How Do We Live “fully alive”?
This is the season of harvest, and each day of teaching, I am afforded the opportunity to drive from campus to campus. As I do, the scenery unfolds before me as I drive. It is beautiful. The fields are ripening for the harvest. Combines and wagons are seen in the fields as I pass by, observing how the once green grains have now turned an appropriate color fit for harvest.
I have always lived on a farm, and those farmers who grace my family have always talked about the appropriate time for harvest and the dangers of trying to gather grain before the time is right. The soybeans and kernels of corn will not be ready but will have instead be filled with a moisture that will cause them to rot. So, farmers must patiently wait. Then when the timing is JUST RIGHT, they move their equipment into the fields and begin the harvest. These are the scenes I have experienced as the heat of August morphed into the autumn of October.
Harvest time reminds those who believe of the Lord’s harvest of souls, of seeds planted, of rains sent from heaven’s sky, and of the reapers gathering of souls fit (ready) for the Lord’s Harvest.
“For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
(The Letter to the Hebrews 9: 24-28 NASB)
nor was it that He would offer Himself often,
as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own.
Otherwise, He [Christ Jesus] would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world;
but now once at the consummation of the ages
He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,
so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation, without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”
Consider what the Lord has really done for us. Yes, really dwell upon how Jesus laid down His life and died so that we might live forever in eternity with Him.
- How do we say “Thank You” to the Son of God?
- How can we ever repay Jesus for the way He provided?
- How can we ever honor and praise our Savior—enough?
“For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one,
(The Letter to the Hebrews 9: 24 NASB)
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; . . .”
- How do we say, “Thank You, God, for all You have done for us?”
- How do we use our hands, our time, our spiritual gifts, our possessions to bring praise to Jesus’s name?
- How do we give generously to help others, giving freely with no strings attached?
- How do live our lives & BE ALL ABOUT GOOD WORKS & share with our neighbors ALL GOD HAS PROVIDED—us?
Of all the many reactions God could have taken in response to our sinful humanness, instead He sent Jesus to earth, to die, not multiple times, “but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” (The Letter to the Hebrews 9: 26b NASB)
- How do we live “fully alive”?
- How do we take hold of the “life” He has gifted to us (who have chosen to believe in Him)?
- What can we focus our earthly lives upon, giving fully of ourselves to be about, while we walk the face of the earth?
Yes, how in the world can we proclaim with all humility: “THANK YOU, GOD, FOR SENDING YOUR ONLY SON TO DIE SO WE WOULD NOT HAVE TO?”
- We can live daily as “those who eagerly await Him.” (The Letter to the Hebrews 9: 28b NASB)
- We can use all that God has provided (us) to be Jesus’s hands and feet.
- We can share our possessions, as the Holy Spirit leads, with those who have need.
- We can give monetarily, helping others have their needs met.
- We can choose to NOT store up our barns full of grain when our neighbors live without food to eat or houses in which to sleep.
We can INSTEAD live fully alive. The apostle Paul mentored a young preacher named Timothy, and in his first correspondence with him, Paul wrote words to share with his congregation of believers.
“Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,
(The 1st Letter of Paul to Timothy 6: 18 NASB)
storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future,
so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”
Believers, this is the season of harvest, and each day, we are afforded the opportunity to observe the scenery unfolding before us. It is quite beautiful. If we are observant, then we will see how the fields are ripe for the harvest. We can observe how the once untouched land has begun to turn a color fit for the harvest of the LORD. This is the LORD’S harvest of souls: of testimonies shared, of planting His seeds into the souls of those who do not yet believe.
- This is the gentle rains the LORD sends to stir the seeds to begin to germinate.
- This is the cultivation, the ridding of earth’s weeds that want to trap, to keep the tender seed from growing.
This is the LORD’S doing.
And someday soon, the time will be JUST RIGHT, when the LORD’S Harvest will come!
How Do We Live “fully alive”?
This is such a simple question to answer, and the Bible tells us how. Each day, we testify, we give of what we have been given, we share the love we have been shown, we pay forward our own salvation, we store up treasures that will never deteriorate.
We Deny Ourselves & We Take up Our Cross, and Follow—HIM, JESUS, our SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.