Dr. Barbara Byers, PhD
1319 Shannon St. Grapevine, TX 76051 469-358-5472 byers.barb@gmail.com
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Teaching, speaking and leading seminars and retreats for businesses and churches. Showing posts sorted by relevance for query threshing. Sort by date Show all posts Threshing Isa. 28:24-29 (NIV) When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil? When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot and spelt (grain) in its field?... Caraway is not threshed with a sledge, nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin; caraway is beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a stick. Grain must be ground to make bread; so, one does not go on threshing it forever. The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it, but one does not use horses to grind grain. All this comes from the Lord, whose plan in wonderful, whose wisdom is magnificent. Isaiah paints a portrait of God as the faithful farmer who breaks up the soil for sowing. Some seed is then scattered by broadcast, some is planted. After harvest some is threshed, some is crushed by rolling, and some is beaten out. Grain is separated from the straw by friction, impact or combing, each action particular to that grain. So, God deals carefully with us. The time of preparation when God breaks up the soil of our souls causes us to become supple to his touch and his implanted word. He initiates this in order to plant as He chooses. As He works, our prayers of collaboration will help mightily in this. We receive his cultivation, guarding the seed that is implanted until harvest. And He always has a view to the harvest, to that beautiful result He is working within us, yet unseen to us. The “how” is God’s mystery. I Peter 1:6-7 calls us to rejoice in suffering because we are being refined and made genuine, bringing honor to Jesus. We often feel we want to resist the crushing, but our true selves are never crushed by Him. He is the lover and keeper of our souls and does not damage us. Only the false, unnecessary, unneeded is removed. As Carla Waterman wrote in Songs of Assent: “The Father will take all the time he requires to form strong disciples …. He’s a very patient gardener.” When the harvest is ripe, he handles us well so there is no unnecessary damaging. If we are bruised, He does not break us (Isa. 42:3). We find the threshing time painful, even confusing, but if we will yield, what needs to be winnowed from us will be taken by the wind, and what remains will be purified by grace. Brooke Ligertwood’s song New Wine expresses this well: “In the crushing, in the pressing, you are making new wine. In the soil I now surrender, you are breaking new ground. So I yield to you and to your careful hand. When I trust you I don’t need to understand.” We often don’t understand but we rest in this: his counsel is wonderful and his wisdom is great! Awesome Inc. theme. Theme images by konradlew. Powered by Blogger.
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