The Vineyard - picking grapes
Last month I went picking grapes. Grapes are a big deal in Slovenia. In Maribor we have the world’s oldest fruit bearing grapevine. It has been recorded as giving fruit for the past 400+ years. It is in the Guiness Book of Records! The city celebrates the Festival of the Old Vine. They will have another festival to celebrate when the grape juice turns to wine. When people go out to pick the grapes often family and friends are invited to help. One couple was telling us of their first experience. Before they even started picking the grapes there was a huge meal and wine and drink and dessert. My experience was a little different. We went and picked grapes until lunch. Then they fed us to bursting with a wonderful meal and dessert. After that we continued to pick joking that we could walk up the hill and roll back down. It was a fun experience and there was much joy in the harvest.
This experience of picking grapes reminded me of the many references in the Bible to harvest, grapes, the vine and so on. It was interesting the way the grapes grow. Some of the clusters were quite large and it made me wonder what the one the spies brought back from the land of Canaan must have been like. Then some grapes were so full and rich and sweet and others were smaller and less wonderful. Often they were only one or two rows away or even just a couple of vines apart. Some vines were full. Others were empty. Some definitely represented 30, 60 and 100 times fruitfulness. Others seemed barely fruitful and on some there was nothing at all. I found out that some of reasons might be a variation in the amount of sun or the quality of the soil. Some of the vines had some disease or blight and so the grapes were also smaller or hadn’t grown. There were also some clusters of grapes that had gone right to raisins right on the vine, but you wouldn’t want to eat those. They were dry and useless.
Whatever the case it got me thinking about reasons for fruitfulness or the lack thereof. It was amazing how important the vine and its location was to the outcome of the harvest. The amount of sun, the quality of the soil, the nutrients in the earth. It made a big difference in the harvest. It just punctuates what John said about abiding in the vine. If the vine from which we get our strength is anchored in the world then the fruit will be like the fruit of the world...tainted by sin, passing away, bitter, dry and without purpose. However, if we are anchored in Jesus..in heaven then the fruit of our lives should also be lasting, full, abundant, bringing a joyful harvest. That is what it means to abide in the vine, that we draw our strength, our purpose, our values and decisions from Him who is eternal wisdom and love rather than from that which is finite and passing away. That which is finite and passing still has some of what it good in it but the results will be infinitely less satisfying and will soon pass away.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The Hardest Place
The Hardest Place
13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
14 And he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”
15 Then the LORD said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. 16 Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. 17 It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. 18 Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
Elijah had just faced the prophets of Baal and Ashteroth on Mt Carmel. Fire has fallen from heaven. Rain has come after 3 1/2 years only at his word. The king has been seeking his life and now the queen, too is after him to kill him. He is alone. He is spent. He has been fighting a battle against godlessness for a long time. He is in a hard place.
Being missionaries sometimes we have people telling us that they could never do what we do. Sometimes we get placed on a bit of a pedestal ... an example of spiritual living. Then on the other side of things missionaries can wear, almost as a badge of honor, the mantle of serving the most unreached, hardest to reach people. It might be jungle obstacles. It might be an environment and culture hostile to any kind of proselytizing. Or, it might be hearts hardened with years of rejection or traditional acceptance of religion and religious ideas. I have heard people talk about what makes their part of the world get attention as an unreached place and I often find myself thinking: “well that is not that much different from where we are”, or “that is not so different from some parts of America”. Whatever the reason, it starts to seem that the area “I” work in is the hardest.
Actually the other day I was listening to a sermon that confirmed that this is pretty much true. The area that you serve in is the hardest area in the world ... that is, provided that you have been called there. There is something almost liberating about this if you think about it. Where it is that God has called you to serve Him will be the hardest place because the enemy also knows that this is exactly where God has called you to serve. The enemy knows that if God has put you there then it must be a place that God desires to work and do something. That is exactly what the enemy doesn’t want and so the fight begins.
Where is it that God has called you? What? You say you’re not in “full-time Christian service”. I beg to differ. Maybe you are not a pastor, teacher, missionary, or some other person that receives their paycheck through the Church or some kind of “faith support” but that doesn’t mean that God hasn’t called you and placed you exactly where He wants you. What would happen if every Christian sought God for that place that they have been called to and then served in that place faithfully day after day? What would that look like? What if that teacher going to school, that mechanic fixing cars, that secretary in their office, that factory worker working their shift, that average (or not so average) work-a-day employer or employee knew that God had called them to the place in which they now live and work and worked to please God rather than man? What would happen?
We as believers are in a hard place, a hostile environment. It is called the world and it is not friendly to us or to the message that we carry as ambassadors of God. But God has called us and committed us with a message. He makes his appeal through us.
