The sower - The potato harvest in the northern part of the province has just been completed and it was a wonderful harvest, from what I've been hearing. And it has set my mind to thinking about the sowing/reaping statement that we have all heard, “you reap what you sow, you reap after you sow, and you reap more than you sow.”

My early years were spent on a potato farm. My dad was a farmer. I learned more than I want to or need to know about potato farming, in those early years.

I learned that you reap what you sow; if you plant cobblers, you won’t reap russets. For all you potato lovers, those two names will mean something. Of course, real potato lovers will wander through the produce section searching for russets.

I also learned that you reap after you sow. My dad was a hard worker and, of course, was always anxious in the spring to get the crop in. He knew that there would certainly be no harvest if he did not plant first.

Then, I also learned that we always reap more than what we sow. How fun it was to dig up those potato hills in August (a sneak preview) to see how the crop was doing. We as kids knew that we had just planted one seed and then we would continue digging and digging to see how many potatoes we could find - what the harvest would be - 15 or even 20 small potatoes.

What good lessons are learned as we follow the planting-harvesting process. Over the years, I have run into many people who do not understand the Biblical system of sowing and reaping.

What: Reaping what we sow. We often hear this topic in a negative context and, for sure, we do need to think of it that way. However, we also reap wonderful things as a result of what we sow. We plant integrity and we reap the exact same thing - integrity and respect of others. We sow love and we reap the love of others - not always receiving love from the same people we extend it to, but love nonetheless. And so on, and so on.

After: Sometimes people think they are going to be able to harvest even though they have planted no seed. A simple quote that all of us have heard - to have friends, you have to be one. Also, the one “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Of course, we must face the fact that in God’s system of sowing and reaping, we also reap bad consequences after we sow bad things. For sure, we reap after we sow.

More: What a great hope we have in that we will reap more joy than we sow, and more love than we sow. And on and on it goes.
In Genesis 26:12, “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.” And in 2 Corinthians 9:6, “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

On the negative side of sowing and reaping, of course, we also learn through life experiences that we also reap what we sow, after we sow, and more than we sow. Job 4:8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. There are scriptures which appear to support that some can sow bad seed and seemingly get away with it - but the Bible stresses many times that there is a judgement for our acts or words . . . one day.

So, a word to myself first, to be careful what I sow. I will reap WHAT, AFTER, and MORE than I sow.

Submitted by Naida

Forgetting vs. remembering - God forgives us when we repent of our sins. He wipes the slate clean. When He forgives us, He forgets our sins - many scriptures assure us of this. In Jeremiah 31:34, we read, “for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” And in Hebrews 8:12, “ . . . and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Again in Hebrews 10:17, “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” One more, in Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”

Until now, I have never even considered disagreeing in the least with my blog friend. And, I respect him as a Bible scholar so that I would always defer to his interpretation, if we ever did not agree. Until now . . . and, even now, I am not going to disagree, but . . .

Without warning, I am going to kind of go in a different direction on this “forgetting” topic - can’t seem to get it out of my mind. Maybe that is the purpose of the blog - to force us to think through some ideas.

Anyway, here are my thoughts the past few days on the subject.

The scripture is so clear about God forgiving us, therefore, we are required to forgive others. In Jesus’ teaching on prayer, in the Lord’s Prayer, it is clearly pointed out that we cannot expect God’s forgiveness unless we forgive others, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (Matt. 6:12)

Another scripture, in Mark 11:25, 26 “. . . forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

So, it is clear that we will receive God’s forgiveness, only when we forgive others.

Then, the topic of forgetting. God forgives and God forgets. I have already given some scriptures which support God’s forgetting of our sins, when we come to Him in repentance.

However, it is in OUR forgetting that I am struggling. I can see that it would be obvious that if God has forgotten our sins, there would be no need for us to keep remembering them.

