We have just celebrated harvest time at our recent Harvest festival and lunch and brought our gifts to be distributed to the Brighton and Hove city Mission. It was a weekend of much blessing and thankfulness as we considered God’s faithful-ness in caring for his people over many years since the time of the Exodus, when Moses led the people through the desert away from a life of slavery under Pharaoh and on to Canaan the land which God had promised them.
The Lord had promised his people many blessings if they were to remain obedient to Him, saying that He would establish them as his holy people, the heavens would be opened and the store-houses of his bounty opened up for them. They would prosper and enjoy a good harvest from the land and from their livestock. A promise that many farmers would value today – yet there is a caveat, a great ‘however’. If you do not obey the Lord your God then it will be a very different outcome. Rather than knowing the Lord’s blessing you will suffer the Lord’s curses on your land, your livestock, your safety and security, in fact in every area of your lives. (You can read a full list of these in Deuteronomy 28:15-68).
Remaining obedient and living holy lives is the desire of each one who turns to follow the Lord Jesus, yet like the people of old, we too can so easily forget the Lord’s blessings in our lives. We can overlook so much that we take for granted both in the material benefits we enjoy but more so in the spiritual blessings of our salvation which came at that great cost of Jesus dying on the cross at Calvary to make that sacrifice which takes away the sins and the curse upon all who would commit their lives to following Him.
Harvest time reminds us of the seeds which we are called to sow in people’s hearts and trust that in the Lord’s goodness they will bear fruit. Jesus reminds us in the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13: 3-9) that simply sowing the seed does not always bring about a good crop. The soil that has been prepared, the care of the newly emerging shoots and the right environmental conditions are all necessary for the seed to bear good fruit. This is all through the grace of the Lord, but each one of us in the church fellowship can play our part in the way we encourage and care for those who may be seeking to know Jesus – as well as those who are not – feeling they can live their lives under this curse, for that is what they are doing.
Take a moment, and reflect with thanksgiving for those in your former life who sowed the seeds that brought you to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, and give thanks above all for the One who calls you to stay obediently by His side. Consider also the many opportunities we have to sow those same seeds in the lives of those around us and let us give glory to our Lord and Saviour – for our salvation comes through His grace alone!
If you fully obey the Lord your God and care-fully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 28 1-2)
Stuart
Elder
October 2026
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