Preparing For The Harvest

From the Pastor’s heart

Spring is in the air. Well, not as I write this article in mid-February, with below normal temperatures just days after a rare Georgia snow, but when you get your newsletter in the mail, I am hopeful that we will be enjoying a few signs of spring. I’ve built my boxes, mixed my soil, bought my seeds and I’m ready for “Square Foot Gardening.” All this work in the last days of winter will pay off during the harvest times of summer – it always does. I have gardened all my life and learned many years ago that if I plant in the spring, I’ll enjoy a tomato better than anything you can buy in the store. Kathy will make pickles out of our garden cucumbers that friends fight over. Garden fresh green beans, squash, peppers and broccoli will surpass any gourmet restaurant side you can buy. It all starts with winter preparation.

Preparation is the key to all of life’s worthy endeavors. Not only does Scripture say we reap what we sow, it says we reap more from the soil that has been prepared. In my square foot garden, I have placed some well prepared soil. It is a mix of vermiculite, peat moss and mixed compost. It took time to find each component (I had help from friends like Chris Cowart) and energy to mix them in the right proportion (1/3 of each), but the soil is healthily organic, virtually weed free and so rich it doesn’t require fertilizer. Just writing about it has me so excited to go plant right now, but it’s not time so I will wait. I will wait on God’s sun to warm this soil to the right temperature and I will wait for God’s sun to shine the required number of hours per day, but when it’s time, I’ll be ready.

Even more than the delight of home grown tomatoes is the joy of one person being born again. The angels in Heaven break out in song over this new birth and perhaps they even high-five one another. When that new Believer shares their profession of faith in church we shout amen and why not share a high-five? Can anything be more exciting than a person escaping Hell and finding eternal peace? Wow! Yet it all starts with preparation. Prayer, relationship and witnessing prepare the way for our friends to find Jesus. If you do the prep work now and wait on God, you will see the harvest. God’s Son will shine on your relationships and your witnessing and in His time the harvest will come. If you haven’t seen a harvest, perhaps you haven’t been doing the prep work.

FBC wants to help you with the prep work. That’s why we offer classes on sharing your faith. That’s why we encourage small groups for relationship building. And that’s why we are coordinating a prayer walk on Saturday, March 27th, so we can witness a harvest next September at Forsyth Family Fest 2010. Join me in the prep work of prayer, relationships and witnessing, and I will join you with a high-five and praise to God.

God bless you,

Bob