FEB 2006 Volume 9 Number 2
Dearest Friends, Spring is nearly here and I love the changing of the seasons! Here in mid TN we didn’t really get much of a winter until just lately. But whether it looks like winter or not there are just some things that you do at certain times when you live on a farm. Now I am about to use a lot of symbols that relate to the Kingdom, so please have an ear to hear. First of all, if you want to reap a harvest in the harvest time you have to prepare long before that. Have you done YOUR preparing for the harvest in your personal life? We prepare for our garden by first gathering lots of stuff for compost, mostly manure and dead leaves. Examine your own life, what is dead and smelly? We gather it all up and haul it away and pile it in a heap to become compost piles. There is a chemical process that happens when you mix manure in with dead leaves and ashes and such. It becomes heated and all the weed seeds burn up and all the yucky stuff becomes practically sterile. What was gross and smelly becomes fertile and useful. Have you allowed the Lord to haul off all the manure and dead works in your life? If you let Him He will apply heat to it and turn it all into something useful. All those trials will become something that can be used as fertilizer for something good, something fruitful. Then we plow or till and mix that now rich fertilized compost into clean ground. It is clean because those winter months have killed off all the stuff from last year that were not meant to keep growing. Without Winter, Spring would be a mess of overgrowth. Winter also kills off all the pests, the bugs that try to eat all the fruit before we get it. Winter is a type and shadow of a "wilderness" for the believer, it can be a very good thing, getting rid of lots of pests. In scripture flies which represent lots of pests are a symbol of demons. All of this has to be done in proper timing. Some plants like to be grown in different types of circumstances, some like to be planted early and will withstand a frost or two; some must wait for warmer weather. Aren’t you glad He knows when the time is right for things in our life, if only we can listen to His timing! Then rows are formed. Jesus likes order, but His order not man’s order. But for some plants hills are better. Next comes a very important part, planting the right seeds. With wrong seeds you get wrong fruit. All this preparation because we know the rain is coming and then the harvest! One of the problems we have around here is sometimes not being ready for the harvest. It involves proper time management. You cannot plan to go on vacation the same week you have 300 pounds of tomatoes come ripe! To be a successful farmer you have to plan around the harvest! It is the most important time. Are you planning around the Harvest God has for you? Or are you asking Him to harvest around your plans? When ripening comes it cannot be stopped, over ripe is ruined! You cannot put His harvest on hold! Prepare, prepare. Let Him till your heart, let Him take your past hurts and apply some heat, thus bringing forth something fertile, let Him bring seasons that will kill off the pests. Let Him. Let Him. Invite Him. Then be ready to drop everything for the harvest He brings.
When we were blessed with the farm where we currently live the Lord gave us an extra gift, fruit trees! A small orchard of fruit trees. Only He knew how much we would love that. We didn’t even realize they were there until we had been here a few weeks. They were very overgrown, and completely covered with vines. The honeysuckle vines were pretty and smelled wonderful but they were killing the trees. So last year about this time we did our best to cut back those vines, and we did get most of them. But there were also brambles and thorny bushes all around the trees. So this year we have cut back all the vines and the thorny bushes and mowed all around the trees. But there was one more task that had to be done. Pruning. The very thought sent shivers down my spine. To cut off healthy fruit producing branches so that the tree could produce even better seemed like such a gamble. It also seemed extremely drastic. But the trees were overgrown and the branches heavy and too bunched together and not enough light got in to them. My book says if I prune them they will produce bigger and better fruit. Not a lot of weak "little fruits" but better bigger fruits. So Jim and I approached the trees. I with fear and trembling, he with a powerful chainsaw. He said, "show me where to cut". I did and he did. The first tree wasn’t too bad, it was rather dead looking with diseased limbs and it produced no fruit last year anyway. It had big gnarly looking growths on the branches so we cut it back pretty severe with not too much pain (to me). But then we proceeded to some of the trees that did good but dropped their fruit before it was ready last season. Then we approached a big beautiful