But, I think our memory has been given to us - for a similar reason as rules (you remember my rendition of “The Blessing of Rules”). I truly believe that God has given us our memory, and if, in remembering our sins of the past in that we are saved from repeating them, then remembering is not that bad. I agree that we do not have to live in the shadow of the sins of the past and spend time beating ourselves up in our remembering, but . . . . we need to remember if it keeps us safe from repeating.

There is a saying, something like “If you don’t deal with history, you will repeat it”. You get the idea.

Then, a second topic of remembering other people’s sins - when their sins have hurt or affected us. I agree that if there has been repentance, then there is forgiveness of God. Then we too must forgive, as in the Lord’s Prayer, in order to have God’s forgiveness for our own sins.

However, in the forgetting - I think it works in the same way with remembering our own sins - if remembering keeps us safe from repeating, then maybe there is merit in remembering. We have heard something like one would never put one’s hand near the hot stove, if we have ever experienced a small burn. We remember the pain of the small burn to protect us from danger in the future.

I do not, however, believe we have any right in bringing up the other’s sins - when it suits us – because they too have experienced God’s forgiveness. If we truly forgive the person, we treat them if it did not happen - it takes faith on our part, and we can, by faith, forget the pain of the incident. We do not forget the incident, but by faith, we do not remember the pain of the transgression toward us.

Note that these are just my thoughts, certainly not any insinuation that my understanding of the scriptures is higher than my blogger friend, or of those of the comments (which we love) made on the blogs.

A good scripture to end with, Matt. 6: 14, 15, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Submitted by Naida

Part two//
Forgiveness; faith….an act…. I was going to say…an act of the will but I think it best to leave it alone for just a little while. And the reason I say that is because faith is an act…it is action. Take your Bible and read the second chapter of the epistle of James. It says that faith has to have an action in order to be alive, in fact verse
17 says that “ faith by itself , if it doesn’t have works, is dead.”
Now I am going to say it is an act of the will. Sometimes that is all you can do, act by willing a thing to be. And that requires faith…like forgetting a hurt (yesterday’s theme) but many times, probably most times we can exercise faith in a tangible way. And James gives us an example here in chapter two. A rich man comes in to our assembly and we seat him in a good place, a poor man wearing dirty clothes comes in and we seat him in the back seat in the corner, he might even have to use the service entrance. James says we by our actions have dishonored the poor man and if we say to that man, “be warmed and filled but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?”
In this chapter here in James epistle he somehow treats these two themes of partiality and faith without works as one. He lets us know that in both cases we have sinned.
I know a family who sold their home and left the comforts of this great land to relocate in the Philippines where they have instituted a feeding program, helping the poor, even built houses for families and their son who is a young teenager raised the money along with giving his own to build a boat so that a fisherman could provide for his family. All this is preceded by the preaching of the Gospel. And to add to all this, it is an extremely dangerous area, sometimes a war zone with militant Muslim activity…they are proving their faith by their works, I talked to them just yesterday. The church family that we are a part of has been giving out groceries to those in need for a long time, along with the gospel message. These people make up an entire congregation if only once a month. It takes people to administer these tasks and they are showing their faith by their works. These are examples of showing our faith by our works. The task before us is enormous but if we show our faith by our works we can be assured that God will provide. The most important thing we can do by far is give out the message of the cross of Jesus Christ and then expect God to answer. But if a man or woman or a family is in need and we address that need then we’ll get their attention. James uses the example of Abraham offering his son Isaac on the altar as a sacrifice in verse 21. He knew that God would provide a sacrifice and that he would not have to kill his son, but if he did the Bible says in the book of Hebrews that God would raise him up. Chapter 11 verse 7-9
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, “in Isaac your seed shall be called,”
Concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.”
Now God doesn’t ask anyone to do something like this today, in fact Abraham was the only person that God has ever tested in this way and Abraham proved just how much he believed God and trusted Him and this was putting his faith into action and he came through with flying colors. His faith was counted unto him for righteousness. He proved his faith by his works.
When we were in Grenada doing short term missions last winter, I saw this sign on the outside wall of a school building, it was displayed so that all could read it. It said, “vain or empty is knowledge without God” And James is saying “vain or empty is faith without works” Remember faith is an act…even if it is an act of the will…. Perhaps that is all you can do as I said in the previous blog…will to forgive…will to forget as an act of faith. Is this becoming clearer? If you have read this today, let me know by commenting or just drop an e-mail and say yes I have read it. My e-mail is atlmiss@nbnet.nb.ca
Naida has requested that we make this an interactive blog, but it all depends on you and leaving your comments.

