Resource Manager Posted February 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 26 February 2014"Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already unto harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours". Jesus uses words which recall Isaiah's language concerning the gathering of Zion's children in the day of her exaltation: "Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee" (Isaiah 49:18). Even then the Lord himself was realizing the joy of sowing and reaping, and gathering fruit unto life eternal. He was the sower, and he called them to be fellow labourers with him. The work is one of toil and sometimes hardship. The clouds and the rain may discourage going out into the fields; but it has to be done at the cost of present advantage and comfort. It may even entail the suffering of present loss for future gain."- John CarterThe Gospel of John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted February 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 27 February 2014"The passage over the sea to the distant shore is the disciples' journey through life. The frail boat that undertakes the crossing is the human heart. But Christ is there. His protecting influence will remain however sudden the storms, however dark the night. But he will not be awakened by the fury of the gale nor the shudder of the boat. Only the voice of the disciples will rouse him. Then he will bring peace into the heart and save the life from disaster.The memory of the disciples working feverishly to save themselves, with fear in their eyes and despair in their hearts, should be a warning of our own insufficiency; and the sublime picture of the Master sleeping peacefully amid the raging storm should be an abiding incentive to a living faith in him who "stilleth the roaring of the seas, the roaring of the waves, and the tumult of the peoples."- Melva PurkisA Life of Jesus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted February 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2014 28 February 2014"The theme of the child runs through a whole section of the Gospel of Mark, but always with the child standing as a type of the genuine believer. The child's well-being is made the measure of conduct, the child's spirit is the rule by which others are judged. Not that Jesus would idealize children; growing up in a large family, he had doubtless seen the “foolishness” that is bound up in the heart of a child (Proverbs 22:15). But he saw the child as small, dependent, and therefore trusting; he saw also the child's directness and simplicity, the outward-looking to those who are loved and admired. There is a candid logic in children which can be devastating to their more complicated elders, and it is this which enables them to recognize a truth and see its consequences; and that is the frame of mind which makes faith possible. In this Jesus saw in children the type of the children of God. And it is in the service of such as these that the true disciple will find his exaltation."- L.G. SargentThe Gospel of the Son of God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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