The Gathering Place Where Family Matters

span style=”color: #000000; font-size: medium;”>For we are laborers together with God” (1 Corinthians 3:9).

As you may remember from yesterday, Charlie the overwhelmed farmer could not afford to hire help. Craig and Martha retired early from their office careers to move closer to their family. After moving in across the road from Charlie’s farm, Craig told his wife that he was going to walk over and meet the farmer. Maybe he would have something for him to do since the pastor in town didn’t have anything at the moment. Martha was quite hysterical because she knew her husband never came close to a farm. But she watched him from the living room window and whispered to the Lord, “Lord, you know that Craig needs something to do now that the grandkids are in school. Is this what you have for him, Lord?” Charlie was just picking up the wrench that he had thrown in frustration as Craig approached. “Hello there, neighbor, I’m Craig Bower. We moved in across from you a couple of weeks ago,” Craig called out as he put his hand out to shake Charlie’s. “Hey there, it’s nice to meet you, Craig. I’m Charlie Patterson. Come on in and have a seat here on one of these bales of hay,” Charlie insisted. The two men seemed to instantly hit it off really well. After about fifteen minutes of great conversation, Craig explained about his retirement from the office and wanting to move near their family. “But now my grandkids are back in school, and I need something to do. I don’t need any money; I need to be doing something or my wife might murder me!” he laughed with Charlie. “You don’t know how timely this is, Craig!” a very thoughtful and amazed Charlie Patterson said. “In fact just this morning I was so overwhelmed that I was ready to put a ‘for sale’ sign on this farm. Do you know how to drive a tractor?” Craig asked. “Nope, and I don’t even have any clothes for farm work. But if you are up to showing me, I’ll be back tomorrow morning and will work for a cup of coffee every once in a while!” a joyful Craig Bower promised. “Deal,” Charlie said. With that, Craig headed home with more excitement and enthusiasm than he had felt in the last fifteen years. His first experience on the tractor was, well, let me put it this way, be sure to come back tomorrow and see what happens.

For today: Be totally open to whatever the Lord has planned for you. You cannot improve on the will of God.

“For we are laborers together with God” (1 Corinthians 3:9).

Charlie was a middle-aged man who grew up on his parents’ crop farm. He never left it. After his dad became too old to work the fields, it became a dilemma to Charlie as to what to do with the farm. It was too small to hire more help and just a little too big to run by himself. This would be the second crop harvesting season that Charlie tried to manage the farm by himself. It simply wasn’t working. Craig and Martha retired early from their work. God had blessed them greatly, and they simply no longer needed their salaries. Now they desired to move closer to their only daughter, son-in-law and four grandchildren. They fell in love with the modest house right across the highway from Charlie’s farm. How they enjoyed being with their family every day. But now it was time for the grandkids to go back to school. “Honey, I’ve got to find something more to do. The pastor doesn’t have anything for me to do right now. I think I will walk across the way and meet our farmer neighbor,” Craig told his wife. “You– offering to help that farmer!” Martha said in between laughing nearly hysterically. “You’ve invested much of your life in an office on the eighth floor!” she said. “You are probably right, but I just seem to sense the Lord nudging me to go meet him. Anyway, we have called this stretch our new mission field. Now, if you will excuse me, your missionary husband is heading out!” Craig exclaimed. Inside the barn, Charlie threw the wrench on the floor and shouted, “I just can’t do this any longer. I quit!” Check back tomorrow for their meeting.

For today: You never know what the Lord may unfold all around you. Be sensitive to His leading.

“Let him that stole steal no more: bur rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Ephesians 4:28).

Don and the group from First Baptist Church really enjoyed going to the rescue mission every month. The church group enjoyed meeting the nearly twenty-five men each month who assembled for the chapel service of music, testimonies, and a brief devotional message. Often there didn’t appear to be any response to the gospel invitation until the night James gave his testimony. In part of his five minute testimony he said, “I want to tell you about the change Christ has made in my life. My life was wrecked by alcohol and drugs. I stole every day to support my habit. Then I got caught. I surely picked the wrong house to burglarize. I was burglarizing the home of a police officer when she returned to catch me in the middle of the act. I was sent away for nearly eight years. But men, I want you to know that I attended the prison chapel services, and there a faithful chaplain preached the Word of God and shared how Christ died for my sin and rose again. He told me that Christ could forgive me of my sins and change my life.” Then James continued without looking at the folded paper with his notes. He clearly and passionately spoke. “Men, I know this to be true. Christ changes lives. I once was a burglar who robbed others for my living. Now I work willingly with my hands and am happy to share with others. Only the Lord can produce this in the life of a former burglar.” There were several decisions that night in the rescue mission. How about you? Aren’t you glad that the Lord Jesus saved you and changed your life?

For today: Live the changed life before others, not so that you will look good, but so that the power of your Savior will be unmistakable!

“Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts” (Isaiah 6:5).

Isaiah is given a vision of our glorious Lord. He gives us an account of this situation in Isaiah chapter six. It is powerful as Isaiah describes the ceaseless worship of the Seraphim, who are crying out to one another of the holiness of God as they stand above the throne with their majestic wings that cover their faces, their feet and with which they fly. There Isaiah was given a glimpse of the throne of God. I am a man of limited words to describe this absolute, total, overwhelming, and majestic scene. Immediately upon seeing this sight, Isaiah responds with an honest view of himself. The holiness of God, when honestly thought about, still does this to us today. The more we learn about the Lord, the more we see how terrible our sin really is, and we rejoice in the grace of God extended to us. That’s what happened to Rebecca that morning. As a fourteen-year-old, she was quietly reading her Bible. Up in her room, seated beside the front window of their home, she was reading through the book of Isaiah when she came upon chapter six. As she read, the clouds moved in such a way to make the sunlight stream down upon the portion where she read of the holiness of her God. Immediately she sensed the sinfulness of herself. Mom walked past her door and stopped to see tears streaming down the cheeks of her daughter. “Oh Mom, why would our holy God love someone like me?” Rebecca asked. Her very wise mother came in, hugged her daughter and simply said, “Because He chose to, my sweetheart. Because He chose to.”

For today: How awesome is our God. How amazing His grace!

“And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone” (Isaiah 6:3, 5).

Before us is one of the most dramatic and breathtaking accounts in the entire Old Testament. Isaiah was granted a revelation of the holy and awesome worship taking place in Heaven. The Seraphim cried out in a holy, endless symphony of praise and adoration before the throne of God. He alone is HOLY, HOLY, HOLY! Immediately Isaiah viewed himself as “undone.” This is the Hebrew word damah which means “to be cut off, to perish.” This is absolutely dramatic. God reassured Isaiah that He had taken care of his sin. We will look at this scene a little more tomorrow. Right now, the tremendous lesson for us is that the closer we grow to the Lord, the more we will see who we really are, and the more we will appreciate His grace. Oh how great is our awesome Lord. He indeed is holy!

For today: I see myself for what I am and it makes me worship the Lord and give thanks for His grace!