It's Febuary and almost time to plant the spring gardens.Did you know that gardening is something God ordained us to do? Genesis 3:23 reads;"Therefore the Lord God sent him (Adam) forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken." God told Adam to "till" the ground, to create his own garden. To truly work in a garden you have to be willing to get "dirty".
My late father was a United Methodist minister. In the late 60's, he was given three churches in and around Jasper,Texas to minister. My father had services in town every Sunday morning, then he'd go to either Neilley Grove or Jamestown to preach. Those two churches were in the "country" as we called it. They were made up of people who lived off their land and most had farm animals and large gardens. They didn't have alot of money so sometimes they paid Dad food from their gardens. There were times that I would have to go and pick peas or dig up potatoes. It was a hard and dirty job harvesting in those gardens.
Did you know that we are living in one gigantic garden? In today's passage,Jesus told his disciples;"The harvest truly is plenteous,but the labourers are few" In other words there are alot of people ready to recieve the Word of God but not enough that are willing to get down and dirty to give it to them. Most of us have never had to harvest anything. We go to our stores and choose things that have been already harvested for us, we don't have to get dirty.
Everyday we are given the chance to get dirty . We are given the chance to bring the Good News to people whom are ready to be harvested.That is all The Lord wants us to do. He wants us to proclaim His word in this dirty, sin sick world. Every chance we get we should be at work in God's garden. There is pruning to do! There is weeding to do! There is watering to do!There is nurtering to do! It's time to get dirty!!!
One of the hardest things to do is to bear witness to the goodness of God. It's easy for us to talk about the harvest,but hard for us to be apart of it. You know the times God is leading you to speak a Word to someone you don't know or even care about.There has been many times that the Spirit has lead me to speak a Word to someone, but fear of rejection lead me not to. We just don't want to get "dirty". We are content with others doing the harvest just like we are when we go to the store.
Today I challenge you to be apart of the harvest! It's truly time to listen to the Holy Spirit and get "dirty" with the Lord!! The Lord will not send you on a suicide mission! He will be there with you, giving you the words to say.It's time to punch the clock and go to work for our Lord! It's time to get dirty!!!
"Father we pray today that we get deep down and dirty with you in your harvest. We don't want others doing our work that we can do ourselves. Forgive us when we fail to heed your Holy Spirit and bring your Word when you lead us to do so. This is our prayer in the name of Jesus,Amen!"
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