19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
Our message ... “be reconciled to God” is exactly what the enemy is trying to keep from those around us and he will do anything to stop us from being effective. He is happy to use a variety of means to keep us from the task to be sure. In some areas it is visible and felt. The spiritual forces of evil do not hide there, but there is also no doubt about the nature of the battle. On the other hand, in some areas it is simply about apathy. Rather than risk waking the Church to battle that he is sure to lose, the enemy is happy to lull them into a stupor of the everyday monotonous. There is the lie that “this is not where God has placed me for service”. If that is the case we need to seriously reconsider our place, because while the job might meet the daily needs, it is not the center of where God wants us. Being in the center of where God wants us does not mean that it will be easy or that we will even always particularly enjoy it. It does mean, however, that God will resource and supply in that place. As we are available, yielded and faithful God will accomplish His purpose. It may be the salvation of souls. It may be the building up and encouraging of the saints. It may be provoking one another to faith and good works. It may be meeting needs. It may be wrestling in prayer. it may be “iron sharpening iron”. It may mean being an example or just doing our best not to please men but God.
Sometimes we just want to give up. It is too hostile to keep on trying. Sometimes we don’t realize what we have been called to. Yet God has called us to a place and He is faithful to supply the strength to do His work, even in the hardest place.
13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
14 And he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”
15 Then the LORD said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. 16 Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. 17 It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. 18 Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
Elijah had just faced the prophets of Baal and Ashteroth on Mt Carmel. Fire has fallen from heaven. Rain has come after 3 1/2 years only at his word. The king has been seeking his life and now the queen, too is after him to kill him. He is alone. He is spent. He has been fighting a battle against godlessness for a long time. He is in a hard place.
Being missionaries sometimes we have people telling us that they could never do what we do. Sometimes we get placed on a bit of a pedestal ... an example of spiritual living. Then on the other side of things missionaries can wear, almost as a badge of honor, the mantle of serving the most unreached, hardest to reach people. It might be jungle obstacles. It might be an environment and culture hostile to any kind of proselytizing. Or, it might be hearts hardened with years of rejection or traditional acceptance of religion and religious ideas. I have heard people talk about what makes their part of the world get attention as an unreached place and I often find myself thinking: “well that is not that much different from where we are”, or “that is not so different from some parts of America”. Whatever the reason, it starts to seem that the area “I” work in is the hardest.
Actually the other day I was listening to a sermon that confirmed that this is pretty much true. The area that you serve in is the hardest area in the world ... that is, provided that you have been called there. There is something almost liberating about this if you think about it. Where it is that God has called you to serve Him will be the hardest place because the enemy also knows that this is exactly where God has called you to serve. The enemy knows that if God has put you there then it must be a place that God desires to work and do something. That is exactly what the enemy doesn’t want and so the fight begins.
Where is it that God has called you? What? You say you’re not in “full-time Christian service”. I beg to differ. Maybe you are not a pastor, teacher, missionary, or some other person that receives their paycheck through the Church or some kind of “faith support” but that doesn’t mean that God hasn’t called you and placed you exactly where He wants you. What would happen if every Christian sought God for that place that they have been called to and then served in that place faithfully day after day? What would that look like? What if that teacher going to school, that mechanic fixing cars, that secretary in their office, that factory worker working their shift, that average (or not so average) work-a-day employer or employee knew that God had called them to the place in which they now live and work and worked to please God rather than man? What would happen?
We as believers are in a hard place, a hostile environment. It is called the world and it is not friendly to us or to the message that we carry as ambassadors of God. But God has called us and committed us with a message. He makes his appeal through us.
19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
Our message ... “be reconciled to God” is exactly what the enemy is trying to keep from those around us and he will do anything to stop us from being effective. He is happy to use a variety of means to keep us from the task to be sure. In some areas it is visible and felt. The spiritual forces of evil do not hide there, but there is also no doubt about the nature of the battle. On the other hand, in some areas it is simply about apathy. Rather than risk waking the Church to battle that he is sure to lose, the enemy is happy to lull them into a stupor of the everyday monotonous. There is the lie that “this is not where God has placed me for service”. If that is the case we need to seriously reconsider our place, because while the job might meet the daily needs, it is not the center of where God wants us. Being in the center of where God wants us does not mean that it will be easy or that we will even always particularly enjoy it. It does mean, however, that God will resource and supply in that place. As we are available, yielded and faithful God will accomplish His purpose. It may be the salvation of souls. It may be the building up and encouraging of the saints. It may be provoking one another to faith and good works. It may be meeting needs. It may be wrestling in prayer. it may be “iron sharpening iron”. It may mean being an example or just doing our best not to please men but God.
Sometimes we just want to give up. It is too hostile to keep on trying. Sometimes we don’t realize what we have been called to. Yet God has called us to a place and He is faithful to supply the strength to do His work, even in the hardest place.
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