“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:7-9 (ESV)

When I started working at the children’s home there was a man named Jerry Tucker on staff. By that time Jerry was working full time in the kitchen, but he had been a pastor before coming to the children’s home and had been a houseparent before moving into the kitchen. He had a great relationship with the kids, and I think one of the things he enjoyed most about working in the kitchen was that he had the opportunity to interact with all of the kids. Jerry used to talk to the kids all the time about the Law of the Harvest. When one of them would be in trouble for something or have an unpleasant consequence occur because of something that they had done he would simply say, “Law of the Harvest!” It did not take the new kids long to know that while Jerry might empathize with them, he wasn’t going to excuse their choices or let them try to get off the hook, either. He wanted them to learn as quickly as possible that there was rarely anyone else to blame but themselves for the results of their choices.

The Law of the Harvest comes from Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia, specifically in the verses quoted above. It is a lesson that is important for young and old alike, and it is applicable at every age and stage of life. Every action or choice has a consequence. We tend to think of “consequences” as negative, but a consequence is basically a synonym for result, and if there were no result to a choice there would be no point in making the choice. One could even argue that if there is not a difference of consequences pending then there is in reality no choice to be made. So the two go together. From an early age parents teach children about the Law of the Harvest, though rarely in those words, of course. As soon as they are mobile children are taught where they can and cannot go, what they can and cannot touch, and so forth, and typically they are told and/or shown what the consequences of their choices will be. Sometimes, of course, parents make every effort to make a choice for their children, realizing it is much better in the long run to eliminate a choice than to allow the child to reap the harvest of sticking a fork into an electrical outlet.

As we grow up, the number of choices we have to make the weight of the consequences for those decisions only grows. Sure, there are relatively insignificant choices to make each day like whether to have toast or cereal for breakfast, whether to wear khakis or corduroys, whether to have the mashed potatoes or the macaroni and cheese. But there are choices with far more serious consequences, too. The hope of every parent is that their children have been trained and equipped to make those decisions carefully and wisely, and that they will seek help and advice from intelligent and mature individuals, not just whoever is around or whatever seems popular.

Young people don’t always make good decisions. Let’s face it, not-so-young people don’t always make good decisions, either. Whatever our age, though, we must not be surprised when our not-so-good choices yield not-so-pleasant results. Paul says God is not mocked; in other words, God will not allow us to make stupid decisions and not experience the results of those decisions. Sure, sometimes we don’t get caught the first time or even the one hundred and first time, and sometimes we feel like there have been no negative results to our choices. That’s not because God doesn’t see or care or know, it is simply that, like a harvest, some seeds take longer to produce their harvest than others. Paul says that whatever we sow, we will reap.

Thankfully, we serve a God Who is able to transform our harvest from something worthless to something good. He is able to equip us to plant new seeds that produce new crops than the ones that come from sowing in the flesh. But He will not forcibly replant our crops for us; we have to yield to Him, to want to do things His way. Unless and until we do, we need to remember the Law of the Harvest…what we sow, we will reap.

Most mornings I eat breakfast alone. My wife is awake, and usually makes the coffee, but because I head out shortly after 7:00 my children are usually either just getting up or are not up yet. But as I am getting my breakfast ready I almost always pour my coffee into a mug that says “Greatly Blessed.” It is a tremendous way for me to start my day…a much needed reminder that I am, in fact, greatly blessed.

The words on the mug come from a song written by Bill Gaither and Larry Gatlin. It is a simple song, a bit repetitious actually, but the words are valuable reminders of who I am and what I have to be thankful for.

The chorus, for example, goes like this:

Greatly blessed, highly favored
Imperfect but forgiven child of God

It repeats that line twice. But the truth in those two simple lines is powerful. I am imperfect (believe me!) but I am also forgiven. That in an of itself is an incredible blessing and would be worth getting excited about all by itself.

But look at these words from the verse:

Standing upright, on God’s good earth
I’m counting my blessings, great things He has done
I’m fighting the good fight
With the blessed assurance
That the battle is already won

The second line always reminds me of one of the great hymns we sung often in the churches I grew up in: Count Your Blessings. That song includes the line, “Count your many blessings/name them one by one/and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” I don’t think the hymn writer means that we will be surprised by what God has done in the sense that we did not expect He could do it so much as we will be surprised, when we really stop and think about it, how much God has done. In other words, when we slow down enough to pay attention to all the ways in which we have been blessed, and continue to receive God’s blessing every day, we will be surprised. Surprised primarily because we will likely have to say, “Wow! I hadn’t even realized/thought about that!”

