KEEP YOUR FORK

Eleven years ago a friend emailed the following story to me.  With all the uncertainty and hard-times we are facing this year I thought it was time for a reminder of what is yet to come.

        There was a woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given three months to live.  As she was getting her things “in order,” she contacted her pastor and had him come to her house to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes.  She told him which songs she wanted sung at the service, what scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wished to be buried in.  The woman also requested to be buried with her favorite Bible.

        Everything was in order and the pastor was preparing to leave when the woman suddenly remembered something very important to her.

        “There’s one more thing,” she said excitedly.

        “What’s that?” came the pastor’s reply.

“This is very important,” the woman continued.  “I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand.”

        The pastor stood looking at the woman, not knowing what to say.

        “That surprises you, doesn’t it?” the woman asked.

        “Well, to be honest, I’m puzzled by the request,” Said the pastor.

        The woman explained, “In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners, I remember that always when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over and say, ‘Keep your fork.’  It was my favorite part, because I knew something better was coming-like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie.  Something wonderful and with substance!  So I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand, and I want them to wonder, ‘What’s with the fork?’  Then I want you to tell them, ‘Keep your fork---the best is yet to come.’”

        The pastor’s eyes welled up with tears of joy as he hugged the woman goodbye.  He knew this would be one of the last times he would see her before her death, but he also knew that the woman had a better grasp of Heaven than he did.  She knew that something better was coming!

        At the funeral, people were walking by the woman’s casket and they saw the pretty dress she was wearing, her favorite Bible, and the fork placed in her right hand.  Over and over the pastor heard the question, “What’s with the fork?”  Over and over he smiled.

        During his message the pastor told the people of the conversation he had with the woman shortly before she died.  He also told them about the fork and about what it symbolized to her.  The pastor told the people how he could not stop thinking about the fork, and he told them that they probably would not be able to stop thinking about it either.  He was right!

        So—the next time you reach down for your fork, let it remind you ever so gently that the best is yet to come!

-         Author Unknown

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud cry of summons, with the shout of an archangel, and with the blast of the trumpet of God. And those who have departed this life in Christ will rise first.   Then we, the living ones who remain [on the earth], shall simultaneously be caught up along with [the resurrected dead] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so always (through the eternity of the eternities) we shall be with the Lord!”  1 Thess. 4:16-17 AMP

CRY

Do you know how to CRY?  Today I am going to teach you how.  The first part of CRYing is:

CONFESS

Psalm 66:18 (AMP) – “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me;” 

Regard = cherish (to approve of, to enjoy, to show respect)

What happens when we enjoy sin and pray to God at the same time? We are showing more respect to sin than to God. Would you be under any obligation to listen to someone disrespecting you? Then how can you expect God to?

Dr. Woodrow Kroll writes, “God is under no obligation to listen to prayers that come from disrespectful hearts…we might as well save our breath.”

Is there something in your life that you really love but know it is just not right? CONFESS it to God the Father. Does He need to hear it? No but He knows you need to say it.  We try to hide the things we are ashamed of.  Confession brings those things out of the shadows and exposes them for the truly hideous ugly things they are. He knows you need to bring it out into the open so that you can fully acknowledge it.

REPENT

Acts 3:19 (AMP) – “So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return [to God], that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air) may come from the presence of the Lord;”

Repent = to feel remorse, turn around and walk the other way

Do you want to connect with God? You must forsake all sin. How can you keep evil from interrupting your connection with God? Abandon all the sin in your life.  Give it up! What if you do that sin again? Then you did not really repent.

Dr. Ronnie W. Floyd once wrote, “All prayer, to be acceptable to God, must be connected with a purpose to forsake all sin.”

YIELD

Romans 6:13 (AMP) – “Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.”

Yield = produce, give up, surrender

Will confession and repentance complete what God is asking of us?  No. To be complete you have to yield to Him. Yield those things that draw your attention from Him. Yield anything that comes between you and God.

Oswald Chambers wrote, “The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him.”

Are these steps a once-and-for-all event?

            No, CRYing needs to be done on a regular basis.

Did you…..Confess

Repent

Yield……..today?

"LET THERE BE LIGHT!"

“Let there be light!”  (Genesis 1:3 KJV)

Light, something we take for granted.  Think about if for a moment.  Without light there would be no color.  Have you ever been in a dark room?  What color did you see?  Can you imagine living in a world without light?  There would be no green plants, no cars, no books, no stoves or fireplaces, no television, and no coffee, to name just a few things that use light.  Without light you would not be able to read this sentence.  I would not be able to write it.  Is it any wonder that God’s first spoken words in creation were, “Let there be light!”?

