With four boys (my sister was born much later) he had a ready-made garden crew … if he could motivate us to work.  His mother, Granny Whitely, lived next door to us and she had a large garden too.  She was home all day, and Granny Whitely taught me some of the tricks of gardening.  She showed me the “sucker shoots” that came up on the side of the tomato plants.  They were called “sucker” because they didn’t produce any tomatoes; they just sucked the energy out of the plant.  Granny would peel off the sucker shoots so that the strength of the plant went to producing fruit, not just green foliage.  Hey, there’s a life-lesson there.  There are suckers in church too!  They come to church, whenever they have nothing better to do, and take up space without contributing to the success of the church.  They may put a few pennies into the offering plate, but they use more than that in electricity and water.  They never get involved; they just suck off energy from the congregation.  They don’t back the pastor, they don’t make it to Sunday school, and they don’t show up for revival services or mission conferences.  They are just suckers.  Peter wrote to the churches in Asia in II Peter 3:14, “… be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.  Good advice, Peter.  I’m glad that Jesus decided to get involved.  I’m glad that Jesus didn’t just sit around and do nothing.  Jesus saw our hopeless situation and gave His life for our salvation.  Jesus wasn’t a sucker; Jesus was a doer; Jesus got involved.  Now, you go and do likewise!