But the Gaither/Gatlin song continues wit the reference to fighting the good fight. We are, of course, fighting a spiritual battle here on earth, and Paul himself references having fought the good fight. What a blessing it is to know that the battle has already been won! There is an old Southern Gospel song written by Roger Bennett that says, “I’ve read the back of the book, and we win!” Praise God! The battle, and more importantly, the war has been won! Christ died, but He rose again, and in so doing He conquered death, hell and Satan. We will continue to struggle and battle in this life until the Lord returns or calls us home, but, to quote another Gaither song, “we can face uncertain days because He lives.”

I am greatly blessed!

In our house there is a bottle of hand lotion that sits just outside of the half bathroom attached to the master bedroom. Sometimes when the weather is particularly cold my hands get chapped, so I will use this lotion. Usually I use it before going to bed, but sometimes will use it at other times, as well. A couple of weeks ago I put some on just before heading to the office. I think it may have registered in passing that it was a new bottle, but I paid no attention to it. I honestly could not tell you what kind of lotion had been there before; I never really paid any attention to the kind. So I rubbed the lotion in and went off to work. Not too long thereafter I was sitting at my desk working on something and one of my hands was up around my face. I may have been adjusting my glasses, I don’t know, but suddenly and instantaneously my mind jumped to being at the beach.

Now, thinking about the beach during a South Dakota winter is not a bad idea, actually, but (1) the winter has been quite mild, and (2) the beach had not crossed my mind at all before that moment in recent memory. So what happened? Well, it turns out that that new bottle of lotion outside my bathroom has SPF 15 sunblock in it. Quite helpful, I suppose, for those whose hands have a tendency to get sunburned! But the fragrance of sun block reminded me immediately of the beach. Why? Because for my entire life I have vacationed with my family on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and before heading from the hotel room or the beach house across the sand to the ocean we would put on sun block. So years of having the fragrance of sunblock so closely associated with the sun, sand and waves has built that memory groove into my mind. The concept is the same as Pavlov’s dog salivating upon hearing the bell after the food had followed the bell for so long. Odds are pretty good that the smell of sun block will cause me to think about the beach for the rest of my life.

The sense of smell is incredibly powerful, isn’t it? I imagine we can all think of favorite smells…smells that are likely associated with a place or a food that we particularly enjoy. We can probably all name some very unpleasant smells, too. And the same smell can create a different reaction among different people, some positive, some negative (or even revolting).

The Old Testament refers often to the use of incense in the worship of the Lord. There was a place in the temple for incense to be burned, and the there are several accounts where there were serious consequences for the improper burning of incense. There is also a psalm of David, though, in which David prays to the Lord, “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you.” David was pleading with God to hear his prayer but also expressing his desire that his prayers would be like a pleasing aroma to God.

My encounter with the sun block-infused hand lotion got me to wondering. I wonder, to continue David’s analogy, if each person’s prayers have a unique aroma before the Lord? And if so, I wonder if my prayers are like incense…like a pleasing aroma that causes the Lord to think fondly and favorably of my petitions and praises, just like the scent of the sun block caused me to think fondly of the beach? On the other hand, I wonder if my prayers are ever like an unpleasant aroma before the Lord? When I am so focused on self, forgetting to praise Him or to seek His will and instead treating Him like a cosmic bellhop, I wonder if my prayers are more like a horrendous and stomach-turning stench?

My hope, like David’s, is that my prayers would be like incense before the Lord.

Philippians 1:10: “…so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ” (NASB).

In the Greek language, the word translated “approve” referred to assaying metals or testing money for its authenticity. Having knowledge and using discernment enable the believer to distinguish between the pure and the impure, the valuable and the worthless, the authentic and the counterfeit. When mining for precious metals the valuable metals are intertwined with rock and sediment that is often of no value, and it is necessary to separate the two in order to eliminate impurities and isolate the valuable metal. Likewise, we live in a world in which we are surrounded by and bombarded with impurities and worthless dross. We are called to approve only those things that are excellent–true, and God-honoring.

The word “sincere” in this verse, when understood in its original context and meaning, provides what I find to be one of the most fascinating word pictures in Paul’s writings. In Greek the word translated here as “sincere” means genuine, and in Latin it means pure or clean. There are many historical accounts of the prevalence of this word among pottery makers in the Roman empire. Pottery making was a lucrative business. After all, there was no plastic, and thus no Tupperware or Ziploc bags. Many of the storage containers we take for granted today did not exist, and pottery was used for the majority of storage. As with any business that proves to be lucrative, many people wanted to get in on the pottery business, and whenever there is competition there is usually a price war, too, as sellers try to beat their competition.

