| Author | Message | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 275 Registered: 9-2006  |
I wanted to share with you my magazine article for January of í07. The harvest When we were kids growing up in the hill country of the state of Arkansas we were a very poor family of six people so when I reached about the age of 10 during the summer we would take the bare essentials and go over to the state of Missouri to work the cotton crops, we would work for a cotton farmer with several hundred acres of cotton in the rich Mississippi delta bottom lands which was level land commonly called the boot heal of Missouri. Our farm just failed to produce enough to subsist on so it was a case of go or starve. We would be furnished with a house to live in from spring until late fall. So we would arrive in Missouri about the time the cotton stalks were just peeping through the ground. We would work long hours through the heat chopping grass out of the tender cotton down rows that would be a quarter mile long, by the time we were through all the fields it would be time to start over in the original field we had started in and so on we would work on into the summer until the stalks began to produce green bowls of cotton and upon ripening the cotton would begin to burst forth from the bowls which covered the green stalks and then it became the back breaking labor of dragging a sack capable of holding 100 lbs of cotton down the rows as we hand picked the white tufts of cotton from the bowls. And so on we labored through the summer caring for and harvesting the precious cotton crops. Soon, after about the third picking we knew that it would be ìbowl pulling timeî. What this consisted of was that the season would render the stalks too barely producing and the stalks would begin to blacken, turn brittle and begin to die but there would be some life left in them and they would produce sort of a small bowl with poor cotton quality and so instead of picking the cotton we would pull bowl and all off the stalk in order to reap the last bit of cotton. It was grueling work pulling those bowls, the sharp end of the tough bowls would make our fingers bleed and the sacks were twice as heavy. So we would pull bowls and as the cotton trailers pulled away with the last load, we knew that the season was over, our work done and we would be going home. My friends, I feel as though we are in the time described above, the season has grown late and we are in the final harvesting days. As my memory travels back over the years to those fields ìWhite to harvestî I can visualize the true meaning of Christ words in John 4:35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. We must encourage ourselves and one another for the end of harvest is sure to come and then it will be ìGoing home timeî. (added) My friends on FAF, if I can do nothing else I want to encourage you today, yes work while there is still time but donít forget to laugh, to stop and smell a rose, too really look at a happy childís face, a puppy wagging his tail ,to be happy. Truly my hope is that your joy may be full. River | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 5134 Registered: 12-2003  |
Thank you, River. May your joy also be full! Thank you for encouraging all of us. Colleen | ||
| Bobj Registered user Username: Bobj Post Number: 80 Registered: 1-2006  |
River Thanks for the encouraging words. What a lift! Bob | ||
| Loneviking Registered user Username: Loneviking Post Number: 537 Registered: 7-2000 |
Thanks River. I know that country that you describe. I have quite a number of relatives around East Prarie, Sikeston and Charleston. My paternal grandparents were married in LePanto Arkansas and the whole bunch picked a lot of cotton. Yes, the 'harvest is white' sure does make me think of cotton. Your last line reminds me of another cautionary saying from the south about some folks. Some of the 'holier than thou folks' were referred to as 'so heavenly minded that they were no earthly good'. So take time to smell the rose, pat the puppy and rejoice in the changing seasons. Bill | ||
| Randyg Registered user Username: Randyg Post Number: 329 Registered: 12-2004 |
Thank-you River, for your stories of the south. You are so right in that we must not forget to appeciate the simple pleasures God has given us to enjoy. As a dear friend of mine has told me, today is the start of my eternity with Jesus by my side. We need to seek out joy were we can find it, and live as if we are enjoying our journey. Although the billows roll, and we are tossed in this storm of life, we have an anchor that is secure. We must keep our eyes on the Lighthouse that overlooks life's sea. For Jesus is the lighthouse.(sorry for mixing up so many songs) Let us not forget our Adventist friends who only through our love, will begin to question. As that old song says "That will know we are Christians by our love". Love and authenticity are the keys that will open the minds of those seeking a closer walk. May we in this new year demonstrate those two characteristics, and let God do the rest. | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 278 Registered: 9-2006 |
