The Age of Grace is the Age of both Planting and Harvesting

The Age of Grace is the Age of both Planting and Harvesting

Some of us are doing our own things too much, occupied with our own affairs, captivated by distractions from the world.  The Lord of the Harvest (Matthew 9:38) is calling us still to turn to Him, to labor with Him, so that we may rejoice with Him at His coming!

Psalms 126:4-6
Turn again, O Jehovah, our captivity / Like the streams in the south.
Those who sow in tears / Will reap with a ringing shout.
He who goes forth and weeps, / Bearing seed for scattering, / Will no doubt come in with a ringing shout, / Bearing his sheaves with him.

(Matthew 20:1-16)

V. Van Gogh Sower

The Seed Became Bread

Isaiah 55:10 -  For just as the rain comes down / And the snow from heaven, / And does not return there, / Until it waters the earth / And makes it bear and sprout forth, / That it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
55:11  -  So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; / It will not return to Me vainly, / But it will accomplish what I delight in, / And it will prosper in the matter to which I have sent it.

2 Corinthians 9:10   - Now He who bountifully supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and cause the fruits of your righteousness to increase.

Grain is a seed that undergoes a process to become not only the life giving element to be sown into the earth for increase, but it is also the element that is able to become as food as bread is food.  So God's word is seed as the word of His mouth gives us life as well as waters this life and nourishes us with.

God as the Word went through the process of making Himself a man with the life of God within Him, 

so that He could be such a seed of life.  

He was God's seed.

He was born as the seed of woman.

He grew as a seed.

He lived a human life as such a seed for 33 and 1/2 years as a seed.

He was called the Bread of Life.

He was the Living Bread.

He was the Bread that came down out of Heaven.

He was the Meal Offering.

He died as a grain of wheat, 

He resurrected and became a life-giving spirit in His resurrection.

As such a resurrected seed He came to sow Himself as life into us the soil.

His word is planted into our hearts.

His word is water to cause us to grow.

For His multiplication and His increase.
For His harvest. 

He also came that man would eat Him as the Bread of Life.

That man would live by Him and not by teachings.

That every word would have a place in man's heart.

That man would have the element of God worked into His being.

That man would have God as the element of His living.

That man would be His many grains, His duplication and increase.

That food would be plentiful on the earth.

Please Listen to This Hymn and Consider it.

http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/ns/297

Some Very Fine Sowers

Nicolaus Zinzendorf

Hudson Taylor

George Muller

Frances Ridley Havergal

Watchman Nee

Albert Benjamin Simpson

Catherine Clibborn-Booth

John Nelson Darby

A. W. Tozer

Margaret E. Barber

Cambridge Seven

These portraits are only a few (read Hebrews 11) of those lovers of God who have sown their lives into the harvest for Christ had sown Himself so much into them. I could not find a free photo of Witness Lee online so I did not post his photo, but his ministry is such a pouring out of God that it makes me sad I don't have his face here. Witness Lee was Watchman Nee's close coworker so if I had a photo I should like to place them side by side.  All the photos might be better put in chronological order too, with at least a little statement about each of these lives,  but right now I just want to put some of these dear faces up together to remind me of who my real heroes are.

The Gleaners

Here it is springtime, sowing time, but I had to post a picture of one of my favorites, a painting by Jean-Francois Millet, THE GLEANERS, a harvest time picture.  Just like His painting of THE SOWER I admire this painting very much.  These paintings by Millet are rich in artistic value, but richer in spiritual meaning.  Gleaning is a delight, and unless you have been poor or needy, you cannot understand the comfort being provided for makes.  Here there is not a lone gleaner, but a group, as it should be.

The Apple Tree

Every time I work in the garden, the Lord who created all things and who is the Word (John 1:1)1, speaks to me.  He tells me how things are planted and how they grow.  So many pictures are in the Bible that help us to recognize God's speaking to us in His creation (Matthew 13:3)2.  Of course, He speaks to us in His written word, the Bible, but He also speaks to us in His creation (Romans 1:19-20)3.  God first set man in a garden and there had fellowship with him.  God is always speaking, so we need to learn how to listen.  First, we need His logos word, the Bible, then we need His rhema word, His instant speaking within us.  Of course He needs to dwell inside of us for His speaking to be heard as rhema (John 8:31, 15:7-8)4.  

The apple tree is a wonderful consideration and very meaningful.  In the Bible the apple tree signifies God as the rich provider of life.  He saves us by His grace and grants to us everything of Himself as life.  We will need His provision our entire lives.  Unlike, the darkened concepts of the painters of past eras, the apple tree does NOT signify the tree that Satan tempted Eve with. Trees are very significant to our God, and the Old and New Testaments are filled with verses concerning the trees and vines.  Each one has a poetic significance, and  learning the meaning of the symbols God uses in the Bible is another way He is able to speak to us in nature.  We need to see that God is daily providing Himself as grace to us.  We need to take His grace every day.  

Though an apple itself is not grace, merely a picture of grace.  It is a picture of God's bountiful supply of grace for a reason. There is an old saying, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Apples contain many nutrients that really do contribute to our maintaining our health.  They are rich in vitamin C and antioxidant flavonoids, and contain phenols to lower cholesterol. They are purported to prevent various cancers, especially eaten in their entirety, seeds and all.  They maintain body weight and regulate metabolism.  Eaten raw, they help the body maintain a proper ph balance by alkalizing. They are supposed to help our heart, lungs and our memory. There are thousands of varieties of apples.  Here in the United States, apples are available to us all year around, so why not try an apple a day, unless of course you just like visiting your doctor?

An apple is from the rose family.  

See it always has a calyx of five, just like the rose, and the fruit has a five pointed star in the center. You would find the same if you cut a rose hip in half.

Verses noted from above:

1- John 1:1 - "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

2- Matthew 13:3 - "And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went out to sow.

3- Romans 1:19-20 -  "Because that which is known of God is manifest 1within them, for God manifested it to them. For the invisible things of Him, both His eternal power and divine characteristics, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being perceived by the things made, so that they would be without excuse;"

4- John 8:31 - "Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, If you aabide in My word, you are truly My disciples"

John 15:7-8 - "If you abide in Me and My 1awords abide in you, 2ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. In this is My Father 1aglorified, that you bear much fruit and so you will become My bdisciples.