Lessons Learned From Farmers About The Harvest

The other day I took my nieces and nephew out to Lost Nation, Iowa for one of our “adventures “. As we drove along the back roads we saw many fields with combines working on the fields bringing in the harvest. This got me to thinking about the spiritual harvest that Jesus talked about .

Someone had to plant the seeds.
With who and where are you actively sowing and planting seeds to bring someone to Jesus? A harvest doesn’t just happen. You and I have to be intentional about reaching others for Jesus.


Someone maintained the field over time.
 During the spring and summer the farmer was out there daily working doing what needed to be done so that as much as he was responsible for he could have a successful harvest . We maintain a potential spiritual harvest by daily prayer for others, treating others the way we want to be treated, sacrificing our time to help others , etc....

Someone did the work of reaping the harvest.
In God’s kingdom sometimes we reap the harvest of the person we were working on. Many times , we reap the harvest that others worked on. Regardless, we must be ready to do the work of reaping the harvest. The farmers we saw on our trip were out past dark reaping the harvest. This reminded me that reaping the harvest isn’t always on our timetable or when it is comfortable for us. I’m sure that farmer had other things he would have rather been doing rather than sitting on a combine or tractor past dark. But he knew it was time to reap.

 Finally, all these farmers had sown seed with expectancy.
They expected a harvest. They didn’t sow seed with the expectation that nothing would come of it. Are you expecting a harvest with the seed you are sowing in others lives?

In my own life I have been blessed to see this process play out over and over. ( and it’s not solely because of being a pastor. Many times it has been outside of what I was doing at church).
I have sowed seeds with some individuals and it took over 10 years before there was a harvest. Some people I sowed seeds on, but others reaped the harvest. Sometimes, others sowed the seed on a individual, but I reaped the harvest. The point? Always be about working the field and there will be a harvest.

Please , be encouraged . I am someone who had didn’t necessarily have religious classes as a child as others. As a teenager and young adult the only time I was in a church was for a wedding or funeral. I didn’t start following Jesus until I was almost 28. If God can use me to reap a spiritual harvest in other’s lives , he can use you.

I’d like to leave you with some verses in the Bible on harvest:

 “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭9:36-38‬ ‭

“Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."”
‭‭John‬ ‭4:34-38‬ ‭

“What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭3:5-9‬

Troy

How to develop our faith in God

It has been said that life is a series of choices. With that being said, everyday we are given the choice to choose faith or not. Choosing faith is not easy by any means of the imagination. It is a challenge to choose faith , but in this whole following Jesus journey we are on, it is required.

Without it we can’t please God....
“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:6‬ ‭

With it we see God move miraculously in our lives. Jesus was always moved by people who exercised faith.

For those who attend church and read their Bibles somewhat regularly it is possible not to unite what we hear and read , with faith. That is how the children of Israel are described . They heard God’s Word, but they didn’t unite it with faith.

“For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4:2‬

Even people around Jesus didn’t see some miracles because of not exercising faith.

“And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13:58‬ ‭

So how do we develop faith ? We have to get to know the One who we are putting our faith in. I mean we don’t trust someone we don’t know.

How do we get to know God? By reading our Bibles and praying. So often people who don’t regularly read their Bibles or pray tell me they have trouble trusting God . I have to let them know it’s hard at times for those who read and pray regularly, it’s going to be near impossible for someone who doesn’t because you don’t know him.

Reading our Bibles helps us to see what God is like. The more we read the more we see that throughout the Bible,  He remained faithful to what He promised. Though life was difficult at times , He remained faithful.

When we pray we develop our “conversation “ with God. We learn that prayer isn’t just talking , but also learning how to listen.

These two disciplines help us develop our relationship with God. They help us to get to know what God is like so that we can put our trust in Him.

By having relationships with people we have learned who we can trust and who we can’t . We know which person will be on time , we know which person will be late . We know who is reliable, we know who isn’t. We learned these things about people in our lives over time spent with people.

