April 1, 2017

Greetings My Friend, The status stated something about not planning on working with a broken body and the struggle we have doing old things in new ways. I "heard" of the hope we have as we strive to work and be productive in our lives. While reading the Bible the other day I saw the word "hope" used in the passage and then as I wrote in my journal I found myself using the word hope. If I did not have hope I would give up on life and exist in a state of numbness. "Do I say these things on a human authority? Does not the Law say the same? For it written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads the grain. 'Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake because the plowman should plow in hope of sharing in the crop. If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do we not even more?" If we listen to God and do not muzzle the ox, we have hope to have grain. God is teaching us the best way to harvest the grain and then Paul teaches us about harvesting souls for Christ. First Paul taught us from the OT on the physical process and in the NT we learn how to apply the physical to our spiritual walk. Those that are teachers deserve their pay although Paul did not ask for pay. He was more interested in opening peoples heart to God more than receiving pay. This was Paul's choice. The greatest concern God has is for us to accept His Son Jesus, He desires for us to freely choose Jesus and God has placed on some people's hearts to teach and grow us in our spiritual nature. The only way we can walk with God is in our spirit, not in our flesh. I struggled to learn my spiritual nature. Only through a daily decision have I begun to meet my spiritual nature. God has taught me slowly and steadily as I have been able to absorb the lessons leading me to the spiritual nature. For me I began my journey in the physical realm and slowly the spiritual realm grew within me and made sense. For me the OT keeps showing me how God was teaching Israel through the physical realm. As I grasped the lessons I have been able to relate to my spirit the lessons of the physical nature. After absorbing all of this I found the Holy Spirit teaching me to tell my story of my faith journey and those seeds of my words will go out and be planted into the hearts of those I tell my story to. The Holy Spirit was telling me by giving my story or testimony I am sowing seeds of faith and then God will bring the people to Him. I liken this to seeds being planted in the ground, the testimony is watering the seeds of faith and at the end the growth of the seeds will be God's love shinning on that person's heart opening it to Him. My faith journey went along these same lines. I have a good friend who stood beside me when my Dad died, our relationship had been difficult and when my ex felt that I should have not been upset with his passing my friend came beside me and held me tenderly. She understood the pain of my loss, the unanswered questions and she opened my heart to God's tender love for me. After I was divorced a friend saw me struggle with a coworker and had heard my story of abuse, when she found herself in an abusive relationship she came to me to help her. She had been watching me and knew I would understand. I was able to open the door of faith to her as we went to Celebrate Recovery together. In all this seed planting we had the hope of harvest at the right time. God teaches in the physical realm and then draws us to His spirit. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet.