A Time To Harvest

Fall is a favorite time for me. I love it:) All the country roads around me, once barren, are now bustling with activity! For people who have always lived in the city, and never been around the country side during harvest, are missing such a wonderful experience. The farmers are in their fields, picking their crops before winter. The roads are filled with HUGE combines, going back and forth to the fields. Tractors, farm trucks, and semi's are hauling the grain that has been picked. Some are going to the elevators, to be weighed...so that the farmer knows how much grain has been picked. From there it's loaded into semi's to be taken to the factories to be made into food (cereals, etc.) The picture above was taken with my cell phone. I believe this is one of the fields my son in law will be harvesting. The sky was so beautiful that day, it was surreal.

The harvest reminds me of the Bible. Below is a parable Jesus told about the seeds being planted, the Word of God. The harvest is the souls that are saved due to the seed (Word) being planted in their lives. The Word IS GOD. His word does not return void. Jesus also points out why sometimes the seed planted, doesn't return a crop. The worries of every day life or satan comes like a thief and steals away the Word from the believer...hoping to take that person away from God. Satan is very jealous of us, and wants to try to keep us for himself. Only because he knows this will hurt God. Satan HATES us. He has been jealous of us, since God created Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Since then, he has made a bag of tricks that he uses to try to steal us away. God gives us a choice. Satan on the other hand, does not. He does everything in his power to trick or steal us away from salvation.

In harvest, there is a joy of seeing the crops grown and healthy! I wonder as I write this, if in the spiritual realm...we can see a busyness as well in the harvest of souls? The angels of God, busy taking the harvest in...all the while having to fight against satan as he tries to steal the harvest from God. If God be for us...who can be against us?

Mark 4

Parable of the Sower and Soils

^1(A)He began to teach again ^(B)by the sea And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that ^(C)He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land.

²And He was teaching them many things in ^(D)parables, and was saying to them in His teaching,

³"Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow;

⁴as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up.

⁵"Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil.

⁶"And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

⁷"Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.

⁸"Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."

⁹And He was saying, "^(E)He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

¹⁰As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables.

¹¹And He was saying to them, "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but ^(F)those who are outside get everything ^(G)in parables,

¹²so that ^(H)WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN."

Explanation

^13(I)And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?

¹⁴"The sower sows the word.

¹⁵"These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately ^(J)Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.

¹⁶"In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;

¹⁷and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.

¹⁸"And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,

¹⁹but the worries of ^(K)the ^[a]world, and the ^(L)deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

²⁰"And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and ^(M)bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."

²¹And He was saying to them, "^(N)A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand?

²²"^(O)For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.

²³"^(P)If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."

²⁴And He was saying to them, "Take care what you listen to. ^(Q)By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides.

²⁵"^(R)For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him."

Parable of the Seed

²⁶And He was saying, "The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;

²⁷and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows--how, he himself does not know.

²⁸"The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.

²⁹"But when the crop permits, he immediately ^(S)puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."

Parable of the Mustard Seed

^30(T)And He said, "How shall we ^[b](U)picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?

³¹"It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil,

³²yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that ^(V)THE BIRDS OF THE ^[c]AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE."

³³With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it;

³⁴and He did not speak to them ^(W)without a parable; but He was ^(X)explaining everything privately to His own disciples.