Memory: Does God have a memory loss?

The other night in Bible Study I asked a question of those attending. I was asking if anyone knew where it speaks in the Bible about a sea of God’s forgetfulness. Nancy, who has been serving the Lord for many years (I dare not say how many) spoke up and said it was in the book of Micah. So I looked it up. It said You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea.
That’s Micah 7:19b. King Hezekiah said “ You have cast all my sins behind Your back “That was part of the answer I was looking for but not all. So then I found Jer. 31:34 where it says “For I will forgive their iniquity , and their sin I will remember no more.” If God can forget it then why don’t we?
God chooses to have a memory loss and when He forgives your sins then He forgets them too. So why do we dig them up again? and over and over again we do that. Do you agree? David said in Psalm 32 “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven Whose sin is covered. (that’s verse 1) Verse 2 says “Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit.” And the reason that he could say what he said is found in verse 5.
It says “I acknowledged my sin unto You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “ I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD.” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Oh Hallelujah! He has forgiven me!! So then God has a little memory loss too. He has chosen to forget our sins when we confess them to Him, it is part of forgiveness.
When someone does us wrong are we willing to forget it? No doubt you have heard folks say something like, “oh, I’ll forgive so and so, but I won’t ever forget what he/she did to me. Is that real forgiveness? Of course not! The only kind of forgiveness that is real is this kind that says “I forgive and I forget.”
I have had to forget and that is not an easy thing to do. It is an act of faith; we choose whether or not we are going to forget just like we choose to forgive. So you say I have tried to forget that hurt but I still remember it. My answer to that is, firstly if you have forgiven, genuinely forgiven the one who has hurt you, then ask God in faith believing to help you and thirdly act on your faith. Act as if you have forgotten it. Don’t lie about it but don’t accept it either and when the devil brings it to mind tell him to get lost because you have forgotten it. Act on your faith and leave the results to God…the real Blog Master

Benchmark II: This whole line of thought that I am currently pursuing started out with “ Defy the odds/ don’t be a statistic” then “just another blog” and now these two on “Benchmarks”
I THINK I see a pattern don’t you? Two comments on the previous benchmark blog have caused me to respond to them . In fact all three deserve our attention. C.M. said “Keeping our standards where they should be is something that we tend to forget when we get too caught up in the world.” How true and for that very reason we need to guard our hearts and also how much time we spend fellowshipping with those who will drag us down to their level. We are in the world but we don’t have to be partakers of their sins. In fact Hebrews 3:1 says we are partakers of the heavenly calling. And again in Colossians 1:12 it tells us “giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.” The very next verse says “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” I love the song the Gaither vocal band sing; “He came down to my level when I couldn’t get up to His” He has shown me what living is.
Coffee says, “We should all shoot for excellence but some of us will never hit the target but don’t ever stop trying. Remember No matter how much we strive to be like JESUS it just isn’t Going to happen but he wants us as close as we can. We will never make it on our own so ask him for help.” And my reply to that is indeed never stop trying and also never neglect this great salvation as Hebrews tells us in chapter 2 verse 1 “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard , lest we drift away” and stepping down to verse 3”how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”
The comment that came from “Anonymous” has left me to think soberly and seriously about what he or she calls “cheap grace” and it agrees so much with this scripture reading from Hebrews ch. 2 that I have just quoted from.
Go back and read his/her comment “We who have experienced forgiveness of God sometimes can get careless about keeping to the standard of His Word and rely on His forgiveness to make things right. His forgiveness is there but we have to be careful not to fall into the hole of "cheap grace", I can do this and get away with it because I know He will forgive me later.” One more scripture found in the epistle of Paul to the Romans ch. 6 verses 1&2, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! (NKJV) the King James says…God forbid! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”
If there is one thing I can’t over emphasize it is this verse in the same chapter of Romans #6, “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should be no longer slaves of sin.”
Vs. 7, “For he who has died has been freed from sin.” Read the whole chapter. Before I leave this blog and send it out into cyber space, let me give you the definition of “benchmark” it is a standard by which something can be measured or judged. It is an archetype, a basis, a canon, an example, a fact. All these things can be said of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, our God. And so much more.
We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, Philippians 4:13. We can and we must…strive for the prize; you can do it! I said one more scripture…indulge me, please…Colossians 3:1 “If you then were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.” Read it down to verse 5. Remember Jesus is LORD!...the Blog Master

