Bringing In The Sheaves... Certainly no one wants to hear about my sinus infection and my bout with bronchitis over the holidays. There is something very depressing about listening to someone else's aches and pains. As a rule, the first mention of it directs us toward the nearest exit and to happier thoughts. Another way to send the masses running for cover is to talk about sin...it ruins their day every time... This morning I found in my mailbox a little diddy on the "untimely deaths" of the rich and famous who had mocked God. I won't name all of those on the list, or what they said, I will name just one. Supposedly, Billy Graham was once sent by the Holy Spirit to preach to Marilyn Monroe. After listening politely to what he had to say, Marilyn informed Rev. Graham, "I don't need your Jesus." She was found dead just days later. What is it that sends people fleeing from the mention of sickness, disease, sin and death? Wouldn't it be better to stop, turn around and confront the thing, look it square in the eye and rebuke it, put it under the feet, repent of any known sin and crush it's power once and for all? That's what the prophets do - that's what the intercessors do - that's what the warriors in God's army do - they fight the enemies of our soul. The saint may die of his sickness, but if he dies in the Lord, he is delivered up to Glory more alive than he has ever been, healed and every whit whole in every way, and he will understand that his sickness, and even his death, was by God's Grace and sometimes for God’s Glory. God could take his children home without sickness, and often does. But sometimes He chooses to allow a debilitating disease for reasons we cannot know until we get to heaven. Sometimes it is to stir up the humility of the saint himself, to cause him to lean more on Jesus, or to keep him quiet for personal reflections of his past and the promises of God's Grace, to give him understanding and prepare him for his journey home. Or perhaps that he be an example of child-like faith to others. Sometimes affliction is allowed to awaken the family, or a particular family member, to the frailties of men, the eternity of the soul and man’s need of a Savior. One day they too will face the end of the road and when they do, what will they see in the distance... One does not have to be a popular role model or a world-wide influence to make a difference in the world. Needless to say we have enough immoral role models and we certainly have more than enough anti-Christ influences in this world, and they are not shy in advertising what they are selling. But one can also make a positive difference in the home, in the neighborhood, in the workplace, the school, the PTA and the church. Whenever and wherever the opportunity opens, speak out for Jesus, speak out in love and let God's Grace cover the thing. We don't have to be famous. We can be effective just being ordinary people living ordinary lives, doing every day chores and having every day fun. Helping to change the life of just one person can affect dozens that that person has contacts with, and those dozens will contact hundreds who will then contact thousands that you will never know about until you get to heaven. It is like a snowball, and it can begin in your own front yard... You may have to listen to a lot of people talk about their aches and pains. You may have to be sensitive to a neighbor who is suffering emotionally when you would rather be making cookies for this Friday's outing, and you may have to put up with a lot of verbal abuse and persecution from the anti-Christ bullies that plague your community, but if you find yourself a target, in court or in jail, remember that Jesus was a target too. He was also taken to court and was lashed and mocked in the jailhouse. Entering into His sufferings always changes a life from ordinary to extraordinary... In Galatians 2:20-21 we read: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." The law cannot save me, it can only convict and condemn me. My own works cannot save me. They are good but they have no power to save. I am saved by faith alone in the completed works of the Cross of Jesus Christ and the power and purity of His shed blood. It is the only salvation that God offers, and man’s only step of faith that God will accept… There is no doubt about it - if I am made in His image, crucified in His flesh, reborn of His Spirit and accepted in His Beloved, then I shall one day be raised in His glory. And I aim to take as many with me as I can. It will be an outing the likes of which has no precedent to liken it to. The cookies will be left behind, replaced with manna and all manner of fruit for there will be a wedding feast no banquet on earth has ever boasted... We don't want our children and our grandchildren to miss it. It will be the event of the season - even of all time - in both worlds. And we don't want to miss it...so we will watch the skies with anticipation, listen for the sound of the trumpet with all diligence, and be ready at a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, to answer the call that will lift us higher and higher into His glorious presence for all eternity. Did you know there is a special crown for those that love His appearing? That is how powerful and special that day will be. Let's make a list of all those family members we need to reach out and touch with the Good News. Let's make another list of all those we need to bring back from backsliding. Let's make a third list of all those friends and neighbors we need to sit down with over a cup of tea, and another list of those that we know are our enemies and put them all on our "urgent" prayer list. Then let's pick up the telephone and plan a tea party some afternoon, or a Bible Quiz party or perhaps a simple gathering of senior citizens for lunch and lively conversation. Let's get serious with God and with the times and do the unpredictable in this prophetically predictable world. No one will expect great things to come from such simple parlor maneuvers, no one that is but Jesus, so we’ll do it anyway, remembering that where two or more are gathered in His name, He is there in the midst of them. We can dare to touch the un-Godly, the un-lovely and the un-kind and we can make a difference because Jesus IS the difference that makes it so. If we will step out to plow and prepare HIS field of dreams, He will come and He will cover it with His glory. If we will make Him our hiding place, our treasured place of refuge, He will be our fortress and our high tower. If we love Him we will share Him. We will not let the aches and pains and arthritis stop us. We will not let the slowness of our speech or our movements stop us. We will not let age or weakness stop us. As long as we have breath, we will speak. As long as we have life, we will speak. As long as we have strength, we will speak. We will live and not die, to declare the oracles of God, until God takes us home... It is a new year. It is the cold heart of winter, not the warm days of harvest at all. Nonetheless, every season is a season for bringing in the sheaves, and we shall come rejoicing – even with all our aches and pains and sufferings, we shall come into His holy presence, bringing in the sheaves… Joan Krempel
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