Month: September 2021

Harvest Time

/ pastorpete51 / 7 Comments

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23 NLT

Now that we have retired to Florida, I miss seeing the leaves change, feeling a nip of frost in the air and finding fresh apple cider at the market in September. While I was working I spent several decades pruning apple trees during the winter and then watching in delight as they blossomed in May, started forming little green apples in June and standing ready for harvest in September. Then harvesters began arriving and worked through mid-October. The orchards were ready for them with special housing set aside for those workers, many of whom came every year. They picked the old classics like Macintosh and Cortland as well as newly minted favorites like Honey Crisp. Even the trees are all different. Some are tall, needing ladders to reach the sweet fruit far up in the crown, while dwarf varieties can be picked with both feet firmly on the ground. But no matter what variety of apple, or what kind of tree they are picked from, they all share one thing in common. Their fruit is picked and sent to people who wait eagerly to bake them into pies or put into them into bowls on their kitchen tables. Only wild trees stand unattended and unpicked, yet even these provide their harvest for deer, rabbits and squirrels. No one picks apples and then dumps them under the trees as fertilizer.

Yet that is often what we Christians think we should do. We are God’s orchard because He has planted us (all different varieties). In winter He has pruned us and in Springtime sent rain. In summer His sunshine has helped us grow, then at harvest we are given the privilege to bear the fruit of His Spirit. But we see baskets filled with love, joy peace, and patience, thinking, “Hooray! It’s all for me!” We show up for church, raise our hands and sing joyfully. Then we sweep out the doors, soaking in the peace of God’s Spirit. But is there an apple or two of kindness left for the waitress who is slow with our lunch? Can we share a piece of joy filled pie with a crabby relative or pour a glass of the fresh pressed cider of patience for a neighbor who has an opposing political view? Is God’s sweet fruit only for us or are we ready to load our bushel baskets filled with goodness and mercy and head to the marketplace to share them with our hungry world?

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All Things

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And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

When I think of all things working together for good I wonder how that fits into my real world of all things and remember that September 10th, 2001 my wife and I returned from visiting her family in San Francisco. We landed in Newark early in the evening and drove home, worn out and ready for bed. I slept soundly, got up and had my morning coffee and prayer time, then headed off to work with my landscaping business. About ten o’clock, as I was mowing a very large lawn of a doctor’s home, I saw his wife walking down the hill towards me, still dressed in her bathrobe. I turned off the tractor and looked up as she said, “Do you know the twin towers in New York? I just saw on the news that they fell down.”

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“What? Are you sure?” I asked incredulously “That’s impossible!”

“No Peter. Believe me, it’s true. A big plane hit one building a little while ago, then another just crashed into the other one and they went down – flat to the ground.”

At this point I turned off the mower shaking my head, unable to process what she had said. As she made her way back up to the house, I went over to where my truck was parked and turned on the local news channel. I was sure she couldn’t be right about that till I heard someone say, – “A terror attack.” –

“But who? Why? How?” This Saturday twenty years will have passed and I am still wondering how all things working together for good has anything to do with our nation and our world. But Paul is clear and after his experience which included, beatings, instead of promotions and imprisonment in place of popularity, he knew a thing or two about what all things might contain. If all things were good at all times for the Christian we would be in no need of the promise. But after our greatest dreams lie in the ashes of a terror attack, a dreaded disease or the broken promises of a relationship, God still keeps His promise. He still works for the good of those who love Him. And no matter what very real circumstance you are facing dear one, remember how all things looked from the cross. After feeding five thousand, healing blind eyes, comforting the hurting and walking on water, the feet of Jesus were nailed to a cross. He had been sold out for money by someone who called himself a friend, and denied and abandoned by all but His mother and John. There Jesus was given vinegar to drink while blood from the crown of thorns coursed down over His lips. That cross was the all things Jesus took for us. Instead of working out everything for good for Himself, He worked out a plan that included Heaven for us. Yes indeed all things do work together for good and one day when we leave all things behind of this life we have a promise of a home and a place to come and sit by His side!

Heaven’s Beauty Salon

/ pastorpete51 / 7 Comments

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22 ESV

When my grandfather came from Italy, he became a barber and all six children had to pitch in and help. Though my dad learned the ins and outs of barbering while he was growing up, after coming home from the war, he decided that styling lady’s hair paid better so he got his license as a hairdresser. By the time I was a teen-ager Dad had his own beauty salon and when he closed on Mondays to clean the store, He and I had some of our best talks while sweeping the floor together and cleaning the hair dryers. Dad loved telling funny stories about the shop and one of his favorites was that the ladies always made sure to wash their hair before coming in, then paid Him to wash it again. They just could not bear the thought of my dad finding that their hair wasn’t already squeaky clean! Now you might think that silly, but don’t we sometimes do the same thing with God? He invites us to come to Heaven’s beauty shop (the church) – dirty hair and all. But instead, we decide that we need to get washed up at home, or if we do show up, we just worship halfheartedly because we feel unworthy to really participate. But the craziest part of all is that, unlike dad’s clientele, we do not even have to pay the bill. Instead, God has chosen to pay in advance at Calvary, for everything we have ever done. He is not angry that we show up with needs and problems, instead He asks to take away our burden of sin and in exchange give us His yoke of grace. Then He gently lifts away the condemnation of guilt and leaves us a new life style. Then He proudly shows anyone who wants to know that our hair as well as our soul is squeaky clean and ready for Heaven!