Apostolic Friends Forum - A season of harvest...

At the outset, let me thank Mrs. LPW for dropping this thought in my spirit this morning with her post...it has stirred me most of the day.

The Bible is rich in it's description of seasons. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 states...

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
KJV

These words are familiar to those of us old enough to remember the song recorded in the 60s by The Byrds, Turn, Turn, Turn...even now when I read these verses, the melody from the past haunts me.

We can clearly see from the above that seasons involves so much more than "spring turns to summer, summer to fall, autumn brings winter..."

Seasons involves every emotion and every life changing event, and the Scripture declares that there is a "purpose" for them (v.1).

And so, taking this into account, that there is a purpose for the seasons, it then behooves us to recognize the season we are in and the purpose for it.

Verse 2 tells us that there is a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted...a time or season of harvest.

The dictionary at hand shows me that harvest means the process of gathering in (crops, etc.). It further means reaping, gleaning, yield, produce, fruit, garnering, taking in, collecting.

This process was described to me thus..."the farmer plans for his crop through the long days of winter, cultivates the soil in spring, and plants the seeds of a new crop as the spring ends.

All summer long he works on maintaining and protecting his crop from drought, weeds, and pestilence. At the end of the summer, he begins his harvest, gathering in this crop that the has worked so hard to grow."

As it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual.

There are seasons when we are planning...preparing ourselves for the service ahead. Bible School can be described as the planning stage or season of our life.

A home missions work or associate pastorate is another place of preparation for what is ahead.

Times set aside for fasting and consecrated prayer are seasons of preparation.

And then the time comes that we step out and begin to plant the seed of the Word, through the spoken word or song, and get our feet wet in the field of experience.

We then find it is not always easy maintaining. Sometimes the buzzards hang close and try to steal that which God has given. Buzzards don't appreciate life...they live among the ruins with death and decay. But we fight them off with the Word of faith in diligence knowing there is a harvest.

We work and toil, knowing in the end that if we have planted on good ground...if the Word hasn't been thrown to the wind among the thorns and thistles of self-will and greed without real concern for the harvest...if we have laid a true and lasting foundation in fertile soil...if we would rather die than not have a plentiful harvest, than God will not deny us, and that which we have planted in faith will spring forth.

Some if us today are in the process of reaping that which we have planted.

We have given and planted and sacrificed for the sake of the harvest, and this is our season.

There are churches where there have been difficult times of beating off the buzzards and maintaining when it would have been easier to give in. But the integrity of the sower has insured the prosperity of the harvest, and this is your season.

So for this, we say, to God be the glory!! Thank God for the season of harvest in our lives.

I hear the sound of abundance of rain!!