This year, in addition to my usual garden fare, I planted some grape vines. I found the plants at nearby Tontitown where they grow many varieties of grapes. I have bought grapes there in the summer to make my own grape jam.
My favorite jam is made from Concord grapes. I make it with the whole skins. That is where the flavor is. It is a slow, painstaking, process to slice each grape by hand to remove the seeds and keep the grapes as whole as possible. There are shorter, easier ways to make jam. But the flavor and consistency is just not the same. There are also many varieties of grapes and some of them are seedless and have a better flavor for eating or making other things. I prefer Concord for my jam because that is the flavor I have always enjoyed the most.
Growing grapes is not easy. My dad had grapes when I was growing up and I remember the work that went into them. They had to be watered, pruned, and sometimes treated with chemicals or fertilizers. The end result could be a good harvest. Sometimes the result was simply a hope for a better harvest next year. Besides the time and work there was always the weather and seasonal elements that only God can control.
One thing is for certain. If you do not plant you cannot harvest. You have to look to the future.
Many of Jesus’ parables are taken from the field. He saw the cycle of growing things as perfect examples to explain our role in the kingdom, and in building His Church. It is his Church, His Kingdom, His vineyard, and we are the workers. He gives us everything we need but we still have to plant the seeds, till the soil, take care of the plants, and bring in the harvest. We have to look to the future.
We live and work in the present. Many times our focus is so caught by the present that we have a hard time seeing how the future is ever going to come out good. We forget how many elements are in God’s hands. Our faith needs to be in Him. While we may plant and water it is God who brings the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6)
“Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, CSV) We have many challenges before us and we may not be able to see how we can accomplish them. Our hope is in God as we look to the future.
Bro. Robin
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Dizzy or Drowsy
My ears are ringing and I am dizzy. I finally gave in to the symptoms of my discomfort and went to see the doctor. What triggered the doctor’s visit was really just a few annoying symptoms. This makes it difficult to do several normal everyday things like walk and drive. I need to be able to move around and function normally.
The doctor was very helpful. He said I needed an antibiotic and prescribed something for the dizziness. I was all excited about feeling normal again until I looked at the message on the side of the bottle. It read, “May cause drowsiness.” So now I have a choice: I can drive dizzy or drowsy. No, that is not really a choice. While it may make me feel better it did not solve what I perceived to be the problem. I still need to be able to move around.
Why am I so impatient? The antibiotics will start working now and I will be over this in a few days. I just need to give the medicine time to work, its complete work, and no shortcuts. So I have to adjust my schedule for a few days. In time I will be well, and all will be well.
This got me thinking about how we often treat our spiritual health. We treat our spiritual health much like our physical health. We take it for granted as long as we pray before meals, come to church, and take our bibles with us. We pop a spiritual pill and think it is all good, until it all turns bad.
James said, “Consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:2-4
Good Spiritual health takes time. We have to give God time to work in us so that when a time of trials come they will build us up instead of tear us down. When you are down you can be drowsy or dizzy, or let the medicine of God’s promise do His work. He promises great benefits for letting Him work in our lives.
Bro. Robin
The doctor was very helpful. He said I needed an antibiotic and prescribed something for the dizziness. I was all excited about feeling normal again until I looked at the message on the side of the bottle. It read, “May cause drowsiness.” So now I have a choice: I can drive dizzy or drowsy. No, that is not really a choice. While it may make me feel better it did not solve what I perceived to be the problem. I still need to be able to move around.
Why am I so impatient? The antibiotics will start working now and I will be over this in a few days. I just need to give the medicine time to work, its complete work, and no shortcuts. So I have to adjust my schedule for a few days. In time I will be well, and all will be well.
This got me thinking about how we often treat our spiritual health. We treat our spiritual health much like our physical health. We take it for granted as long as we pray before meals, come to church, and take our bibles with us. We pop a spiritual pill and think it is all good, until it all turns bad.
James said, “Consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:2-4
Good Spiritual health takes time. We have to give God time to work in us so that when a time of trials come they will build us up instead of tear us down. When you are down you can be drowsy or dizzy, or let the medicine of God’s promise do His work. He promises great benefits for letting Him work in our lives.
Bro. Robin
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