The very Being Who was Light (1 John 1:5) said, “Let there be light!” and there was light and it was not only suitable to His purposes but pleasant as well (Genesis 1:4 AMP).

God also spoke to us individually about His Light.  We are now Light in Him and He commands us to lead the lives of those native-born to the Light (Ephesians 5:8 AMP).  “But oh,” you reply, “what good can I be?  I’m just one little light in and ever darkening world.”

A Number of years ago I took a tour through Shasta Caverns.  Near the very end of our tour our group collected itself in a large underground room in the main cavern.  With well over twenty of us in this room the tour guide turned off all the lights.  It was totally black.  It was void of all light.  My eyes kept trying to adjust but there was nothing to help them focus.  The darkness was oppressive.  Then the tour guide struck a match and the whole cavern lit up.  I could see each of the other people around me, the shapes of the stalactites and stalagmites, the colors of red, yellow, green, blue, white, purple, etc. of everyone’s clothes, and the faces stunned in awe at how much that little match could light up the entire cavern.  Just one little short-lived match lit the whole cavern and drove away the oppressive blackness.

Oh brother and sister in the Lord, God wants to strike His Light through you to drive the darkness of the enemy away in the lives of the people of this world.  You do not have to TRY to be perfect to be His “match” for this season of oppressive darkness; He has already made you pure and perfect through His shed blood.  All He wants is your willingness to be there for Him and He will do the rest.

“Therefore, my dear ones, as you have always obeyed [my suggestions], so now, not only [with the enthusiasm you would show] in my presence but much more because I am absent, work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ).  [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.”   (Philippians 2:12-13 AMP)

HARVEST

“Put in the sickle, for the vintage harvest is ripe…”  (Joel 3:13a AMP)

“Harvest”, what kind of image does that word bring to mind?  If you are from the Northeast of the United States you might think of tapping maple trees for sap and firm crisp apples.  If you are from Florida, Texas, and Southern California you might imagine fresh bright oranges, lemons, and limes.  If you are from the Bible-belt your thoughts might turn towards irrigated crops of sugar beats and corn, and if from our Island State of Hawaii you are probably remembering twelve foot stalks of sugar cane and pineapples.

When I think of “harvest” I think of the rolling hills of the Pacific Northwest covered with the yellow and red-brown fields of wheat and barley.  I think about many of my friends who have just now finished harvesting their wheat and barley, spending 14-16 hour days to get everything in before a chance rain brings the moisture content too high for harvesting.

“And he said, the Kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed upon the ground, and then continues sleeping and rising night and day while the seed sprouts and grows and increases – he knows not how the earth produces (acting) by itself – first blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.  But when the grain is ripe and permits, immediately he sends forth (the reapers) and puts in the sickle because the harvest stands ready.”  Mark 4:26-29 AMP

Thinking about harvest also makes us think about leading people to the Lord.  The church is quite familiar with this concept; we hear missionaries share that familiar verse:  ”the harvest is great, but the laborers are few”.  I would like to suggest that there is yet another harvest, the harvest of your heart.  Song of Solomon speaks of us as God’s garden and, in loving interchange, we actually go past inviting Him into our hearts; we offer Him the “choicest fruits” He finds there (Song of Solomon 4:12-16).

How does someone make a garden produce the best yield?  They first have to get it ready for planting by digging up the dirt, breaking up the hardened ground so the seeds can be planted.  How do we prepare the gardens of our hearts?  We break up the hardened areas of our lives by seeking God Himself through prayer and reading His Word.

“Break up your uncultivated ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, to inquire for and of Him, and to require His favor, till He comes and teaches you righteousness and rains His righteous gift of salvation upon you.”    (Hosea 10:12b AMP)

We prepare the soil by digging into the Word, but we do not have the seed.  God does.  He not only provides the seed but He also provides the increase from it.

“And (God) who provides seed for the sower and bread for eating will also provide and multiply your name (resources for) sowing and increase the fruits of your righteousness (which manifests itself in active goodness, kindness, and charity).”  (2 Corinthians 9:10 AMP)

So our job is easy, break up the hardened ground:  read His Word, study it, and prayerfully consider it.  When the ground is ready God will plant seeds of righteousness and they will grow as we continue to read, study, and prayerfully consider His Word.  Then, like the man in the Mark 4:26-29 parable, we will not know how the plants grew in our hearts but they will produce the choicest fruits for our Lord’s delight.

“Let my beloved come into his garden and eat its choicest fruits.”  (Song of Solomon 4:16b AMP)