When a farmer starts a watermelon farm, he should cut extra watermelon vines
in order to grow one fruit from one vine. After that, when watermelon vines begin
to bear small fruit, he buries that branch. Then, roots come out from the buried
part and they supply enough water and nutrients to only one watermelon.
The farmer pays careful attention to the vines until they harvest the fruits.
But after picking the watermelons, they do not care anymore no matter how
sturdy they are. That is because the expected fruits have been harvested from
those vines already.
We have to live our life faithfully for the time of the soul and give to the Lord our
rich fruits. The reason why Christians are happy in any environment is because of
the fruits. Those who believe the Jesus can be happy because they will receive the
God’s reward and fruits.
In a battle with the Amorites, the Israelites were caught in the moment that
they would be occupied, if they could not exterminate the enemy that day.
Joshua decided to finish the battle and prayed to the Lord “God, let the sun stop
in the middle of sky and delay going down about a full day”. As a result, they
experienced the miracle and they defeated their enemy.
As Joshua wanted to finish the battle by stopping the sun, we all have to prepare
the fruits which will be served to the Lord before the sunset of our life.
Farmers are looking forward to a rich fruit in autumn. But the fallen fruits which
were unable to withstand the wind and rain make the farmers disappointed.
Only the fruits which have endured to the end make the farmers happy.
We all have to harvest the rich fruits for the time of the soul and make the Lord
rejoice. We have to win to the end in order to have abundant fruits waiting for
the day when we will possess eternal joy.
/ Pastor Seok-Jeon Yoon
Yonsei Newspaper #394 2014.07.19
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