Make Hay While the Sun Shines
The month of September is here. The name “September” comes from the Latin word Septem for seven because it was the seventh month of the Roman Calendar. For me as a child it meant a couple of things. The first was going back to school, yes, it didn’t happen till September. I feel sorry for you children that start attending school mid-August. The second had to do with farm life. Growing up on a Farm meant that it was time for the harvest. My dad raised green beans of different variety, allowing them to mature into seeds. Harvesting them meant cutting, raking, thrashing, and bailing the chaff.
My dad would be on a tractor with blades that would cut off the rows of bean plants under the dirt. He would have us children follow with a tractor pulled rake that would place them into win-rows. Once they were sufficiently dry, he would go in with the combine that would thrash the dried beans, separating the bean seeds from the pods. Out of the back of the combine would come the chaff that we would later bale into bean straw to be used to bed down the cattle for the coming winter. We would auger bean seeds into trucks and drive them to the seed company to be weighed and unloaded resulting in payment to my father for all his (our) hard work for the season. This activity would often go late into the night for many weeks and provided the money our family needed to live. I’m glad to have been a part of the harvest, and to not have been a lazy son for my father and family. My father would always say, “Make hay while the sun shines.”
Jesus tells us something relating to this in John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! [NKJV].
In another place Jesus instructs his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Matthew 9:37-38 [ESV]
The harvest Jesus is talking about is the harvest for people’s souls for the kingdom, for eternal life. This hasn’t changed. The problem isn’t with the harvest; it is with the lack of the harvesters. The harvest is ripe, it is plentiful. It just doesn’t have enough workers to bring all in. People in our neighborhoods are ripe for God, for the kingdom, for heaven. They are searching for meaning in their lives, to be part of something bigger than themselves. All it might take is for you to reach out to them and share the hope you have in Jesus with them.
This means we should do a couple of things. First, we should be praying to the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers into the harvest field. Second, we need to be wise children and work where our Heavenly Father tells us to work. Jesus by example and command in John 9:4 says, As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. [NIV84]
Notice that Jesus uses the word “We,” and not “I.” Jesus wants to partner with us in His harvest of people for the kingdom. How exiting to be part of His harvest in the world.
Would you pray with me for more workers for the harvest field?
Would you labor with me in the harvest of the kingdom while there is still daylight?
Let’s make hay while the sun shines.
My dad would be on a tractor with blades that would cut off the rows of bean plants under the dirt. He would have us children follow with a tractor pulled rake that would place them into win-rows. Once they were sufficiently dry, he would go in with the combine that would thrash the dried beans, separating the bean seeds from the pods. Out of the back of the combine would come the chaff that we would later bale into bean straw to be used to bed down the cattle for the coming winter. We would auger bean seeds into trucks and drive them to the seed company to be weighed and unloaded resulting in payment to my father for all his (our) hard work for the season. This activity would often go late into the night for many weeks and provided the money our family needed to live. I’m glad to have been a part of the harvest, and to not have been a lazy son for my father and family. My father would always say, “Make hay while the sun shines.”
Jesus tells us something relating to this in John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! [NKJV].
In another place Jesus instructs his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Matthew 9:37-38 [ESV]
The harvest Jesus is talking about is the harvest for people’s souls for the kingdom, for eternal life. This hasn’t changed. The problem isn’t with the harvest; it is with the lack of the harvesters. The harvest is ripe, it is plentiful. It just doesn’t have enough workers to bring all in. People in our neighborhoods are ripe for God, for the kingdom, for heaven. They are searching for meaning in their lives, to be part of something bigger than themselves. All it might take is for you to reach out to them and share the hope you have in Jesus with them.
This means we should do a couple of things. First, we should be praying to the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers into the harvest field. Second, we need to be wise children and work where our Heavenly Father tells us to work. Jesus by example and command in John 9:4 says, As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. [NIV84]
Notice that Jesus uses the word “We,” and not “I.” Jesus wants to partner with us in His harvest of people for the kingdom. How exiting to be part of His harvest in the world.
Would you pray with me for more workers for the harvest field?
Would you labor with me in the harvest of the kingdom while there is still daylight?
Let’s make hay while the sun shines.
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