Sheaves and Charity - Lessons of Harvest
"When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands". ~Deuteronomy 24:19 Here in the Midwest, it is very rare to see someone still harvesting their fields by hand. Instead we have giant combines costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy new being utilized to bring in the harvest. Combines have taken wha
Fig Trees and Relationships - Lessons of Harvest
If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down. ~Luke 13:9 When I used to volunteer regularly as a youth leader in my local church, one of my favorite outings to do with the girls in my small group was to go to a local Apple Orchard. We’d pick a cool, crisp, fall Saturday, drive just outside of the Minneapolis metro area, and join the crowds fleeing the city for a breath of fresh country air and a grand country adventure. Most of the time we would also explore
Lessons of Harvest
I grew up on a small family farm in SouthWest Minnesota. One of the things which I thought was common for everyone to do for many of my early years was to drive through every John Deere machinery lot you passed by and to drive slowly enough to inspect the crops in the fields and compare how your crops were doing to those you were driving by. While I don’t drive through many John Deere dealerships anymore, I do still find myself comparing the crops as I drive. On Monday we w
Power Up!
"But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you" ~ John 16:7 Chris Rice was a popular Christian musician during my college years and one of his songs was entitled “Big Enough.” I really appreciated the words of the chorus then and still do today: God if You're there I wish You'd show me And God if You care then I need You to know me I hope You don't mind me askin
From Old Boards
Romans 6:4 “Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” “Re-purposing” is a huge trend at the moment. “Old” looking stuff is “in” right now. On our farm, there is always an abundance of old, vintage stuff! When we bought our 100 year old farm house and acreage four and a half years ago, there were two buildings in the yard: a barn and a c
