Month: January 2022

Winter Work in the Orchard

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Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2

When the average person hears the word apple, they picture a bin overflowing with ripened fruit at the farmer’s market, but for me, having pruned, sprayed, and harvested apple trees for more than a few years, it brings back memories of Wintertime in the orchards. I remember again that it takes four seasons to grow a single apple. In today’s verse, Paul tells us to be ready to do God’s work “Out of season”.  We need to live and love and serve, not only when the sun is warm and things are sweet, but also when the snow drifts stand around us and our sap is hidden deep underground. In an orchard there is always something to be done, and Winter is actually even busier than Fall. Trees that are left to themselves in the off season, produce smaller, more diseased and fewer apples each year. Winter is the time to cut out fire blighted branches, before they spread their deadly bacteria to the rest of the tree. Then, we must cut out the tall sucker growth that saps energy from the hard-working fruit wood. Last, and perhaps saddest of all, we have to saw off once fruitful limbs that have succumbed to age, disease or damage done by storms. In the same way that Paul tells Timothy about his work with the church, this activity is not just something to keep us busy in the off season. It must sometimes be performed regularly and in the worst possible working conditions. Even on days when temperatures barely creep above 0˚ Fahrenheit, we reprove uncontrolled selfish growth, rebuke the diseased limbs and exhort and encourage faithful fruitful branches. And on the day we finish an orchard, there is no sight more beautiful, than looking out over orderly stands of well-trimmed trees and seeing with eyes of faith the harvest to come.  Yet, even as we walk away with relieved smiles, we know that there will always be a next Winter when someone must patiently return. We remember that without our, “Out of season” work the harvest will never make it to market.

Photo by Cup of Couple on Pexels.com

Longing to Know Him

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That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death – Philippians 3:10 ESV

Sometimes I have thought it strange that the Apostle Paul shares that He has a desire to know Christ. I mean of all the people, surely Paul knew Christ better than anyone. Yet Paul pauses in his letter to tell his friends that even after serving God for years, through both success and suffering, now locked in a Roman jail he still longs to really know Christ. How can this be? Did Paul not know the Jesus who had met him on the road to Damascus? Was this not the man who was spoken to by angels and had been used to spread the gospel to half the known world? If he didn’t know Jesus, then what about the rest of us? But I believe that what Paul is saying, is that he needs to do more than know – he needs to experience the power and presence of Jesus Christ. It is like when a child cries at night. He knows his parents are right in the next room, but he needs them to come closer. He wants them to come near enough to touch, near enough to remind Him again, that they are there and that he is their child. Paul in his prison cell, was that child. In spite of all he had accomplished for Christ and all He had seen in visions and dreams; Paul knew that he needed to know more of Jesus Christ. He needed to rest in His power and to take comfort that Christ shared in his sufferings. He longed to find there, right in that jail cell, the assurance that God was with Him and that he was right where he belonged. What do you need today? Jesus says to simply ask, and He promises that we will receive. When we really pray, God really listens, and He promises to come so that we can know Him more!

God’s Grocery List

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These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:11-12

“Brother do you love me?” asked one of my jokester friends at Bible college one day. I was kind of puzzled where Jose was going with this so I decided to play along. “Okay Jose. I love you. What do you need?’ I answered. “Then obey my commandments!” he shouted with a big grin. Now that is a special memory and kind of a funny story that I still carry after fifty years, but it got me to thinking about Jesus and His commandment. We might think about it this way – the Pharisees had a list of six hundred plus commandments, Moses gave us ten, but Jesus narrowed the list down to one. Think of it like me going into the grocery store. In my hand is a list of four things which my wife has carefully written down. Nancy being a detail person usually includes things like the brand, and size she needs and even the aisle where I can find her items. Imagine her response if I returned home with two of the four things missing! Yet this happens every day with us. Jesus only left us one commandment – love one another as I have loved you.” Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s why everybody loves Jesus! Jewish people love him as a great teacher, Muslims love Him as a general in God’s army, Hindus love His peaceful resistance to unjust authority and even a good number of professed atheists think He was a nice guy. The reason these folks generally never show up for church has a lot less to do with Jesus than with how we flop at obeying His commandment.

So how can we do better? First, we could start remembering that His great commandment is not a nice suggestion. Swindlers and sick folks, strangers and thieves all felt right at home with Jesus. They each came to Him, not because He was one of them; but because they knew that He cared about them and was ready to help at any hour of the day or night. The problem is they often don’t feel that way with us. So then, who can I love today like Jesus loved me? I am convinced that God has a detailed grocery list that includes their brand, size and location and we can be assured that it will be the joy of His heart to show us exactly how if we are ready to obey!