Benchmarks…when I was in the workforce I spent the most of my working years in industry, in particular a power utility and then in the oil industry. Electrical maintenance was my field and high voltage testing in particular. And in these kind of things you have to have a standard to go by when testing equipment to gauge its performance by. We referred to it as a benchmark. It is very critical especially in testing high voltage equipment that it measure up to the benchmark. If it does not measure up and you put it in service the chances of failure are very great and safety and reliability are compromised to a great degree. Where does this fit in our lives…how does it apply to you and to me?
In maintaining high voltage equipment cleanliness is a huge factor as well as protecting it from harm. Regular maintenance at specified periods is a must. Tolerance of moving parts, etc. and adjustments when they are outside of the benchmark is critical to reliability. Our society as we know it is extremely dependent on proper operation of high voltage equipment at least in our part of the world. The maintaining of the benchmark is critical.
Back to the question how does this apply to my living? We as born again Christians have the greatest benchmark mankind has ever known but sadly most have never known. His name is Jesus. All other benchmarks fail in comparison to Him. The question is, how do we even hope to measure up to His standards? The answer is that we have to be overcomers. And how can you and I do that some may ask? Jesus said in Revelation3:21 “He that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.” Regularly coming to Him, seeking His face in prayer, worshipping Him …the Psalmist said “I will bless the LORD at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth” fellowship with His people…it says in Hebrews “forsake not the assembling of yourselves together and so much the more as you see the day approaching. THE DAY IS APPROACHING VERY QUICKLY. Let us not be sidetracked with the problems of this life. Maintain the benchmark. Keep your eyes on the prize which is the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Never lose sight of our goal, we are too near to heaven to turn back. The old song says we ‘ve got too much to gain to lose. Be careful who you associate with, don’t be dragged down to a level lower than the benchmark. Do not allow anything to compromise the benchmark…the Standard. Lift up the standard of righteousness. Hebrews tells us, “be holy even as I (Jesus) am holy.”

Just another blog : As I was running through some past blogs I thought to myself, what am I doing this for? What is the purpose in all this anyway? After all I am just a layman, not any great teacher of note. Who do I think I am ? Have you ever felt like that?

Then, exactly at this point in the blog, an e-mail came in from a bishop friend of ours from India, a man who is overseer of several churches there in India and he tells me of the great respect he has for my wife and I and how we have been a valuable vessel of blessing to many in various places in the world and of how our rich experience will be a guideline for the coming generation. I am humbled so very much. Who are we that this man of God would send this e-mail at this exact moment?

All I have ever wanted to be is an encouragement to others. I don’t have any special talent, I am not a great orator, just a vessel for the Master’s use. Is God speaking to me this morning or what? He is saying to me that there are folks who need encouragement, who perhaps need a lift, a word of encouragement, a word in season … Isaiah 50:4 says, “The LORD GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.”

