What Did You Do With What I Gave You?

Its raining a little outside so I’m inside this evening with a few moments for the old computer. I tried out the silage chopper this afternoon and chopped six large loads and everything worked just fine. But I quit around four cause it was a little to wet with the rain and all. When it clears up a bit I’m ready to roll!

Last evening I was reading in my “farmer’s devotional”, a book I received back in spring written by Angus Buchan, that South African farmer/preacher who’s heart for the Lord is something I envy. A good envy too! The book is called, “A Farmer’s Year” and I mentioned it a few months back. And just because I haven’t mentioned it for a time doesn’t mean that it was thrown in my famous “pile” of books and other papers. I’ll write a quote from that book which is so special to me.

Perhaps we need to sit down today and take account of what we are actually doing and giving, not of our money, but of ourselves. God is going to ask us one question when we arrive in home in heaven: “What did you do with what I gave you?”

Yup, last evening as I was paging through the pages of that book, one of my favorites, this really spoke to me. This is the believer’s judgment that Angus is talking about. Many folks just believe that we are going to waltz into heaven being that we are saved, forgetting what the Bible repeatedly tells us about. There are parables that tell us this same thing. Many of them. God asking us, “What did you do with what I gave you?”  And face it, if a person is reading this, they are rich compared to most of the world.

But this isn’t about giving money as stated in the quote. It’s about ourselves. Its about giving our time, our very lives. Now that’s something for a farmer to chew on working all day in the field. Working in a bumper crop, worrying how I’ll get it all in. I shouldn’t be worrying and in fact I worry allot less than I did years ago. And I do hear the voice of the Holy Spirit telling me not to worry. Just do it!

OK, then let’s get on with it. The Bible says, and I’ve heard it a thousand times or more, And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” – Acts 20:35  But do we really believe it? Do we really live it? I know a couple of years ago I really wanted to climb the ladder in ministry, but looking back I was probably doing it for myself more than for the Lord. A while back I kinda got set free when I decided, yes, a person has to make their own decision, I decided I’m going to just follow the Lord and become a servant. In our church for example I don’t worry about if they do this or that. I have no desire to have my way of church being thee way. And a feller gets set free when that happens. When I speak in church I’m starting to understand that its to an audience of One.  I’m not worried so much what people think.Its more important to give the Word, even when a person is stumbling through it, than to worry about how this or that will make me look.

Church though is the smallest part of the whole equation. I love church, that’s for sure, but its the outside that calls me. The one thing I’ve learned in this whole process is that when one is not worried about this or that in church, God moves in ways that few church folk understand. You don’t have to look for opportunities, because they will literally pour out on you. And I mean bigtime. When folks, and that includes me, figure they’re going to make things happen in church, it very seldom happens. Why? Because it’s not in the proper order. The Bible talks allot about that too. Mainly in the gospels. To be the least is where a person wants to be, then if your called up to the head table its an honor, but trying to get a good seat at the head table can lead to some embarrassing moments when asked to step down and get where you belong.

To be a servant,not a master. Our Lord Jesus taught this over and over. Its so simple but we have such a hard time getting that into our heads. I pray that at the believer’s judgment that I can say that I gave and gave. That the seed that our Lord gave us was planted and reaped a huge harvest. And I know that God doesn’t want all the seed planted inside church. That seed He gave for us to plant and tend is for outside the walls. Farming presents a huge opportunity to spread the Gospel. To help people in many ways much of society can’t. It continues to amaze me how city folk just love the farm. I can only speak from the farming angle because that’s what I am, a farmer. But it really doesn’t matter who or what a person does. The opportunities are abundant to take what God has given us and use it for His Kingdom. And I’m not talking about selling everything a person has and giving it to the poor. I’m talking about using our over abundant resources and continually planting the Kingdom’s seeds.

Just dwelling tonight on a wet night. Getting back to the basics. Its so easy to get in a rut and not be operating in these simple basics.