THE HARVEST IS GREAT

Jesus said, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." matthew 9:37-38

This time of year it is easy for us to see the spiritual principles that Jesus was talking about; they are illustrated all around us as the harvest for another year is brought in. Our daughter, Rhiannon, works for a hybrid seed corn company. Right now that means long, long days of work as farmers hurry to get the harvest in while conditions are just right. Sometimes the work is monotonous. When the harvest is ready, there is no putting it off! You can't tell the corn not to dry on time. You can't tell it to wait in the field while you go shopping! When the harvest is ready, you must work!

How can we apply this to our lives as far as soul-winning goes? I was pondering that today. It seems most of us Christians have longed to be see revival most of our lives. We have prayed for it, hoped for it, worked for it. But are we ready to be a worker when the harvest is at our door? One guy in our church has humbly reminded us for years that we may not be ready if a huge harvest were to occur. Speaking of our church in particular, he has always admonished and encouraged us to prepare ourselves for the revival that we hope will come. He caused us to question whether or not we were ready to meet the needs of a number of new believers, should they suddenly be added to our ranks. New believers need attention and help. Just like a harvest, sometimes their needs can't wait while we get it together. Sometimes the work is long and monotonous!

Maybe we don't see widespread harvest because we are not ready. The Lord is certainly ready since the word says He is not willing that any should perish. We Christians need to have a plan, a dedication in ourselves that will stay the course and work the harvest as it is brought in. If churches were suddenly full, would we have the dedicated workers ready to disciple the new believers? Or are we too busy doing our own things? I would like to propose that if we are not dedicated enough to receive a harvest, possibly we are not doing the right things to reap the harvest to begin with. Ask yourself if you are mature enough yourself to help a new believer. Are there enough mature, dedicated disciples of the Lord ready to handle a large harvest?

These are thoughts to ponder as we pray. The Lord tells us that the harvest isn't the problem, it's the lack of workers. Interesting.

The above picture is the applesauce project. We finally finished earlier this week. I thought it was an appropriate pic to add to a blog about harvest. The apples are just one of the many crops being brought in right now in Michigan. That beautiful pink sauce is all natural color. The Jonathan apples mixed with Cortlands and MacIntosh made the lovely color. First we wash and core the apples, then quarter them and cook them in several pots on the stove. When they are mushy, we run them through the strainer you see in the picture. The skins go one way and the sauce comes out the other. After adding a bit of sugar, I put the finished sauce in jars, affix lids and run them through the pressure cooker. This year we got 27 quarts plus some to eat fresh! A big job done!!

Heading for the north tomorrow. Fall color report in a few days! Blessings, LORI

THANKFULNESS AND CANNING TOMATOES!

Hi, everybody! I've got to stray from commenting on the last few verses of 2 Peter for a day or so. Lots of other stuff got in the way....like tomatoes! Clint and I both had to make trips to Centreville today--me to pick up my now proofread manuscript of "A Sturdy Fence,"--and he to meet with a family concerning an upcoming funeral. So because we were combining our trips to save gas, I had to hurry and scurry to have the tomatoes at a point where I could leave the process. I asked him to take a few pictures, but his morning was consumed with studying in the book of James to prepare for tonight's Bible study. I could not take pictures, get the two big loads of laundry hung out, wash, cut, cook, and juice tomatoes plus be ready to go by 11:30! My real, true intent was to post pics of the tomato juicing process. Well....

I got all the tomatoes cooked and juiced in time and left the hot juice in a big cooker awaiting my return. This afternoon I'll cook it down, add tomato paste, spice, etc., and then can it. It may mean I miss prayer meeting tonight. But with the last two days of this week occupied, I guess it might be hard to avoid. The canning is certainly more difficult these days since my good help is no longer available! Rhiannon is working in the corn and just isn't available most days. She loved the canning and was excellent help. They are in the middle of harvest and she's putting close to 12 hour days. Last night she was teasing about the corn sorting process and how it has so much spiritual application. I asked if she'd like to be my guest blogger for a few days, take pictures of the amazing process that goes into producing quality seed corn, then post them complete with spiritual comments (bad seed needs to be removed, etc), but she said she's too busy! Sorry! I'm sure you would have found it all interesting. It's truly an amazing process. We don't often realize what all goes into things we take for granted--things like the availability of good quality seed to the farmers of this nation.

Today as I was starting the tomato canning process, I thought again about the availability of water. I am so thankful for running water! No kidding! I often think of that and breathe a little prayer while I'm doing some task where water at the touch of a faucet handle is indispensable. Making spaghetti sauce or any kind of food processing is just such a task. It forced me to consider what it was like for grandmas as they canned back in the day when all the water used had to be hauled from a well or pumped by hand. And they didn't have the option of deciding not to can, it was a lifestyle and a necessity if you wanted to eat over the winter. I recently read an entry in some notes my dad's mother left for the family describing a fire that occurred in their house back in the early '30's. She was looking at the new catalog (a really big deal!) with the neighbor lady while her green beans were canning on the stove. A spark found an open spot in the chimney and started a fire in the wall. Soon grandma saw the smoke and the rush to rescue the house was on. She told how a neighbor man rescued her cooker full of beans. They all sealed and everything was fine in the end, but she really emphasized how that guy was bent on saving those beans!

I always kind of dread the canning process. It's not one of my favorite tasks, especially spaghetti sauce--probably because of the many steps involved. But today I'm thankful that I have good equipment, no chimney to worry about, and running water to clean up all the mess! Thankfulness.....it's a good thing. Blessings, LORI