Prayer – Lord God, open my eyes and heart to truly seeing and hearing Your words. Help me not only see and hear them, but to apply them to my life. I rejoice in just knowing You, Lord, for You are awesome and merciful, just, generous and a blessing to me, my family, friends and neighbors. Let us…the whole world sing for joy to You!

May God be merciful and bless us. May his face smile with favor on us. May your ways be known throughout the earth, your saving power among people everywhere. May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. Let the whole world sing for joy, because you govern the nations with justice and guide the people of the whole world. May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. Then the earth will yield its harvests, and God, our God, will richly bless us. Yes, God will bless us, and people all over the world will fear him. Psalm 67:1-7

 

Meditate. Consider God’s blessings.

 

This is harvest time here in the Pacific Northwest. Just going down the highways we see trucks loaded with onions, potatoes, corn and even carrots. Plus, there are truckload bins of apples and pears. Farmers’ Markets—available seven days a week in my community—have abundant produce from melons to tomatoes, to string beans, cabbage, egg plants, and cauliflower, lots of peppers of all colors and heat levels, and last week there were probably six or seven varieties each of peaches, plums and nectarines.

Bountiful! All the colors of the rainbow just waiting to be plucked up and taken home to eat. I got tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and peppers, including a few jalapenos, to make and can salsa. Turned out great. My hubby will be satisfying his salsa cravings right from our pantry all winter! I’ll share my recipe and photo for that on Friday.

Prolific pumpkins are at their prime--just waiting for someone to pick them from the pumpkin plants. These were grown last year by our wonderful neighbor, Sean. He had a way with plants--they just grew. Abundantly! He personally struggled with PTSD after returning from Afghanistan where he served in the US Marines. Life was not easy for Sean--he had other injuries and life became more complicated than he could handle. This summer when we had temperatures over 105 degrees he made some poor choices and ended up dying from heat exhaustion. Our loss is heaven's gain. He knew Jesus. Do you?

Harvest time spiritually? Early in His ministry just after He chatted with the woman at the well, Jesus spoke to His disciples about harvesting.

Then Jesus explained: "My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. You know the saying, 'Four months between planting and harvest.' But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! You know the saying, 'One plants and another harvests.' And it's true. I sent you to harvest where you didn't plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest."

John 4:34-38 (Underlined for emphasis.)

A time is coming when the whole earth will be harvested, by none other than Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, also known as the Son of Man. It is great to consider that this harvest will include the people brought to eternal life.

Then I saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was someone like the Son of Man. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Then another angel came from the Temple and shouted to the one sitting on the cloud, "Swing the sickle, for the time of harvest has come; the crop on earth is ripe." So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the whole earth was harvested. Revelation 14:14-16

For now, we can just “be prepared” by being prayed up with Jesus. Then as David says in Psalm 67, the whole earth can sing for joy. There is nothing more joyful than reaching a point in one’s life where you accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior—and begin eternal life with Him. Maybe that is why baptisms are such a culmination of joy. My daughter, son-in-law and their three children were recently baptized in the Atlantic Ocean near Charleston, SC. It was a joyous occasion! We are blessed by God!

 

Verse of Salvation ~ And then he (Jesus) told them (His disciples), "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:15-16

 

Memory Verse of the Week ~ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8

 

© 2022 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved. 

All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted. 

New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. 

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Biblical search from Blue Letter Bible - http://v3.blueletterbible.org/search.cfm. 

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