MARCH 1 "THE BUMPER CROP TESTIMONY"

Sadly enough, the Bumper Crop Testimony was not one the Israelites were able to boast of.  In all practicality it sounded great, sounded cool, but when the moment actually came to "believe" and "have faith", a man with a household to feed, debts to be paid and looking down the road, "if we don't plant now, it would be insane to think we will have provision next year when our harvest would normally be coming in..."  In the end, they failed, they did not give the land it's rest, and they were not able to give "the Bumper Crop Testimony" and on top of that; by not giving the land it's rest, as God had told them, they depleted the land of all its resources and nutrients and they had a crop failure and had to go without.  For all their intentions, as usual, they were worse off for not having trusted and believed God.  What was wrong with God's people back then?  Well, the same thing that's wrong with us today, we just can't seem "to believe" God when it comes down to the most serious issues of life; which is, finances and provision.  I will believe God for favorable weather on our 4th of July Pic-nic we have planned, anything that is remedial and should God not come through (as we think He is prone to do or not do, I should say) it would not be that big a deal.  However, we are all hypocrites because every parent reading this blog, knows how angry they would become with their children, when they were younger and they would not trust them, to "jump and I'll catch you".   Jump into this pool of water that could drown and kill you and trust dad to catch you.  And how offended the parent, especially, the Father is, when the child won't jump and runs away crying into mommy's arms. "Why would I not catch you, why would I let you drown, what is wrong with this kids thinking?"  Well, let me ask you, "why would God not catch you, why would God challenge you to jump and then watch you fall into a bad place?"  God is so wanting each of us to have a "Bumper Crop Testimony" but how few of them have we heard?  And when a sister or brother does stand up in the congregation to give her or his "bumper crop testimony" the rest of the congregation rolls their eyes and in their mind tries to explain away the miracle by some practical means, "yeah, yeah...what probably happened is .............".  Well, I disagree, what probably happened is exactly what the person of Faith testified about; that they believed God, and in so doing, allowed themselves to end up in a very vulnerable place; and God came through with a Bumper Crop. It seems we, The Church, God's people like to get excited about all that God is going to do, until the Year of Jubilee actually approaches and we are now faced, not with excitement and emotion, but faced with putting our faith into action.  I remember traveling a long ways with about ten brothers from our church, just to be able to jump off a high cliff into the river below. We could not stop talking about how fun and exciting it would be, the whole way to the cliff.  We parked, hiked a bit through the desert and when we finally got to the cliff, only 3 of the 10 guys actually jumped.  We, all 10 of us had equal excitement, however when all 10 saw the long drop to the water, fear, stopped 70% of the men from jumping. Excitement at that point was quenched by fear.  For all the Christians that can be pumped about and excited about the miracles that God is going to do in the Year of Jubilee, 70% will never jumper because of fear.  Which are you?  The 30% or the 70%?  If you say, you are the 30%, then jump and "not off a cliff" but off your place of comfort and security.