It’s easy to reap the benefits of a strawberry patch if they grow well – you set aside the garden location for that crop and only that crop – net it to protect from robber birds – water, harvest and enjoy. 

But what about the benefits of our worship and our witness? Can we set aside time to be fruitful? Yes you must set aside time, you must grow, you must protect your ever growing faith and nourish and display the fruit of the Spirit that God has given you. It feels good to see the blessings of dedication today, and it is LONGVIEW fruitfulness for Heaven God has set us aside for. Even if what we do sometimes seems for the birds, even the birds are God’s creation – He will put our labor to His use.

We must set aside time for God. We must set aside time for prayers. We must set aside time for reading the scriptures. We must set aside time away from earthly distractions AND set aside time for Heavenly Hungering. 

In the RAPTURE, a term for the raising of the faithful into heaven, other people will be left behind. GONE! As those who have declared faith in Jesus are taken up, including those under the age of a level of making decisions, the others may or may not know the reason. Think about the plaque of the first born dying in Exodus 11, except these people (including us who have avowed Jesus as Lord) will just be GONE. How will they understand? The others only have one way to still come to faith in what is called the Greatest Awakening (Revelation 7) and these people will suffer thru the great tribulation. These people will have to become martyrs in unblinking ways of following the Way of Jesus.

How will they know?  Our peddling of the Word is not for profit, or corrupting, as apostle Paul stated in his 2nd Corinthians letter 2:17. Sharing the faith is probably the only thing that we can set aside for the longest most valuable challenge for others to find salvation-securing HOPE. Whether the rapture is today or many days/years/centuries from now, think of those people, those who may be your own grown children and grandchildren. Our role is to witness and leave our witness behind. Figure out what we can do and share to allow them to become aware. We want ourselves and our offspring sealed with redemption – If Moses instructed the Israelites to redeem the firstborn “And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.” – then we are to encourage others to be redeemed for the Lord’s return. Jesus, the sacrificial lamb, has and will lead us out of this world with His mighty Way.

Myself, I have known some of the small crops of my labor, so what is the long term harvest that God picked for me to participate in? (I’m not talking simply about yummy strawberries – and certainly not about kale since a groundhog or rabbit ate all that out of my garden, boo)… Perhaps I would or should never know, on earth. I know that my writing and sharing is for Him – I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t be. I do benefit – I process – I pray – but for Him my writing is not just for today. I believe that He has a Way – and I believe that these writings are for someday not just for today. Specifically I have decided to write my way thru the bible. I am in Exodus and Revelation – fittingly at the same time. This will be a lifelong pursuit and passion of mine – but it is for His glory and His fruitful harvest – IN HIS TIME.

Jesus set aside everything – especially His Life for those whom would believe. Perhaps (YES) He needs us to set aside time for eternal others. NOT just here and now, we are to think about others we know AND think about those left behind whom we won’t know. Perhaps relatives, perhaps others, all needing feeding. Leave physical bibles around – leave stickers of scriptures – leave clues like none other. Leave the legacy of His life in you.

SHARE FOR THE SAKE OF THE FUTURE PEOPLE WHO WILL NEED TO BE UNSHAKABLE IN THEIR FAITH. It is not just about us – it never was. It is about ALL. 

We can LOOK to the Lord for our CLUE – How has He set aside you?

AMEN 

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The Great Multitude in White Robes (witnessing and writing by John)
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”

Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.‘ Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them,’ nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’

‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’ ”

Revelation 7:9-17 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+7%3A9-17&version=NIV