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"The Lord Almighty is a wonderful teacher, and He gives the farmer great wisdom."
Isaiah 28:29 (NLT)

Today my husband and I traveled many miles across our state to attend a memorial service for a member of our extended family. It was a beautiful August day as our car glided around the curves and up and down the hills before we reached our destination.

Farmers could be seen baling freshly cut hay into many round bales. There were fields of rice and soy beans almost in their fruition stage. Planting had been done much earlier, cultivation was mostly completed and the farmers were waiting for the bountiful harvests sure to come in a few weeks.

It was evident from the lush fields we were viewing that the farmers had known what to do as they worked the fields so diligently. Yet, there was a sense in my spirit that only God could bring about such a marvelous thing. He had been a wonderful teacher to those farmers as they planted, watered and cultivated, but our extraordinary God had given them great wisdom as they worked day after day dreaming of harvest days.

I thought about the many mission teams that have gone out this summer from the local church my family attends. One team ministered to an orphanage in Mexico, teaching them praise songs and sharing the love of Jesus with them. Another group went to Russia singing and playing their instruments in a strange land. Yet they were bound together because God's great love is the same in any language.

In Poland a team prayer walked the streets making way for the preaching and teaching to come. Much planting, watering, and cultivating could be found in those foreign lands our teams visited. In Africa a great harvest was gathered as hundreds prayed to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.

The farmers use special tools to plant, cultivate and eventually harvest their crops. God also gives different gifts to His people to plant seeds about His amazing gift of salvation. To others he allows the watering and drawing near to Him through the sharing of His Holy Word. And then you may be given the Hallelujah assignment of bringing in the fruit by actually witnessing many souls being saved.

Whatever glorious opportunity God presents to you ? grab it with all your strength. Go forth and offer the life saving gift of salvation to a lost and dying world. Be available wherever and whenever God calls you. Follow His teachings and gain the wisdom He can give you.

Be a planter. Be a waterer, a cultivator, or a harvester. All are precious in God's sight.