Thursday: Labor 4

The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose.

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters, I am running a tad late today. Why? Well, I labored for God, before I labored for God! You will need to read the message to figure that one out...

Today is Thursday and a beautiful day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole. Some sun, some overcast, and full Son. We need some rain, and according to the weather, folks, God is going to send some. It will come in God's time, not the weatherman's time.

Family day on the line and our families do need prayer. Please pray for your family and mine as I pray for my family and yours. Keep praying full force for the Saylor family, the Idler Family, and Vicki and her family, the families at the Bridges, LeaAnne and her family, and keep praying for jobs for LeaAnne and Mark. Pray for the family in the Whitehouse and most of all pray for THE FAMILY OF GOD.

On a sad note today, our beloved Millie died in my arms last evening at about 4:30 PM. As much as we love to take in senior dogs this is not an easy thing. She will be waiting in heaven, as yes, pets will be in heaven, Her little body is resting near the rock with the others. We now have eight ranging in age from 19.5 years old to 1.5 years old... all but the baby, the puppy, the rest are all over 10. Some are blind, others cannot hear, some cannot hear and are also blind, some walk with a limp (as I also do) but like me, they all eat, sleep, and well you know. Our goats are doing good, and the chickens are now laying about seven eggs a day. People coming for food will be getting fresh eggs.

Labor 4: 1 Corinthians 3:8 - The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. (NIV)

Let me explain that in the opening... "I labored for God, before I labored for God." First of all I want you to know that laboring for God is a labor of love for Dolores and I, even when the pain is so high it brings us to our knees. Today "I labored for God, before I labored for God." It went like this. I got up and took my shower (needed so the dogs would come to me), then I cleaned up after the dogs, while Dolores put out their breakfast. We then did our daily Bible study to take in a little fuel. After that it was out to feed the rabbit, the goats, the chickens and put some fresh water and sodas out for our trash collectors. God rewarded us with seven fresh eggs. Then I brought a big turkey up from our downstairs frig where this big big bird was thawing. I then cleaned it, and stuffed it, making my own stuffing. So far you might be thinking was this laboring for God? Yes and as I said it is a labor of love for I love to cook. Those who know me might say it is one of the things I like to do most. God makes most of it turn out good tasting as I just sort of throw things in the pans. But the labor of love is doing it and then giving it away. I love to cook for groups, for neighbors, and for this very, very, very special family who have trouble getting around. And what do you think this family does, well they invite in a neighbor or two to eat with them. They share the blessing.... and they also pray for us, and when I see just how they live each minute for God, I feel so honored to just be able to serve God by helping them. You do know that when you help others you are serving God, right? The mother of this family has learned to live one day at a time and do it for the Lord.

So all those things together before I got to the message was the laboring before I am laboring... and when this message is done, I want to labor some more for God. I need to get the rest of the meal ready, go to the store, for as I make this dinner, I want to also make some soup, I just love soup.

Brothers and sisters, I am not bragging this morning, I am trying to tell you just how blessed we really are. ALL OF YOUR LABOR should be for God. All of it, I don't care if you are working for a salary to pay your bills, for who you are working, it should be for God. If you are working at a job that God is not proud of you for doing, QUIT IT, STOP IT. If your job is doing something that each day you need to pray to be forgiven for doing, you need to change jobs. Trust God to get you another.

In the scripture above, one man plants a seed and another does the watering. You know often farming is teamwork. I had a group of men on an outing last year to the Mason/Dixon dairy farm in Gettysburg Pa. If my memory is correct they are milking near 2,500 head of cows, three times a day. It takes team work. Leslie Waybright, a long time friend of mine, is part of the family. Her husband, one of the family owners, works as hard if not harder than the hired help. He is the head of the feeding team. He puts out the feed by the dump truck load, using a loader to put it on the truck. But think about this and line it up with the man who planted the seed and the man who watered the seed. This family gets up in the morning and goes to work, working at home so to speak. They feed, they water, they clean up, they milk, and they do it again, and they do not buy new cows, so it is the baby area, they raise their own feed in the most part and listen to me on this one, they make electric from the cow dung and that not only runs the farm and the family homes on the farm and some of the neighbors, they sell some back to the power company. And the work never ends. They even plant the seeds for the crops, but there is at least one thing on the farm they cannot do. And neither could the men in the Bible who planted the seed and who watered the seed... What might it be?

God made it grow... Now think about it real hard. This is why we labor for God. Even those who do not believe in God labor for Him. Yes, they do, unless they have one of those trash jobs like holding onto a pole with no clothes on and dancing, or something else that God does not approve of.

When the man plants the seeds and the next man waters the seeds, GOD MAKES THEM GROW.

1 Corinthians 3: 7 - So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. (NIV)

Think of the Waybights and the Mason/Dixon farm. They do all the work, but without God, the corn would not grow, the wheat would not grow, even the grass would not grow tall to be cut into hay, and you could feed all the cows, you can clean after them and you can TRY and milk them, but without the hand of God making that cow make the milk, you would have nothing. God is good, and folks, when I say that we need to do all our labor for God, just who do you think is laboring for us? Do you think God's labor ended with the making of heaven and earth, or after Jesus went to the cross? No, God labors for us daily.

Brothers and sisters, in closing, tell me this... How long has it been since you thought about how GOD LABORS FOR US? I must confess, I thought about it today as God gave me this message.
And do you know that when God labors for us, it is a labor of love...

Dear Father in Heaven... I love You and I want to thank You for laboring for me. You know, Lord, You put a really fresh look on this for me. I know You heal, I know You make the rain, the sun and all we need to make things grow, but I really never looked at it as You laboring for us. And gosh, Lord, You really still are a Servant just like when Jesus showed us when He walked the earth. Lord, we just need to open our eyes and look. We are blind and today for one, You healed my blind eyes again. I love You, Lord. Look after families today, mine and all others, Lord. And Lord, thanks for letting me labor for You, thanks for trusting me enough to work for You. Bless the food I am cooking as a labor of love and touch it, Lord. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Each day God labors for me, and today He really opened my eyes to it. Now it is our turn to labor for Him. We for sure can get started on it just by sharing our blessings.

Also, I want to remind you that we do have a blog spot... http://carrythelight4Jesus.blogspot.com/
Our ministry partner, Pamela Bower, keeps it up daily. She even corrects my spelling. Thanks Pam, you are loved. Now get sharing... love ya, dan.