So remember to develop a relationship with God start reading your Bible and praying . As you get to know Him more you will find that it gets easier to trust Him because now you are getting to know who you are putting your trust in. You are getting to know His character, what He is like. As that develops then start trusting Him with areas in your life . You will begin to  learn and see that He is faithful . This will then help to develop that all important important area of faith.

It won’t always be easy to put our faith in a God we can’t see, but at least by doing these disciplines we will have developed a relationship with God . These disciplines done regularly will help to develop our faith. Remember, God wants to show you He is faithful . Because He loves us so much , He wants us to trust Him. Just as you want those who you love to trust you. So He has made a way for us to develop our trust/ faith in Him.

Troy

Increasing Your Depth Of Worship

If you have come to faith in Jesus and are now living out your faith, all of us at some point want to grow in our depth of worship. I have recently been reading Play The Man by Mark Batterson. There is a passage in the book in which he writes about how we grow in depth about certain subjects, which he then correlates to us growing in our depth of worship.


.....During a rather fascinating TED talk, an expert in visual perception named Ed Seckel showed the audience a wide variety of images. One of them was a stenciled drawing of a couple intimately embracing. The audience immediately recognized what it was, but according to Seckel, children have no clue ! Why ? Because they have no prior memory to associate with it. Some of the kids said they saw nine dolphins!

You can't see what you don't know !

In his mind- bending book Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot, Richard Restak shares a profound truism: learn more, see more.

The richer my knowledge of flora and fauna of the woods, the more I'll be able to see. Our perceptions take on richness and depth as a result of all the things that we learn. What the eye sees is determined by what the brain has learned.

When astronomers look into the night sky, they have a greater appreciation for the constellations, stars, and planets. They see more because they know more. When musicians listen to a symphony, they have a greater appreciation for the chords, melodies, and instrumentation. They hear more because they know more. When sommeliers sample a wine, they have a greater appreciation for the flavor, texture, and origin. They taste more because they know more.
Now , juxtapose that with this:
 You Samaritans worship what you do not know.
John 4:22

The Samaritans were worshiping God out of ignorance. And when we worship out of ignorance, our worship is empty. We don't even know who or what or why we're worshiping!

Have you ever been guilty of apologizing to your wife without really knowing what you're sorry about? You just want to end the argument ! I've been guilty of this a time or two, and sometimes my wife calls my bluff. Lora will ask me what I'm sorry about, and she's got me dead to rights. I have no clue what I'm sorry about. I'm just sorry !

That kind of apology is disingenuous, isn't it? If you don't even know what you're sorry about, it's an empty apology. And many of us worship God the same way. We sing the words on the screen, but do we really know what they mean? If God interrupted our singing and asked us why we're singing what we're singing, we'd be speechless.

Jesus offers a solution:
God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth.
John 4:24 

We think of spiritual and intellectual pursuits as mutually exclusive endeavors, but they are one and the same. Great love is born of great knowledge. In fact, your knowledge is your worship ceiling!

Knowledge does not automatically translate into worship. But in some respects, quality of worship is determined by quantity of knowledge. The more you know, the more you have to worship.

Learn more, worship more.

Our Words

I don't know about you, but every now and then I come by a passage in the Bible that troubles me. Not because I don't believe it , but because I know it's something that's true and the thought of it being true makes me have to address the issue that is being said in the Bible. So here is a passage that does that to me :

“But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12:36-37‬ ‭


Yep , there it is........ our words!!!!

How often have you or I said something to someone or about someone that we shouldn't have? How often have we when we go to say something mean to a person or about a person try to throw this disclaimer in there ......... just kidding!!!

According to the verse above the whole just kidding thing isn't going to fly before God.
See, we can say just kidding , but the Bible teaches that God knows what's going on in our hearts.


“Would not God find this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭44:21‬ 

“And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; 
‭‭Luke‬ ‭16:15‬a

He knows whether we are really kidding or not, and I guess the bottom line is that if it comes to putting someone down or making fun of them, does it really need to be said?

