True Autumn Glory

Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. 

Psalm 125:5-6

This is a timely verse for Autumn, a time of reaping what has been sown, of farm-stands dotted with orange pumpkins and squash and corn. 

  "Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow"--the image is of farmers who  carry onerous bags of seed across their fields, laboriously sowing row after row. Their work is so hard, the seed so heavy, they weep.   

"Will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them." But then they reap the bounty of harvest. The sheaves of wheat or other grain, are their reward. They have armfuls of them to show for their labor. Food for home and families.

   But I urge you to look past the agricultural image and see the deeper spiritual meaning. 

The "seed to sow" represents our prayers. We carry them to the Lord in what often feels like a burden, a labor.  

I don't know about you, but I can rarely come before God without shedding tears over the "seeds" I carry. The heartfelt pleas for lost loved ones, for needs and requests that, apart from grace, could weigh me down. 

I "plant" my seeds into the LORD's loving hands. And I know the joy will come. Answered prayer. Miracles. Intervention where none could be seen coming; help where none was expected; healing where there was hurt; saved souls where there was darkness and hopelessness. Sometimes the answer is "no," or "wait"--but plant the seed of prayer and joy is on the way.  

This is true Autumn glory--God's assurance that when we sow in tears, we will reap in joy. 

Weeping may tarry for the night,

    but joy comes with the morning. 
Psalm 30:5

A free book on Amazon this week may help you find determination to spend more time in prayer. The Lost Art of Intercession. I haven't read it yet but share it in the hope that it's well written and encouraging.  

Till next time,blessings and grace,Linore

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The Gospel in a Nutshell

This small portion of scripture explains the hope we have in Christ, succinctly and without any ado. Share it with someone new to the faith or someone seeking to understand what Christians believe. I like to keep this one near my phone to remind newer believers who may be struggling to feel "good enough" to deserve God's goodness. It's a great reminder that we never have to try and be anything we're not, including "good enough." Salvation is a gift, pure and simple.

"He saved us, but not because of anything we had done to gain his approval. Instead, because of his mercy he saved us through the washing in which the Holy Spirit gives us new birth and renewal. God poured a generous amount of the Spirit on us through Jesus Christ our Savior. As a result, God in his kindness has given us his approval and we have become heirs who have the confidence that we have everlasting life.

Titus 3:5-7

What about you? Do you have a favorite portion of scripture that gives the gospel in a nutshell? (Besides John 3:16, that is!)

Sometimes, just hearing the truth worded a little differently from that which we're most familiar with gives us a new opportunity to digest it more deeply or in a new way. And we can never tell ourselves the gospel too often.

Warmest blessings,

Linore

(Today's post is from John Piper's "Desiring God" blog. This topic is important to really understanding much of Scripture; as Piper says, it's a "principle." I think it's a vital one.)

One of the Most Important Principles in Reading the Bible

October 27, 2009 | By: John Piper | Category: Commentary

Sometimes readers of the Bible see the conditions that God lays down for his blessing and they conclude from these conditions that our action is first and decisive, then God responds to bless us.

That is not right.

There are indeed real conditions that God often commands. We must meet them for the promised blessing to come. But that does not mean that we are left to ourselves to meet the conditions or that our action is first and decisive.

Here is one example to show what I mean.

In Jeremiah 29:13 God says to the exiles in Babylon, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” So there is a condition: When you seek me with all your heart, then you will find me. So we must seek the Lord. That is the condition of finding him.

True.

But does that mean that we are left to ourselves to seek the Lord? Does it mean that our action of seeking him is first and decisive? Does it mean that God only acts after our seeking?

No.

Listen to what God says in Jeremiah 24:7 to those same exiles in Babylon: “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.”

So the people will meet the condition of returning to God with their whole heart. God will respond by being their God in the fullest blessing. But the reason they returned with their whole heart is that God gave them a heart to know him. His action was first and decisive.

So now connect that with Jeremiah 29:13. The condition there was that they seek the Lord with their whole heart. Then God will be found by them. But now we see that the promise in Jeremiah 24:7 is that God himself will give them such a heart so that they will return to him with their whole heart.

This is one of the most basic things people need to see about the Bible. It is full of conditions we must meet for God’s blessings. But God does not leave us to meet them on our own. The first and decisive work before and in our willing is God’s prior grace. Without this insight, hundreds of conditional statements in the Bible will lead us astray.

Let this be the key to all Biblical conditions and commands: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13). Yes, we work. But our work is not first or decisive. God’s is. “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).