Let my cry come before thee, O Lord; give me understanding according to thy word! Let my supplication come before thee; deliver me according to thy word. My lips will pour forth praise that thou dost teach me thy statutes. My tongue will sing of thy word, for all thy commandments are right. Let thy hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen thy precepts. I long for thy salvation, O Lord, and thy law is my delight. Let me live, that I may praise thee, and let thy ordinances help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments.
April 2016 - Page 2 of 3 - GraceAndWorks
This week I want to talk to you about it being planting time. It’s fall time in Western Nebraska and time to plant the wheat for next years crop. The moisture is not real good and it’s going to be a struggle to get the kernels of wheat into wet ground so they can germinate. I’ve got the tractor hooked up to the grain drills. About ready to get started, just have to scoop the wheat into the drills. For those that are not aware, wheat weighs 60 pounds per bushel and it takes about a bushel of seed per acre. OK, the drills are full and we’re pulling into the field. Field has been tilled and ready for planting. Boy that moisture line is deep due to the lack of rain, hope I can get the seeds deep enough and yet not too deep so the sprouts can get through the ground to sunlight. I’ve gone a little ways into the field so I stopped and checked to see if everything was working OK. All the spouts on the drill are flowing good, the seed is being planted, and the seeds are sitting on moisture. YAY!! Everything is going good.
Planting is done and the wheat is growing and doing good. Thank you, God. The wheat will go dormant during the winter months and now it is next spring and all looks good. The wheat is doing well and now it is July and harvest goes good. The grain is safely in bins to wait for a good selling market. Planting the seeds worked. They germinated, grew, and produced healthy plants.
In life we also plant seeds (every day). These can be seeds of hope or despair, love or hate, success or failure, compassion or uncaring, praise, kindness, positive seeds, negative seeds, fear, divisive, steadfastness, ill will, good or evil and the list will just continue on. The question I have for you is this: As you travel the roads through life what kind of seeds are you planting? We know that not all seeds will grow, but many do. Be careful what kind you are planting.
Just as the wheat needed the right conditions to be able to be a healthy plant so do the seeds we plant as we go through life (good or bad). God wants us to plant seeds in His Kingdom. I had Faith the the wheat would grow and I have Faith that the seeds I plant in the Kingdom will grow. God says so!! Do you plant seeds for God and do you have the Faith they will grow? Not all will germinate, but some will. Don’t become discouraged.
Do the work, plant the seeds, and let God take care of the production.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners will return to thee.
The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off an evil odor; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. A wise man’s heart inclines him toward the right, but a fools heart toward the left. Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to every one that he is a fool.
A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better that silver and gold. The rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all. A prudent man sees danger and hides himself; but the simple go on, and suffer for it. The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; he who guards himself will keep far from them.
I give thee thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing thy praise; I bow down toward thy holy temple and give thanks to thy name for the steadfast love and thy faithfulness; for thou hast exulted above everything thy name and thy word. On the day I called, thou didst answer me, my strength and soul thou didst increase.
Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep thy law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of thy commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to thy testimonies, and not to gain! Turn my eyes from looking at vanities; and give me life in thy ways. Confirm to thy servant thy promise, which is for those who fear thee. Turn away the reproach which I dread; for thy ordinances are good. Behold, I long for precepts; in thy righteousness give me life!
It was late June in the mid 1960’s and I was farming with my Dad. It was getting close to a mid July wheat harvest. I was about 20 miles south of home and town working in a field driving the tractor and tilling the ground. I had fueled the tractor and greased the machinery and set to go back to work. I pulled back in the field (about 1:00 pm) and about an hour later there began developing a huge bank of clouds in the west. As time went on the clouds got bigger and closer. I thought to myself, this is going to be a bad one. The wind was starting to blow and I’m about a mile from the pickup. I turned the tractor around and headed back to the pickup. By the time I got there it was starting to rain. I pulled up close to the pickup and shut the tractor down. It was raining a little harder by now and the clouds were really dark. I thought , this is getting bad!! 1st the wind, then the dark clouds, now the rain. I’m in the pickup now and the rain is REALLY coming down. BOOM–a huge clap of thunder and now the bad part was happening. HAIL!! The size, a little bigger than a pea, and it wasn’t stopping. Oh no, this is not good. When the storm had blown through and stopped, the wheat crop was gone. The hail had pounded the wheat plants to the ground and there was nothing left. What a sickening feeling to just sit there helpless and watch your wheat crop go from almost in the bin to having nothing. DEVASTATING, to say the least. Now to head home and tell Dad. HAILED OUT!!
I tell you this story because it is true and because I’ve watched peoples lives get “Hailed Out” just like the wheat. Life is going along fine, then all of a sudden you see the clouds starting to grow. The light is getting dimmer and it’s getting hard to see what is happening. Now comes the wind and you start getting tossed to and fro and listening to “Stuff” you shouldn’t be listening to and doing things that shouldn’t be done and all is getting messed up. The wind continues, the rain continues, then BOOM the hail hits. You are DEVASTATED and beaten to the ground.
The difference between you and that stock of wheat is–you can get back up. You can get up, right? Come on get up, it will be OK. 1st Corinthians chapter 10 God tells us he will put nothing more on our shoulders than we can handle and He will show us a way out. Come on, get up, and talk to God. You start talking to God and the storm starts to stop. Finally it has blown through. The sun is shining and everything is getting better. Thank you God!! The storms of life will beat you down, but, they can’t keep you down because God will help you. (If you let Him) I would say, “Good luck to you in these storms”, but it has nothing to do with luck. I will say though, “Through your Faith let God help, He will make everything good again.” I can say all this because I have experience both in farming and in the “Storms” of life.
A righteous man hates falsehood, but a wicked man acts shamefully and disgracefully. Righteousness guards him whose way is upright, but sin overthrows the wicked. One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. The ransom of a man’s life is his wealth, but a poor man has no means of redemption.
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in thee my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of thy wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.
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