Read this next passage from Proverbs 26 and notice how often there is a reference to words being used.


“Just as damaging as a madman shooting a deadly weapon is someone who lies to a friend and then says, “I was only joking.” Fire goes out without wood, and quarrels disappear when gossip stops. A quarrelsome person starts fights as easily as hot embers light charcoal or fire lights wood. Rumors are dainty morsels that sink deep into one’s heart. Smooth words may hide a wicked heart, just as a pretty glaze covers a clay pot. People may cover their hatred with pleasant words, but they’re deceiving you. They pretend to be kind, but don’t believe them. Their hearts are full of many evils. While their hatred may be concealed by trickery, their wrongdoing will be exposed in public. If you set a trap for others, you will get caught in it yourself. If you roll a boulder down on others, it will crush you instead. A lying tongue hates its victims, and flattering words cause ruin.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭26:18-28‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Our words matter! I’m not saying God needs to get in agreement with our words; our words need to get in agreement with God.

Here are a few closing thoughts.

Our Words Connect Us To God

Psalm 107:20 says, He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.

God sent His word.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus is also known as The Word, The Logos.

There was a chasm—a grand canyon—between God and man called “sin.” So, God sent His Son—the Word—to span that chasm. Do you know how we receive salvation?

Romans 10:8a says, The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.

The Bible connects the mouth and the heart many times. So, God reaches us by sending His Word. Words are how we connect with God.

Words Can Either Connect Us Or Disconnect Us


The way we connect with God is through our words, and the way we connect with people is through our words. Think about whenever you have had a disconnect with someone. Words were involved. They were either involved with what you said or what they said. Words were involved.

If you want a good marriage, watch your mouth. Some people have a bad marriage because they have a bad mouth.(I'm not speaking of using bad language, but of always complaining or putting down their spouse) You’re speaking death over your marriage.

Now I'm not a name it claim it person or don't speak this or that otherwise it will come true for your life ( like some people who are sick go to the extreme that they don't want to admit they are sick) But, be careful of the words you use concerning your finances, your family, or your health.


 I like to rib my buddies and all of that stuff, but putting others down for the sake of a few laughs is never good.

Transition from speaking words of consistent sarcasm or putting people down to using language as a blessing for your spouse, co-workers, family members, and everyone else.


 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. 
Colossians 4:6

 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear
Ephesians 4:29

I close by telling you this story: Over my 20 years of ministry I have seen many gifted people. What is sad is when you see someone who has been gifted by God and yet their mouth/words keeps them from being effectively used for the kingdom of God. But, it's not just ministry. There are those who could advance in their jobs to a place of leadership but , they always have to joke, they put others down. Whatever it is, once again in all these situations words are being used.


Of course Jesus himself gives the final zinger:
For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.
Matthew 12:34b

Now hopefully you can see how all of these things connect and why I am constantly asking for forgiveness and trying to watch what I say........ Jesus says it all comes down to the state of our hearts.

Let's go to God and ask Him to deal with our hearts so that our words will reflect that His Spirit is inside of us.

Whether it’s a family member, a coworker, or a stranger, when we talk to or about others,  let's use words that edify and encourage!

Troy

Things I Came Across This Past Week August 7-11 2017

Quotes:

Get God's plan before making your own plans.

Your primary way of building yourself up should never be tearing others down.

Carey N 

Truth for the day:  "Every person will suffer one of two things:  Either the pain of discipline or the pain of regret."

God gave you a gift. Find it, embrace it, and then share it with the world.

Wise men are not always silent, but they know when to be.

Spiritual maturity isn't about how much you know. It's about how much you love.

“No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted” - Aesop

We can see only relatively . But internally, in our hearts, we commonly assume that what we see is the way things are, and that others, if they were seeing accurately, would see things the way we do. 

Mark Labberton 

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. —ALBERT EINSTEIN

When you choose to forgive those who have hurt you, you take away their power.