apple tree. This tree would be beautiful even if I never got an apple from it. It has the prettiest flowers in spring and lots of them. But as the book says it was dark in the middle, too overcrowded. There was lots of fruit from it last year but they were small fruits and not strong enough to withstand the pests. And the branches were so low that the horses could eat the apples right off the tree if the children didn’t pick them fast enough. So, I pointed to the branches that should be cut then closed my eyes while Jim did my dirtywork. At that moment the Lord showed me His great pain at having to prune us. At first He is pleased with our "small fruits". But as we mature in Him he wants more for us. He wants bigger, better, longer lasting fruit. The kind that is strong enough to withstand the pests and the kind that grows high enough to withstand the beasts of the field. As with any loving parent He wants more for us. John 15:2 "He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." And although He is not wimpy as I was when pruning the tree, it hurts Him just as much, in fact a thousand times over. And it is a gamble for Him too. Yet He, the creator of the Universe, He, has faith in us! Faith that we will accept His loving chainsaw, faith that we will overcome and become stronger for it! The Harvest is coming. It is coming in the little things we do seasonally, and it is coming in the big things that He started years ago. Whether it is the garden (your personal life) or the orchard (whole communities) He is preparing for a Harvest for you! Let Him, beg Him, and invite Him, to till, compost and prune in your heart.
"Matthew 9:37-39 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
TheWellTN.com - is the site for our local church. The Well.
Last Sunday here it was icy, snowy and the road conditions were real "iffy" in a lot of places. It was raining ice as we drove to church. But when you know God is going to meet you it makes it all worth it. Not only does He meet us, but He "shows up" and does not leave! A dear girl who hadn’t been in a couple weeks came in a few minutes after we started and as she walked in the door it looked like wind from inside the building was blowing her hair back instead of the other way around. She just barely got inside the door and looked at me and said, "WHAT HAPPENED???" The place was not only packed but the Presence was already thick! Every week it has been getting stronger and stronger. The Harvest is coming and coming quick, Lord make us ready!
The church is located in downtown Mt Pleasant TN. Check the site for more details, or give us a call at 931-379-9244. If you are hungry for more of Jesus and within driving distance then this is the place to be! We meet Thursdays at 7 pm and Sundays at 3. We are seeing some really exciting things lately and have some testimonies from people who have attended the services. Jesus is moving in our small town and we are humbled to be part of what he is doing. If you want to read the testimonies go to the main page and then look for "happenings", I have new stuff on!MAURY COUNTY JAIL AND CLIFTON STATE PRISON- REVIVAL continues!!
And it's overflowing! We have recently had many of those "revived" inmates in our services at The Well. They are such a blessing to us and we are so humbled and grateful to the Lord for what He is doing.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES-We have put together a page for you of recommended resources, the books and such that we refer to often. If you are looking for something extra to feed your soul or encourage your spirit check out this new page. http://www.awesomeglory.com/rr It is something I will be adding to probably weekly.
RADIO TUES NIGHTS 6PM- WMRB 910 AM- NOW LIVE ONLINE www.wmrb910am.com woohooo! Every tues evening. Always live, always exciting! www.awesomeglory.com/radio .
WWW.AWESOMEGLORY.COM - check often for new events and tracts , we appreciate it when you forward this to your friends, they can also subscribe at www.awesomeglory.com/subscribe
WWW.AWESOMEGLORY.COM/GIVE- your page for giving to Glorybound Ministries
IN CLOSING- Get the garden ready! The Harvest is coming soon, and for many it is already here, it is time to lay everything else aside and open our eyes. The week before last God showed up unexpectedly at a colledge campus in KY. Their normal 1 hr chapel service turned into a week long revival of the unplanned kind. The news clip was titled "God unscripted". Here are the links for the 2 preceding days, revival monday, tuesday We are already seeing the same things here locally. It is coming. We thank you for joining us in what the Lord is doing, some of you from very far away, some of you very close to home. We love to hear what the Lord is doing in your "neck of the woods". Your gifts and prayers are greatly appreciated and put to good use for what the Lord is doing, blessings upon you and your families! We love you!
