12 May 10
Greetings, special people.
I did sawmill work most of the day...then knocked off about 3:30pm to
return home and do other things. I have a little order to cut some
board and batt for a guy so just ran up to the big sawmill nearby to
check on some short logs that I can buy there. I think I'll get some
tomorrow or the next day. After I get this off, I'll head out to the
pole barn to carry on with laying some decking in the loft above what
will be my sign shop. Why am I telling you all this? I don't know.
Just some mundane trivia. How about you give me some of yours?
Talk to you later. Blessings.
Love, Dad/Ray
12 May 2010
Passage: James 4:13-5:20
Focus: “You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.” James 5:8.
Can
you imagine a farmer who plants alfalfa in his fields in the spring,
but then changes his mind a few weeks later, plows up his fields and
plants corn?! Then a couple weeks later, he hears that the market
price for mint is up very high, so he plows up his fields again and
plants mint. That’s crazy! By that time he would just about be
guaranteed of not having any profitable crop at all! He certainly
could not survive as a successful farmer. This guy’s actions would be
even more ludicrous if he began to boast around town about the yacht he
was going to buy with the huge profits from his mint crop!
James gives us a terrific lesson in life and godliness, pointing out
that we are all kind of like farmers. In the fields of our future we
plant ideas, plans, hard work, and the Gospel. But we are as powerless
to make those seeds grow to maturity and success as the farmer is
powerless to force his crops to yield. He does what he can, and leaves
what he can’t to God. James declares that it’s all a matter of
determining a course (what is good and important), being patient, and
standing firm. It’s all linked to the quality of perseverance.
Two more examples of patience, perseverance, and standing firm are
given in this passage. There are the prophets. “Brothers, as an
example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who
spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we consider blessed those
who have persevered” (vv. 10-11). Then there is the example of Job.
“You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord
finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy” (v.
11).
One little phrase in verse 7 catches my attention:
“…the farmer waits.” It prompts my thinking back to the word “wait” as
used in the King James Version of Isaiah 40:31. “But they that WAIT
upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with
wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,
and not faint”. What a promise! But it certainly does not convey the
idea of waiting as one does in a long line at the bank, but WAITING as
a clerk or waiter does with a customer. A good waiter understands that
his function is to serve and please. If you and I, like the farmer,
like the waiter, will WAIT on the Lord in this sense, a good crop is
guaranteed. (Consider Rom. 8:28 again.)
Let’s conclude
by giving attention to a familiar passage in Psalm 37. I think it’s
good supportive material for our reading in James. “Trust in the LORD,
and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be
fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the
desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in
him; and he shall bring it to pass” (Ps. 37:3-5, KJV).
“The future is purchased by the present.”