Tomato, tomoto, what does it matter?

11/7/2016 by William Hayes

This morning I had a dream.  I don’t write down many dreams, but this dream has stuck in my heart so deeply.  

When I awoke this morning, I was so impacted by this dream that I couldn’t forget about it.  Though the night was restless and this one part of the dream was so vivid and real.  This dream will sound funny, because it was about a tomato plant.  The only thing that came to my mind when I awoke was to find out what was meant about a tomato.  So I felt in my spirit to go to the library and look it up.  Normally I don’t go to Wikipedia for information, but God told me to.  It would be there that I would find the answer and the dream would be interpreted.   So after I looked it up, one thing stuck out to me.  There it said that the tomato was called “the fruit of paradise,” along with the saying that goes, “tomato, tomoto, what is the difference?”  And all of a sudden, the dream made total sense.

But first, let me tell you the dream:

I was walking down a dirt road; it seemed to be near an edge of a cliff on the right side.  It was a day like a summer day.  As I was walking down this road, I noticed a tomato plant to the right on the edge of a cliff or an overhang on the road all by itself.  I thought it was strange that a tomato plant would be growing there.  It had tomatoes on it, but it looked dry like it hadn’t been watered and it seemed to be to be in trouble.  The ground under it looked unstable.  I thought to myself, “why would anyone plant it there in such a bad area.”  Then this is where the dream got strange.  I decided to rescue or save this plant.  So I leaped off the road and sprawled out, reaching around the plant as if I was going to save it from the ground, which was starting to crumble away. 

So there I am, laying on the ground, sprawled out with my arms around this tomato bush.  I began to notice the ground under it is giving way and cracks begin to form and I can see the air or open ground below it.  I started to get nervous, because if the ground crumbles, not only will the tomato plant fall off the edge of this cliff, but I too will go with it.  

The cracks grew larger and larger, I could see below, and I’m thinking, “nobody has watered this plant in awhile and it is about to perish and me along with it.”  Just about that time, I hear a voice behind me say, “What are you doing?  That’s dangerous, are you crazy?”  That was the end of my dream.  I just wanted to save this tomato plant.  That’s the dream.

The plant is the gospel and the tomato is the fruit of Christ of God’s people.  The color red of the tomato is the blood of Jesus.  The cliff is the place where careless leaders have left God’s people all alone, unwatered.  The lack of Water is the Holy Spirit that is missing from the gospel message preached today.  The crumbling of the ground around the root of the plant represents the lack of a strong and well-watered foundation of the gospel to support the people or church of Christ.  The cracks represent the church about to loose it’s foundation of the Word of God in a dry and parched ground and the falling away from the Truth of Jesus Christ’s true gospel.   I was representing the few who are willing to put their lives on the line at any cost to save God’s people and reaching out to the lost from falling away at this hour.  Though I’m not saying this to puff up myself, but few are willing to carry their cross and be fools and spectacles before angels and men.  The voice represents the world, the enemy, and the flesh saying constantly to us, “what are you doing?  That’s dangerous, are you crazy?”

Let us tell the people of God the whole hard truth, and quit watering down the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  Because Jesus is saying:

Mat 25:30-36  “And cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory:

and before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats;

and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in;

naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”

Read the whole chapter of Mathew 25, it is very direct!

James 2:14-26   “What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him?

 If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food,

  and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit?

Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself.

Yea, a man will say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith apart from thy  works, and I by my works will show thee my faith.

Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and shudder.

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?

Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect;

and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God.

 Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.

And in like manner was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?

 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.”

Hebrews 11:30-40, 12:1-4  “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been compassed about for seven days.

By faith Rahab the harlot perished not with them that were disobedient, having received the spies with peace.

And what shall I more say? for the time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David and Samuel and the prophets:

who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens.

Women received their dead by a resurrection: and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

and others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated

(of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth.

And these all, having had witness borne to them through their faith, received not the promise,

God having provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls.

Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin:”

Conclusion:

Rom 12:1  “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.” 

From Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, to the disciples sacrifices, to the early Christians sacrifices, and now our brothers and sisters suffering around the world! 

I speak this to the arm chair Christian, pew sitting believers in America.  Why won’t we lift a finger to save a soul or even do what it takes to save their own nation.  So when and how will we bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ?!