From Books:

A Grace Revealed
By Gerald Sittser
I long for that kind of spirit to permeate my own story, and I feel reasonably certain you feel the same way. How can we get there? Does it depend entirely on our own efforts, our initiative and creativity and persistence, our faith and goodness? I don’t think so.

......In order for our lives to be characterized by such a spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit must be working in us. Paul links this work of the Spirit to the new covenant promise God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36: 26–28)

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3: 17–18)

This vision of transformation is no mere theological abstraction. We truly need the Holy Spirit, as much as we need food and oxygen and sleep, companionship and affection. The reason is simple enough: we are not God, and we do not self-exist.


......It strikes me as strange that people who know they are utterly dependent on physical, emotional, and social resources outside themselves for their very survival still think they can manage on their own in the spiritual life. They embark on some quest to find the “god within,” though they would never embark on a similar quest to find the “air within” or the “food within” or the “community within.”

Union with Christ
By Rankin Wilbourne

 In the Garden of Eden, this was what the serpent called into question—the goodness of God (Gen. 3: 4–6). And that question remains today underneath every temptation we face: Do you believe the Lord intends good for you? If only we could see how much God desires our good, then we would never choose against God’s will for our lives. Therefore, the remedy to our deepest wound and the antidote to Satan’s most venomous lie is a sure and certain confidence in the goodness of God toward us. Only those who believe in his grace will have the power to obey him. Because we are relentless in trying to justify our lives, because we will use anything, even our virtue, to keep God at a distance, we can’t hear this song of grace too loudly or too often. We always need to hear it at full volume. All the way up. Undiluted. In all of its shocking candor. Grace abounds. I’m thankful for those writers who, against the fear that such talk of God’s lavish grace will lead to a life of license, dare to keep turning up the volume on grace—all the way to full blast. Amazing grace. This is the song that breaks into our hearts and changes everything. Grace changes everything. Believe the gospel of grace. Come and rest.

Hearing From God
By David Stine
What has God spoken to you in previous seasons that you can stand on in this season? If you do not have anything that you know He spoke, spend some time this week listening for His voice and asking Him to lead you where He wants you to go. If it is still unclear,look at the desires that are in your heart, and if they line up with God’s Word and what you believe would please Him, I encourage you to walk in that direction. As I mentioned earlier, if you keep your heart humble and your ear listening for His voice, He will redirect you if you ever step off course. I believe as you step out in faith with God, you are going to be amazed at His goodness.

Here is a link to a good read from Harvard Business Review
how-you-define-the-problem-determines-whether-you-solve-it


With the passing of Glen Campbell this past week here are a few videos of him to enjoy.

I'm Not Gonna Miss You


Back Home In Indiana

Wichita Lineman

Jesus At His Baptism And What It Means For Us

The following is an excerpt from 3-2-1 The Story of God, The World and You by Glen Scrivener.

Let’s return to a scene we touched on in the last chapter: Jesus’ baptism. This was his grand unveiling –a public launch event at the Jordan River with hundreds in attendance. The people were there to be washed in a religious ritual. It was a confession to God and the world: ‘I am a mess,’ ‘I’m a failure,’ ‘I’m filthy and I need a bath.’

We all know that there is a mess out there in the world. These people were confessing to a mess in their own hearts. So they came to be washed –that is, to be baptised. Stunningly, while they were all confessing to their filth, the Son of God shows up. And he doesn’t judge them, he joins them. He lines up with the messy people –shoulder to shoulder with all the moral failures –and he gets baptised. What is he doing? He’s joining us in our failure, so we can join him in his family.

 The Gospel-writer Luke describes the scene: When all the people were being baptised, Jesus was baptised too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ Luke 3:21-22

Normally heaven is closed to us. We don’t naturally have an angle on divine realities but here God is opening up to us and the picture we see is both strange and wonderful. When ‘the Jesus-God’ opens up, we see a loving union of THREE.

