In and Out of Season

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. – 2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV)

How do you preach the word? Do you believe you are called to such a thing? What does it mean to be prepared in and out of season? Have you corrected someone? Rebuked someone? Encouraged someone? Have you been corrected, rebuked or encouraged?

The following story is an Aesop Fable called “The Horse and His Rider”:
A horse soldier took the utmost pains with his charger. As long as the war lasted, he looked upon him as his fellow-helper in all emergencies and fed him carefully with hay and corn. But when the war was over, he only allowed him chaff to eat and made him carry heavy loads of wood, subjecting him to much slavish drudgery and ill-treatment.
War was again proclaimed, however, and when the trumpet summoned him to his standard, the soldier put on his charger its military accouterments, and mounted, being clad in his heavy coat of mail. The horse fell down right away under the weight, no longer equal to the burden, and said to his master, “You must now go to the war on foot, for you have transformed me from a horse into an ass; and how can you expect that I can again turn in a moment from an ass to a horse.”

Toward the end of his life Jesus shared a story about 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom and falling asleep. Half brought oil and half did not. As the story goes the bridegroom was long in coming and they all fell asleep. He arrived at the midnight hour and the half without oil found out they were not ready. These parables about being prepared share a great truth of life. We never know when we will be needed to participate in the Gospel! Keep reading up on scriptures, keep praying and studying, keep practicing because one day Jesus will need us. Let us pray that we are ready.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

A Time For Everything

There is a time for everything, and everything on earth has its special season. – Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NCV)

How has this been true in your life? What does this mean to you? What kind of special seasons have you gone through? What are some of the hard seasons? What are some of the joyous seasons? Where are you now?

Recently I sat down to write a Weekly Devotional. I had about a dozen different scriptures floating through my brain, but nothing substantial seemed to be formulating and I was getting frustrated.
To make matters worse my 15-month-old boy was also bothering me. He was grabbing onto the screen of the laptop and trying to close it. I looked at him and said, “Langston not right now, daddy is trying to work.” But he seemed neither to notice, nor to care, so I just tried to ignore him.
Then he came up with a book and set it next to me, and looked up at me smiling. “Langston we will read later, I am trying to do something.” Apparently he took that as an invitation to sit in my lap, because he tried pulling himself up. There was a part of me that was about to get angry when all of the sudden I realized how wonderful it was that he wanted me to read to him. Someday he won’t want his daddy reading to him. The work would still be there when we were done reading and playing, so I closed the computer and picked him up and read to him. And wouldn’t you know it, the work got done!

My little boy is in a special season of life and I better enjoy it or he will grow up and there will be time with him I can never get back. There is a time for everything, and that moment was not the time for me to write a devotional. It was the time to spend with a child who loves me and I thank my God that I did. We must realize that there really is a time for everything, because then we may actually be able to enjoy each moment for what it is, a miracle!

With hope and joy,
Garrett