Theme:
Times and seasons...........
George Muller is one of the great Christian men, one of the
greatest saints who lived and served Jesus Christ in the 19th. century in
He left a diary or journal that speaks on every page of the
Providence of God.
Here is an entry in his diary for the morning of the 18th. of
August 1838:
“
Morning: I have not one penny in hand for the orphans. In a day
or two much money will be needed. but my eyes are lifted up to the Lord.
Evening. Late this afternoon, I received five pounds. A
Christian woman had put aside some jewellery to be sold for the benefit of the
orphans. This morning, whilst in prayer, she said to herself, “I have this five
pounds, I don’t owe anything to anybody, so it would be far better to give this
money at once.” She therefore brought it here. What she didn’t know was that
we had no money at all, not one penny............
Five days later:
August 23: Today I was again without a single penny, but a
letter arrived from
For eight years from August 1838 to the end of 1846 George
Muller and his wife experienced the greatest challenges in running the home for
the street children. The children, of course, knew nothing of all the day to
day difficulties.......
But, wrote George Muller, and they have never lacked
anything.... they always have good nourishing food, and the clothing they need.
For God supplies their need day by day, hour by hour.” George Muller lived by faith and trust in
God’s providence, relying on God’s care to supply all he and his wife, and the
children needed.
Sometimes, we treat the
gospels as if what they contain is always positive or upbeat, and miss the
challenges that confront Jesus at every moment. We read the gospels as if Jesus
and His disciples live from one day to the next, with things always changing
for the better in the light, and power of the
In Luke 9, verses 51 to 62 we
read of one of the low points. Jesus now leads the disciples towards
But here, as that journey
begins, Jesus has sent His disciples ahead and at the very first village in
Then three men come to meet
Jesus.
One says, very
enthusiastically, I will follow wherever you go...... but when Jesus speaks to
him of the hard conditions of life as disciple we hear nothing more of him.
Jesus calls the next man to
follow: The man says he would like to follow Jesus, but first he will need to
go home and take care of his father who is getting on in years. Perhaps in a
year or so he will come and join the disciples, then we hear nothing more of
him.
A third man says I would like to follow you, but first I will need to tie up some family arrangements at home. Jesus tells him, that following means putting one’s hand to the plough, looking straight ahead, not back. We hear nothing more of that man either.
So while elsewhere in Luke’s gospel we read of Mary Magdalene who came to meet Jesus bringing with her the most precious perfume or Zacchaeus who comes to Jesus in gladness and with all his heart and many others who accept the invitation of Jesus. In Luke 9 we read of a village that rejects Jesus and His disciples, and 3 would be disciples who turn away. This is stony ground indeed on which to build the kingdom.
But what really matters here
is the contrast with the following chapter - Luke 10. As we turn the page there
we read of a time of deep and rich blessing, the disciples are sent out and
people respond gladly.
So, to sum up - Luke 9 - stony ground, rejection and difficult times,
Luke 10 blessing - the disciples meet with joyful welcome in every village they enter, and a harvest of men and women so great that it will need more workers.
What is happening here ?
Well, we have the clue to what
is happening here in the words of Jesus in the first chapter of Acts. When the disciples
meet with Jesus, risen from the dead, they
ask about the kingdom of God now - will it grow and blossom from now on and for
ever throughout the world ? Would God bring in His kingdom, with days of blessing and joy and peace for
What does this mean ? Well, there are times - the minutes, hours, days, months and years of life. And all of these are in God’s hands. But there are also seasons: moments when after a long period of difficulties, suddenly in a mysterious way things change, and a time of blessing arrives; moments when things come to fruition, moments when an opportunity suddenly arrives, that no one saw, or anticipated - and these moments come from God’s hand, Jesus teaches.
We are often slow to recognise these moments:
Jesus says to a crowd: "When you see a cloud coming up in the west, at once you say that it is going to rain- and it does. And when you feel the south wind blowing, you say that it is going to get hot- and it does. You can look at the earth and the sky and predict the weather; why, then, don't you know the meaning of the present times ?
We are so often slow to trust in the living God, our Father, in hope for the seasons that He will send, so slow to recognise them when they come
But Luke’s gospel teaches us that
the rejection by the villagers in
the time of refreshing when
the whole situation changes into one of deep rich blessing, and a harvest there
for the disciples........... both of these are in God’s hands.
The times of drought and rain, famine and harvest, dry fields and green pastures - these, teaches the Lord Jesus, are in our Father’s hands.
And we see this perfectly in the life of Jesus: in John’s gospel:
when asked by onlookers to perform a miracle, the Lord says
the right time for me has not yet come
when asked to go up to the
festival in
Jesus says: I am not going........ for the right time for us has not yet come
on the way to
and then, and then...... just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave the world and go to the Father..........
that evening, in prayer, the Lord Jesus, we are told:
looked towards heaven and prayed “Father, the time has come... glorify Your Son !”
At
Jesus Christ, the Saviour,
but in the Resurrection, in power that the world knows little or nothing of,
God raised Jesus from the dead.............
so both death and life, the Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus, are in God’s hands
The times and the seasons, says
the Lord Jesus, are in my Father’s hands......
In the life of the Church, in our own lives in following Jesus, there are times of times of cold and times of warmth, times of drought, and times of refreshing rain. These are seasons - but seasons which are in our loving Father’s hand. If we look around, we may think that drought, famine, dry ground for the Church, or for ourselves, are on every hand - but all is in the loving care of our loving heavenly Father - for times of dryness and drought, dear friends, the Lord has seasons of refreshing rain, green pastures and rich harvest to come !