Pottery, of course, is shaped and then cured in an oven. Well-respected and high-quality potters would inspect their pottery after it cured for any cracks in the pottery. Items with cracks would be discarded, and the potter would start over. Of course, this meant that the price of his pottery was higher, because it was a more time consuming process to ensure that only quality pots were produced. Less honorable potters, however, would fill the cracks in their pots with hot wax, and then glaze or paint the pot, thus concealing the filling. This enabled them to sell their pots at cheaper prices, because damaged or imperfect pottery was not discarded.

Since finished pots looked the same to the naked eye whether they had filled cracks or no cracks at all, it became important to test the quality of the pottery. The way to identify if the pottery has wax-filled cracks was to hold the pottery up to the sunlight. If wax had been used to fill cracks, the bright light of the sun would reveal the filled cracks. As this practice grew, makers of fine pottery would mark their pottery sine cera, or hang a sign over the doors of their shops that said sincerus. This were indicators that the pottery was genuine…without wax.

So, what about the application? Just as the pottery had to be held to the light of the sun to reveal any imperfections, we must regularly hold ourselves up to the light of the Son. When we do so, we will discover our imperfections. The question is, when we find those imperfections, what do we do with them? Do we fill them with wax and cover them up, putting on an attractive outer covering? Sadly, many of us have mastered the art of concealing our imperfections. We look great on the outside, we do what we are supposed to do, say what we are supposed to say… Jesus had very harsh words for people like that…people who look great on the outside but are hiding sinful attitudes and imperfections on the inside. If we want to be sincere–if we want to be genuine and without wax–we must, like the honest potters, refuse to cover up our imperfections and instead do what is necessary to be genuine. Obviously we cannot “discard our pot” to the extent of throwing our lives away literally, but we can discard our “self” and allow the Master Potter to remake us. When we live for self and try to do things our way we are filling our cracks with wax. When we die to self and let Christ take over, then we can be marked sine cera.

Philippians 1:9-10 reads, “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (ESV).

I think there are several important messages to be taken from this exhortation from Paul to the church at Philippi. First, notice that Paul is not reprimanding or chastising his readers for any areas of weakness as he does in some of his other letters. Still, he writes that their love should abound more and more, which is evidence to me that as believers we never “make it.” We can never reach a point where we can say, “I have completed the course. I have mastered the Christian life. There is nothing more for me to learn.” On the contrary, there is always room for improvement, for growth, for “more and more.”

Second, Paul instructs his readers that their love should grow “with knowledge” (ESV) or “in knowledge” (NKJV). Love for God is something that grows out of our knowledge of Him. We grow in knowledge of Him in the same way that we grow in knowledge of any person with whom we may have a relationship–by spending time with Him. We need to read His word, to spend time in prayer, to attend church and spend time with other believers.

Third, our knowledge of God should influence our actions. Paul follows “knowledge” with “all discernment.” Having head knowledge is not enough; we must know how to use that knowledge and apply it in our lives in order to live it out. There are many people who have an extensive knowledge of the Bible in a historical or academic sense, but have no idea what it is really about–or, more accurately Who it is really about–and how the Bible should influence their lives. Knowledge is really only beneficial when it is accompanied by discernment, which is the wisdom to apply the knowledge.

When I was in college my sister Marianne, who is twelve years younger than me, asked me once what the difference is between ignorant and stupid. I thought for a minute before responding, then told her that ignorant is lacking intelligence, while stupid is refusing to use the intelligence that you have. So, using that definition, Paul is telling the church at Philippi, and by extension is telling you and me, “Don’t be stupid!” We must not refuse to use the intelligence–the knowledge–that we have.

A few days ago I went up on Battle Mountain with my father-in-law and brother-in-law so that my brother-in-law could sight in his new rifle. My father-in-law stepped off the distance and set up several clay targets. Meanwhile, my brother-in-law carefully set up his bench rest on a downed tree trunk, set a couple of small sand bags on top of the rest, and did everything necessary to get himself properly situated to get a steady shooting position. He would take a couple of shots, and then, based on the observations of my father-in-law, he would adjust the scope settings up or down, left or right in order to get the scope sighted as accurately as possible.

As I was watching and thinking about this process I realized how similar it is the process for sighting in life, too. We have to read the Bible in order to know how we ought to live. Similarly, someone (I assume) should read the owner’s manual for a new rifle and/or scope in order to understand the manufacturer’s specifications and the proper operation of the equipment. However, simply reading the Bible is not enough, just as reading the owner’s manual in and of itself would be of little value. Only by living out the instructions in God’s Word does the Bible have any meaningful impact, just as only by shooting the rifle will it be of any value. However, living out our lives–or shooting a rifle–is still not enough, because quite frankly it is highly unlikely that we will get it right the first time (in life or with the rifle).

