January 2026 Newsletter

Quotes of the month

The future is in the hands of God, and better than that, it could not be.

Saint Pier Giorgio Frasati

And even to your old age, I am He; and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; even I will carry, and will deliver you.

Isaiah 46:4

(Let us not dread old age. Let us grow old graciously, since the Lord Himself is with us in the fullness of grace. Charles Spurgeon)

Manifest yourself. You have no time to occupy your thoughts with that complacency or consideration of what others will think. Your business is simply, “What will my Father in heaven think?”

Saint Katharine Mary Drexel

Eventually, the world will forget you even existed. So live to please the Lord, He will never forget you.

Honest Sayings website

Sometimes the devil allows people to live a life free of trouble, because he doesn’t want them turning to God. Their sin is like a jail cell, except it’s all nice and comfy and there doesn’t seem to be any need to leave. The door’s wide open. Till one day, time runs out, and the cell door slams shut, and suddenly it’s too late.

God’s Not Dead movie, 2017

On the lighter side…

Parents: Why don’t my kids listen to me?

God: LOL.

Christian Memes website

Good News

by Frank Paul

This is just exciting to report, at least to me, and I do not write this to brag, that’s not my style, but it is just a blast, and I want to share the news with you, the reader.

When I started the Sower of Seeds in 2022 my hope was to reach as many people as possible with the Word of God, attempting to expand beyond my sphere of court reporting contacts and martial art students. The Wix website platform, which is the entity that hosts TheSowerofSeeds.com, has an analytics segment of their program that allows the owner to determine where their readers are visiting the site from.

So aside from most states in the United States that have viewed our website, we have reached 19 other countries around the world; and that to me is just amazing. Absolutely thrilling what the Internet, when used for good purposes, can accomplish.

Check this out: Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, China, Ethiopia, Germany, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Sicily, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

First and foremost, I must thank you all, my local readers, because you gave me the feedback to keep on writing and spreading the Word; and as such, four years later we have a world-wide readership. I’m thrilled beyond words. Thank you, thank you!!!

 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

C.S. Lewis on Relationships

We live in two juxtaposed realities when it comes to our relationships. Some of our deepest joys have been the result of people, while some of our most painful hurts have been the result of people. (Maybe even the same person).

Which is your relational reality right now? Maybe you’re experiencing the best and worst of

both simultaneously? Regardless of where you are, the Biblical fact of the matter is that you were made for relationships. Genesis 2:18 tells us that it is not good for man to be alone. (This statement has to do with God’s design for humanity.) He created us to be relational beings because He is a social God. The Creator lives in a community within the Trinity as Father, Son, and Spirit, and He made humanity in His likeness. We were meant to experience the joy of conflict-free horizontal community while vertically communing in the presence of the Triune God.

It didn’t take long for sin to ruin what God had intended. In Genesis 3, husband and wife engage in accusation and slander, and then a man murders his brother in Genesis 4. While we may not be convicted murderers, we have been living in conflict-ridden relationships ever since, and we do our fair share to contribute to that conflict every day.

Why are our relationships so conflicted? One of the biggest reasons is because we tend to worship and serve the creation rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). The very thing God created to reveal His glory becomes the glory we chase. Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

How does this apply to your relationships? Ask yourself: Have you settled for finding satisfaction in horizontal relationships when they are meant to point you to vertical relational satisfaction found only with the Triune God?

The irony is that when we reverse the order and elevate creation above Creator, we destroy the relationships God intended and would have enabled us to enjoy.

When I have learned to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthy dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things ae not suppressed but increased. This proper order will only be perfected and complete in heaven, but there is much we can enjoy now.

The Bible promises that our relationships can be characterized by humility, gentleness, patience, edifying honesty, peace, forgiveness, compassion, and love. But first, we must confess that sometimes our desires are too weak, and our loves are reversed. Then, we must ask the Creator for the grace to experience relationships as He intended.