That is a promise I have claimed and it is my desire. It is my desire to encourage with this blog. I am reluctant to consider myself as an example, but when you think about it, everyone of us are an example whether good or not so good. Others are watching us…let’s do everything we can do to be an example of the believer. God bless you today….RC

Defy the odds/Don’t be a statistic

Statistics tell us that once a person commits a crime or at least certain crimes or in another area if a relationship fails or one or the other cheats in a marriage the odds are that person will do it again. But you and I do not have to be a statistic, we can defy the odds. The Bible says “If any one be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” A person may say then, how is it I do not feel like old things have passed away and I can’t give up this habit or sin in my life? How is it that I keep offending? The scripture is replete with the antidote. Look at Romans chapter 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Vs. 2 says, “And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

We can be transformed by the renewing of our mind! Isn’t that great? You may ask, how do I accomplish that feat? How do I renew my mind? One way would be found in Philippians 4:8,9 where it says “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be anything praiseworthy, meditate (think) on those things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me (the apostle Paul is writing this) these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Back in Romans 12, verse 9 says “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” And in verse 21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

One more piece of advice from Paul is found in Ephesians chapter 6 verses10-18 “Ephesians 6:10-18 (New Living Translation)

The Whole Armor of God

10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we^[a] are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

13 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. 15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.^[b] 16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.^[c] 17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.^[d]

James says that friendship with the world is enmity with God. If you and I are not careful whom we hang out with it can be to our detriment. It can drag us down. Do not partake of other men’s sin.

Read the 4^th. Chapter of James. Defy the odds and don’t be a statistic. I need this as much as anyone else does. We can be over comers. In Christ…we need to lift each other up in prayer. We can’t do this in our own strength and Paul says it there in Ephesians that I just quoted; this time from the King James “ Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,,,put on the whole armor of God.”….that is the only way we can do it…in Christ. Prayer, studying His Word and regularly fellowshipping with other Christians is how you accomplish all this.

Materialism or God?

My eagle friend: Do you remember the blog about that eagle; the one who commands the bay that I wrote about in an earlier blog?

You should go to the archives for September 24, 2006 and read it before you read any more of this current entry…I’ll wait……….

Read it already? Good. I hope you enjoyed it. Now back to this one.

A few days ago I saw that eagle. We were staying overnight with our friends in that coastal village I was talking about,; the tide was out and Sheila (the lady of the house and our hostess) said “look there on the ledge is the eagle. You may notice that there are no sea gulls around.” They all take off when Mr Eagle (or it could be Mrs. Eagle ) goes fishing. Then she handed me the binoculars. Just then the eagle took off flying, so I got him in view and followed his flight pattern (something like a space shuttle launch.) It was then that I saw that all of the seagulls had not left while Mr.Eagle was fishing for one had stayed around and had caught a fish. It however had not escaped the eagle’s attention. Remember the blog with the eagle facts…he has excellent peripheral vision; he can see sideways and frontal all the same time and he saw that ol’ seagull when he dove and caught said fish and he got real greedy and thought he had outsmarted that big eagle. Wrong!

That seagull tried to outfly the eagle by turning 90 degrees to the east thinking probably that the eagle couldn’t turn so quick. Wrong again! Now that seagull isn’t so stupid either because he realized that discretion is the better part of valor so guess what he did? Dropped that fish and guess what the eagle did? He left off chasing that gull and swooped down and got that fish just as it hit the water. It was really quite entertaining. And educational also. I’m sure that seagull learned something; “Will you set your eyes on things that are not? For riches certainly make themselves wings, They fly away like an eagle towards heaven” Proverbs 23:5

That old seagull though he was rich for a minute or two but he lived to see his treasure fly away literally. At least he was still alive.

That’s the way it is when we seek to lay up treasures for ourselves and are not rich toward God. The Bible tells us to consider the poor and needy many times over. In the 23^rd chapter of Proverbs that I quoted from, it says in verse 4 “Do not overwork to get rich.”

Jesus said in Matthew 6:23-34, “ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

25Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Have things become more important to you than your relationship with God? You need to heed the words of Jesus and seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.