As I mentioned, after a couple of shots there would be an evaluation of how close the shots were coming to the selected target, and then adjustments would be made accordingly. Similarly, we need to regularly evaluate our lives by pausing to see how close we are coming to the target of living in accordance with God’s instructions. When we see that are missing the mark, we need to make adjustments in order to bring our lives closer to the bullseye. We may remember from reading Scripture before what we need to do, or we may need to go back to our “owner’s manual” and remind ourselves how the Designer intends us to live. Then, we take another shot or two before we stop and evaluate again. With persistence and careful calibration we should be able to bring the rifle or the scope to the point that we can hit exactly what we aim at. Likewise, we should eventually get to the point where we live in a manner that allows us consistently hit the mark of living a godly life.

With a rifle, it is fairly obvious whether or not the target is hit. It takes closer inspection sometimes to see how far off the shot was, or in which direction, but even the casual observer can usually see whether or not the marksman hit his target. It is not always quite so obvious in life, though the more attuned we are to God’s Word the easier it should be for us to readily see how close we are to the target. Even a marksman that hits his target dead one with one shot, though, will sometimes miss the next time. When that happens, it is time to reevaluate. In life, we may handle a situation exactly the way God would want us to, and then blow it the next time. That means we need to reevaluate our lives, too. It may be that the scope needs to be re-sighted in order for it to remain accurate. Similarly, we may need to make some adjustments by checking our understanding and studying anew how we are to behave and speak and live out our salvation. Sometimes, though, the scope is still sighted accurately but the marksman shifted as he shot, or closed his eye, or got distracted, or…whatever. Somehow, the one pulling the trigger caused the shot to miss the mark even though the scope was sighted perfectly. Truth is, this is most often what will be the case in our lives. Assuming we understand the Scripture accurately and know how to apply it to our lives, our “scope” will not be the problem. The problem will be us–the flawed and fallible humans “pulling the trigger.” The circumstances of life, whatever they may be, can cause us to miss the mark…even when there is absolutely nothing wrong with our sights. Just like the responsible and effective marksman we must acknowledge our error and do everything we can to eliminate the possibility of that same disruption occurring again.

The marksman may use a stand, a shooting block, sandbags, or any number of other devices in order to help keep his rifle steady as he shoots. Some will be quite effective standing up, shouldering the rifle and taking the shot with no aides. Neither is right or wrong…success is measured only by whether or not the target is hit. In the same way, there may be times when we need to utilize aides to help us stay steady in our Christian walk. These aides may include Christian friends, accountability partners, regular attendance and participation in church, daily Bible reading and time in prayer, Christian music, Christian books, sermons on radio/CD/MP3…and so on. The point is, the aides that I find helpful and necessary in order to keep my life steady and on target may not look exactly the same as yours…but neither of us is right in what we choose to utilize. And, what I need in some situations may be very different from what I need in others; what I need one week may not be what I need the next.

What we do all need, however, is a submissive attitude to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Spirit will inform us–quietly, usually, but accurately–whether or not we missed the target, by how much and in what direction. Then He will tell us what adjustments need to be made, so that we can hit the target the next time.

About ten years ago I wrote a poem after a thought shared in a message got me thinking. I haven’t thought much about it lately, but today I was observing an English class in which the students were assigned to write a poem. So, I dug it out to share it with you…

What Did You Do?

I can now just imagine
The way it will be—
Walking through heaven
Many saints there to see.

I can picture me talking
With Noah one day—
Hearing how his faith
Did not question the way.
He built the ark
How the Lord said to build it
And all of those animals
Made just the right fit.

I can only envision
The pressure to fall
And worship the idol
Which stood there so tall.
But Shadrach and his friends,
By refusing to fall,
Gave witness to a nation
Of the true God of all.

Then there is Daniel
Who let no human law
Stop him from praying
Regardless who saw.
There’s Abraham—such faith!
He would have given his son.
And Isaac—so trusting!
Never thought to just run.

There’s John they call Baptist
Who spoke to the king of his wife.
He refused to let his faith slip
Though it cost him his life.

And Paul through such hardship
Never lacked in his trust
That when man intends evil
God still works through us.

There are so many saints there—
So many stories I’ll hear—
How God would sustain them
And protect them through fear.

They all did so much
In their time here on earth
To show to those near them
Their faith in Christ’s birth.
The birth of a savior
Who came here to die.
He brought down salvation
Out of love for you and I.

As I sat here and thought
How those talks there will be,
Hearing stories of faith
They’ll share happily with me

I started to think

What will I say to Noah,
Or Shadrach or John,
Or Daniel or Isaac—
The list could go on—
When they turn to me,
Say “Let me ask you,
Tell me dear friend,
What did you do?”