Who was C.S. Lewis?

by Frank Paul

If I was named Clive Staples Lewis, I might also rename myself as C.S. Lewis, no offense to his parents intended. But be that as it may, C.S. Lewis, 1898 – 1963, was a well-known Anglican Theologian after surviving World War I as a Second Lieutenant fighting in France; and then volunteering for the Royal Air Force in World War II to broadcast the good news about God, Jesus, and faith for the BBC out of London.

After the two World Wars he taught English literature both at the Magdalen College, Oxford, and the Magdalene College, Cambridge. Lewis was the author of more than 30 books which have been translated into over 30 languages and have sold millions of copies. The seven books that make up The Chronicles of Narnia have sold the most. He also wrote a number of Christian apologetics works such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.

Lewis was a close friend of JRR Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings. Both men served on the English faculty at the University of Oxford. As a child he was baptized in the Church of Ireland but fell away from his faith during adolescence and took the atheist’s route. At the age of 32 he returned to Anglicanism and became an ordinary layman of the Church of England.

Lewis’ faith profoundly affected his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him world-wide acclaim.

         Transforming Grace

               by Alistair Begg

The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

Titus 2:11-12

We are to live our lives from the inside out. When Paul wrote to Titus, he didn’t provide him with a mere manual for how to teach people to live properly in their various roles in society. The book of Titus does contain numerous commands for how Christians are to live – and that is why, if we are not careful, we can easily read it as a moralistic how-to book. Indeed, when reading God’s word as a whole it is possible to slip into reading it as a list of commands that we are to keep in order to gain or maintain God’s favor. We need reminding, again and again, that all the Scriptures, including this letter of Paul’s, show us the grace of God, and then they show those who have understood the grace of God how to live from the inside out.

The Bible’s story is the story of God, who created humans and put them in His company in the Garden of Eden. They were privileged to enjoy His presence and everything He had made. But they rebelled against God, and we too, following those ancestors, have rejected His rule, have adopted a skewed view of the world, and don’t seek after Him. Because of our sinful nature, we live life upside down. But when we believe in Christ, our upside-down lives are rectified. We begin to stand the right way up, and we are put back together by the power of Jesus. We are then to live our lives from the inside out, so that what God has accomplished in us by His grace is the driving force for what He is now going to accomplish through us for His glory.

Paul tells us that “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation.” In Titus 3:7, he reminds those of us who have trusted in Christ that we have been “justified by his grace,” becoming “heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” And in 3:8, Paul teaches that these gospel truths are trustworthy things that must be insisted on, “so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.” The good works flow from His grace, inspired by that grace. The grace of God is what trains us to live for the God of grace.

Do you desire to be distinct from the world? Do you hope to live a life worthy of God – one that honors Him in all you do? That is a mark of His grace at work in you. Remember that what you do is never what saves you; in Christ, His grace appeared and was poured out on you. Focus not on what you are to do for God but on what He has done to transform you by His grace. As you do so, you will find your heart and mind trained to live in the way that pleases Him.

Hear Our Prayer This Day

In the quiet sanctuaries of our own hearts, let each of us name and call on the One whose power over us is great and gentle, firm and forgiving, holy and healing ...

You who created us, who sustain us, who call us to live in peace, hear our prayer this day.

Hear our prayer for all who have died, whose hearts and hopes are known to you alone ...

Hear our prayer for those who put the welfare of others ahead of their own and give us hearts as generous as theirs ...

Hear our prayer for those who gave their lives in the service of others, and accept the gift of their sacrifice ...

Help us to shape and make a world where we will lay down the arms of war and turn our swords into plough shares for a harvest of justice and peace ...

Comfort those who grieve the loss of their loved ones and let your healing be the hope in our hearts...

Hear our prayer this day and in your mercy answer us in the name of all that is holy.

The peace of God be with you.

Austin Fleming

Source: Jesuitresource.com

www.thesowerofseeds.com

frankpaul@thesowerofseeds.com

copyright@TheSeedSower2026

The Sower of Seeds

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North Olmsted, Ohio 44070

(Disclaimer:  What you are reading is all me, with the exception of some articles I include by other Christian authors, but I always give them credit and their own byline.

 I enjoy writing and creating. So I use no AI writing assist programs, nor will I ever going forward. Thank you.)