You know, speaking of puppy dogs, I had a puppy who followed me wherever I went and when I would stop, he would stop and set back and look up at me with wagging tail and trusting eyes as if to say ìWhat will we do today my master and trusted friend?î and we would go off on a summers day together, that pup would go sniffing all round and maybe stop to sniff a peculiar scent only dogs know of and I would look behind and here he would come running to catch up, he would walk along at my feet for a few minutes and the whole sniffing process would start all over again. Should we not look to Jesus our master and friend with perfect trust each day? In our humanity we do much the same thing the pup did, we sniff at this and that in a sense. We stop and sniff at things that would gag a maggot. Phew! And then have to run to catch up to the Lord. He is not going to stop and sniff a pile of dodo because he already knows itís dodo but sometimes I believe he does turn and say ìCome along now, and leave the dodo aloneî. So here we come smelling of dodo and he cleans us up and the process starts all over again. I remind myself of that pup sometimes, I really donít know how it is with you all. Yawl? Anyway. River | ||
| Lisa_boyldavis Registered user Username: Lisa_boyldavis Post Number: 250 Registered: 3-2005 |
The cotton crop reminded me of a prayer I said yesterday. I asked the Lord to let the year of 2007 to be the year I am given the gift of leading someone to Him. I've never been able to lead anyone to the Lord before. I've always been friends with people who don't know the Lord, I mean really close friends, and although I'd share may faith openly, and share love with that person, I have never been able to hand them Jesus hand and see them walk off into the sunset. I'm asking God to give me a chance to learn that and to do that with someone. I wish it could have been my auntie, but she's gone now. I prayed on my face to God when I took my last visit to see her, to guide me and give me words. I had a sense that God was encouraging me to talk to her if she brought it up or had a question, but the text God gave me said that we are the fragrance of Christ to those who are being saved and to those who are perishing... so I just went to be the fragrance of Christ. In the end, we hardly talked at all. She was just too sick. If she wasn't vomiting, she was in terrible pain or sleeping, so most of our time together I was just laying beside her on her bed holding her hand. She would squeeze my hand. Besides maybe two or three sentences, that's all we communicated over a 4 day period, so I am just trusting God that that's all He wanted me to do. Still, I would love for this year to be the one I lead another to Himself, as there are so many people out there completely lost without the security and hope and love that I enjoy. Thank you for the harvest story. Lisa | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 5138 Registered: 12-2003 |
Lisa, I'm sorry about your aunt. But praise God you were able to be His fragrance to her in her last days. Colleen | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 279 Registered: 9-2006 |
Lisa, Just as in the cotton crop, we who worked the field did not plant the cotton seeds, the farmer planted the seeds yet my family, and the farmer together shared in the harvest, that is the way it is with Christians, Christ allows us all to share equally as told in the parable of the coin for a days work. I do know what you mean by wanting to personally lead some one to Christ, I do too, I witness and they seem to pay no attention, how ever I know in my heart that what I sow will bear fruit and I know that your love and caring will bear fruit, someone else may get the rare privilege of leading someone through the gate, the idea is to realize that sometimes it takes more than one to plant, water, and reap. I hope this thought is an encouragement to you, at least that is how I meant it. In Christ river | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 3193 Registered: 3-2004  |
Lisa, As an SDA so much emphasis was put on leading others to Christ, that when I found out that all I have to do is be God's witness, I was overjoyed. If, in his goodness, God has me lead some one to him, I will be happy to do so. But I have to remember that some one else probably started this by planting a seed and God watered it and helped it grow. I will be happy with that. He is always to Awesome. Diana | ||
| Stevendi Registered user Username: Stevendi Post Number: 23 Registered: 10-2006 |
Lisa, Diana coined it: "...all I have to do is be God's witness". So true and so simple and so fun! The most powerful sermon I've ever heard was by our former Methodist, now nondenominational pastor. The title was "what's your story?" That's it. If we don't have stories to tell of God's goodness and grace through our personal experiences, then our religion may just be in the way. Think on Him, tell about Him - the Great Commission. Thank you God for You! Steve | ||
| Seekr777 Registered user Username: Seekr777 Post Number: 625 Registered: 1-2003  |
yes, Steve and Diana, it is so simple.  Richard rtruitt@mac.com | ||
| Seekr777 Registered user Username: Seekr777 Post Number: 626 Registered: 1-2003 |
River thanks for your encouraging stories and comments. I live in S. California and while I didn't grow up on a farm I did grow up amoung farms and lived on an acre with fields all around to play in. Even now when I drive up to my parents to visit I feel like I"m coming home when I get off the 5 freeway and head the last 40 miles up through the nuts and fruit and yes even cotton fields of Central California. I got out and took a cotton bowl to show to my students in school. Richard rtruitt@mac.com |
