It’s Harvest Time….

       The long, lazy days of summer have turned into short, cold, brisk nights. Our once flourishing green gardens have withered away from the bite of a bitter frost. Fall is here. It’s time to prepare for the endless snowy winter ahead.

                This beautiful cycle in nature brings to mind a much more significant meaning. A harvesting of souls so to speak. Sometimes we long to live in the comforting summer months. To bask in the warmth underneath a golden sun. To praise God only while all is good and right in our lives.

But fall will come, and soon, winter will briskly be knocking on the door. It’s inevitable. Before we know it, we will be tossed into the bitter cold to face the storms that rage and wreak havoc in our lives. The penalty of sin is death and we live in a fallen, broken world. So, is that it then? Is that the only message that winter brings? No, because our story doesn’t have to end there. We have been given a choice.

As the snow melts, spring begins to breath new life and order once again, just as Jesus Christ does to a sinner’s soul. God can work in our lives if we choose to follow Christ. Like the budding of a tiny tulip breaking through the icy ground, we too can be born again and face another winter. Let Christ harvest your soul, and carry you through your most desperate and darkest of days. Praise God through all your difficult journeys, because He promises us abundant, eternal days ahead. Christ is the true Son in our lives that warms us from the inside out. Let His light in, so that others may see it too on their darkest of days. Because when we are born again, we are here to help harvest souls.

Come, Ye Thankful People, Come

Henry Alford, pub.1844

Come, ye thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin;
God our Maker doth provide
For our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come,
Raise the song of harvest home.

All the world is God’s own field,
Fruit unto His praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown,
Unto joy or sorrow grown;
First the blade, and then the ear,
Then the full corn shall appear:
Lord of harvest, grant that we
Wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come,
And shall take His harvest home;
From His field shall in that day
All offenses purge away;
Give His angels charge at last
In the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store
In His garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come,
Bring Thy final harvest home;
Gather Thou Thy people in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified,
In Thy garner to abide;
Come, with all Thine angels come,
Raise the glorious harvest home.

“All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.”

2 Corinthians 4:15