It’s officially here! Fall!
We look forward to crisp, cool mornings! Harvests all over Mississippi are coming in. Sweet potatoes, corn in some places, soybeans, cotton and grain sorghum, as well as pumpkins, apples and muscadines. Didn’t God bless us to be able to grow all these wonderful crops!
Crops in Mississippi bring in an estimated $2.51 billion! Soybeans come in with $1.02 billion, making it our most valuable crop; corn at $619 million; cotton at $333 million; and hay at $186.3 million (MDAC).
Let’s think about how God created this process in our world. The soil has to be made ready for the seed, the seed has to be planted, the seeds and small plants have to have water and nutrients from the soil along with sunshine, weeds have to be controlled and removed, and we wait for the plants to produce the harvest!
There are pests, diseases and weather conditions that threaten the harvest all during planting time. The farmer has to be vigilant to protect the seeds from birds, squirrels and deer while they turn into mature plants and bear fruit. You say, duh, of course there are things that impede or reduce the harvests: too much rain, not enough rain, too hot a sun, not enough sun, poor seed quality, and unexpected pests.
It is amazing that harvests happen, isn’t it!
Now let’s apply the planting, nurturing and harvesting to the Gospel and our spiritual lives.
Preparing the soil. As we teach children, teens and adults about the truth of God from His Bible, we are preparing hearts and souls to be ready to receive the Gospel seed and have it grow in their lives. But the devil is working hard to stop the harvest!
Hard ground must be broken up. Hard hearts have to be softened, too. Jeremiah 4:3 tells us, “This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: ‘Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.’” Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground for it is the time to seek the Lord, that He may come and rain righteousness upon you.” We get to participate in God’s work.
Planting! I Corinthians 3:6-9: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.”
Farming is hard work. Spreading the Gospel and being a part of God’s work to save souls takes prayer, working together and being patient. The devil tries to thwart God’s plan.
Proverbs tells us, “He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.” As Christians, we are God’s children called to do His will. We don’t need to be asleep! We need to be busy with God’s work!
Matthew 9:37-38 gives Christians a wake-up call! “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of this harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” People are ready to turn to God and be saved! Who is telling them about Him? Who is leading them to Christ? Who is baptizing, teaching, encouraging the new Christians as they mature in Christ? Who is praying for God to give success to His work?
How terrible to leave the tomatoes, ripe and delicious, to rot in the field! How sad to see the sweet, golden corn destroyed by animals and dried up! How horrible to let people slip into hell!
How do you fit into God’s plan to harvest souls, be a part of God’s leading them from eternal punishment to eternal life with God, and teaching them that they, too, can be at work in the field of souls?
Are you sleeping?