Here is the Christian vision of God and it’s utterly unique. For Christians, God is a Father loving his Son (Jesus) and filling him with his Spirit. At first glance we see THREE, but look closer and we understand how completely united they are. We see Jesus, but instantly we see that he is the Son of a Father and filled with his Spirit. We notice the Spirit, but the Spirit seems to be flowing from the Father to the Son. We hear the Father, but the Father is sending his Spirit and rapt in delight for his Son. When we understand each person, we realise how utterly dependent they are on the other two. They are THREE, but these three are one –forever united in love.

At the Jordan River we see what it looks like when heaven is ‘opened’. This is what there has always been. Before there was a world, there were these THREE in perfect harmony.

The night before Jesus died, he prayed publicly. Addressing his Father, he said, ‘you loved me before the creation of the world’.  What’s deeper than the universe? What’s the foundational principle of existence? Jesus says he was there before the universe began. What was it like? According to Jesus it was a Father pouring out love to his Son in the joy of the Holy Spirit. If you could open up heaven and look inside you would see precisely what they saw at the baptism: Jesus the beloved Son of the Father, filled with the Holy Spirit. The deepest reality of all is this union of love.

......The Tri-unity (or Trinity) is the loving unity of these three: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The word is not so important; its significance is cosmic: it means that love really is ultimate. The universe has come from love, been shaped by love and is made for love.

.....Jesus is the one from heaven who comes to us with an unparalleled view of God. ‘The Jesus-God’ is not a God we would have imagined by ourselves. No-one would invent ‘the Trinity’ as a religious comfort blanket. Jesus brings to the world the strangest and most surprising vision of God.

You Are More Than The Bad Choices You Have Made

“By faith Moses, when he had grown up,refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,”
Hebrews 11:24-25

The phrase that gets my attention is "passing pleasures of sin". There is something we find enjoyable about committing sin, otherwise we wouldn't do it. I mean, I'm not using my common sense if I keep doing something that isn't enjoyable. 
So sin does bring pleasure to us. 

But the word before pleasure is passing. It is a passing pleasure. We find pleasure in certain sins but it is a passing pleasure. 

 But the part I want to mention is the part that we don't listen to when we are tempted. Not only is it just a passing pleasure but, after we do it eventually there is a price to pay, there are consequences. Guilt, regret, are just a few of the consequences we experience. Not to mention that sometimes our lives are even changed. 

I don't know if I haven't met one person who isn't living with regrets or some type of guilt. And this is where I want to try to bring some encouragement. Eventually the enemy of our souls will come to us and tell us that all we are is the sum of all our bad choices we have made in life. If we are not rooted in God's Word or God's love for us we will believe it. We may do other activities to try and drown out that voice but it will still be there. And the strange thing is, the activities we do to try to forget about our guilt and regrets usually lead to more guilt and shame. 

But, God's Word says we are more than the bad choices we have made in life. 
God's Word says in spite of the bad choices we have made, God still loves us. 
The Bible is full of people who made bad choices. Peter, Paul, Matthew, Moses, just to name a few. The difference was they went to God or I should say God came to them and initiated the restoration process. And now when we think of them we don't think of all their wrong choices in life, we think of the right choices they made. The same can be true for you.

So here is what I propose:
1. Get into God's Word and start learning about His great love for you.
2. You've made some bad choices in life. We all have. Go to Jesus and ask for forgiveness. I have found that God is more eager to forgive us than we are to be forgiven.
3. Develop a relationship with Jesus. The Bible says there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Begin to live for Him.
4. Ask Him to help you to live for Him. 
5. Remember, you are more than the bad choices you have made in life.


 Here was a tweet I came by the other day.
"No person, no situation, no tragedy, and no sin can separate you from God’s ruthless love."
 @jamesbryansmith

You see, the One who never made a bad choice took all of our wrong choices upon Himself on the cross. He bore the punishment of all our bad and wrong choices so that we wouldn't have to. Jesus is the reason we aren't just the sum of all the bad choices we have made in life. 

Troy