Two Names, Two Natures

Clair, the name I go by, is my middle name and comes from my father's father. Elmer is my first name and comes from my mother's father. Usually such family names are given to the oldest of the family; I received them as a child in the middle. Much of my early life I spent wondering how I ended up with what I considered, at times, to be a curse; I grew up in the era of "Elmer Fudd" and "Clarabelle the Clown". My wife says that I must have given my mother a horrible time at birth.

However, truth be told, I have learned to appreciate the heritage. I am not only comfortable with my name, but am thankful for it. I have a granddaughter, Claire; not many grandfathers are able to boast such a blessing.

My mother's father, Elmer, was the only one, other than institutional entities, to call me by my first name. Actually it was a paraphrased version of my first name, "Little Elmer".

He never announced an affinity to the "Christ" of our family nor Christ's body, the Church. An alcoholic, sporadic in his love, shallow in his commitment, husband of six women, he portrayed a sort of narcissism that scripture, at least as popularly applied, rebukes. I wonder if he ever understood that God is attracted to those who have weaknesses such as his.

My father's father, on the other hand, was a kind of antithesis to Grandpa Elmer. Grandpa Emory Claire understood God's relationship to personal need and weaknesses. Because of that understanding he gave himself to ministry of the lay persuasion. As a young man he pastored two United Brethren Churches in Western Idaho, was instrumental in planting two other churches, and was involved in one of my own church plants.

When we lived with him I was a recent graduate of Bible school and waiting for a job. It was discouraging. Who wants to move his family to live with a retired grandpa? Grandpa knew I appreciated his "donation" to our development , yet he sensed my increased discouragement. To lift my spirits, he woke the household every morning singing, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings of eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Teach me, Lord. Teach me, Lord, to wait."

Several years later, I had the privilege of being the audience for our two-year-old grandson, Eli, while he sang those same words at bedtime.

While Grandpa Emory Claire was semi-comatose on his death bed, unaware of his surroundings, he recited Chapter one of the Gospel of John. His eyes would open. His lips would recall, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." His eyes would close. His lips would cease moving. Again, his eyes would open and his lips would resume his recitation from where he had stopped.

It was his influence that provided adequate ministry to lead my mother into faith in Christ and, ultimately, provided her leadership in the spiritual development of my father, siblings, and me.

Although nobody's name truly defines them, mine provides an anecdotal introduction to my personal struggles with an inclination against godliness, but an affinity, provided by God the Holy Spirit, toward understanding God's grace toward me.

As a follower of Jesus, it is my life's purpose to grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ and to be to others as God is to me. I have failed on many levels, but am growing into God's place for me in this life and am confident in Christ's place for me in the next.

"Pray Ye The Lord of the Harvest"

Just as God has prepared for even the most insignificant of creatures, we may be confident in His provision for us. The farmer who opens the ground of the field should do so with the understanding that it is not the harrow which has prepared the field, but it is God who prepares the field for the harrow.

After one realizes that God has prepared all of creation for his or her blessing, life breaks loose. God has placed us in the center of an eternal, continual plan. Because of God, our labor for heaven is productive and full of prospect. In fact, the term "Abundant Life" relates directly to that life with purpose.

When I speak of the blessing, clearly I mean the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, God has chosen us to bless the world with the truth that the Kingdom has come, Jesus came to live, was buried, raised from the dead, lives today, and is coming again. We bless the world as we serve that gospel to others. As pure and simple as the declaration, the implications upon humankind

are innumerable. How fathomless is the meaning and force of that gospel. The harvest is the gathering of all who respond in faith to that blessing. It is a harvest which is Holy Spirit induced, Jesus bought, Word confirmed, and God glorified.

As our discussion grows from preparation for the blessing, we turn to the purpose of the blessing which is the harvest and beyond. It is a long jump over days, months, and seasons to what seems to be the end of labor. How poor a farmer would one be, however, if the harvest were truly the end. In reality one does not, ultimately, enjoy harvest without projecting beyond the harvest. So it is with Christ in the work of the harvest. His heart is beyond, not to further preparation as is the case with human mind, but to eternal enjoyment of what God has provided.

To pray the Lord of the harvest goes beyond asking God to participate. It means that we who labor, acknowledge that it is God's harvest and not our own. We wait for Him as we hand our blessing to the world. Consider this to be what distinguishes our labors from those of the world. When every worldly organization responds to human need as to feed the hungry, care for the orphans, employ the unemployed, or care for the elderly many do so with earthly ends in mind. Or they may do so with the idea that perhaps God will notice and reward them for their good works. Some, I have heard them say, are purposely "out performing" God in order to prove that human care originates in the human heart. The follower of Jesus labors as though God who performed the requirements of the Gospel owns the results of the labor. God is not an afterthought or his honor a by-product.

"It's Not the Harrow" Psalm 104:10-18

When it comes to God's creation and what it means to me as a follower of Jesus, many passages are available and more direct to the subject at hand. But above the other passages, this Psalm elevates God's purpose to create for the benefit of humankind. Some may find that fact hard to swallow, but look carefully and see that to redeem and glorify God's creation means that humans must be at the head of God's redemptive story.

Objections to this have burrowed into peoples' minds. Digesting those theses are difficult. Galileo proved that the human dwelling place was not the center of God's created universe. Paul told us that we are wretched and needy souls. Scripture records our depravity. Nonetheless, these passages stand clear that between our sicknesses and the glory of God is the story of God yet to culminate.

As a foundation for theological reasoning, I have, in the past, used the efficacious work of Christ, and the offices of Christ as the litmus test of doctrine. Whatever detracts from the person and work of Christ is blasphemy. Whatever elevates is truth. Without crossing the line between orthodoxy and heresy, one must ask the question, "What would glorify Jesus more than the universal redemption of all of creation?"

Although, I have set the seemingly logical question outside the boundary beyond orthodoxy, one must seriously admit that God, though working for all things to glorify himself, volitionally, has put mankind before himself. It is the nature of love which provides patience in the heart of God. "He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the service of man. That he may bring forth food from the earth and makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man's heart."

Obvious to most is the fact that God, herein, is setting the foundation for gratitude, not the superiority of humans. With a lost heart, it does us well to remember the hand from which we receive our sustenance.

To that point, then, I speak. God has prepared the world for you. But do not think of that preparation in terms of your benefit alone. Think of that preparation for the benefit of the world through you. God has prepared the world for the blessing which we offer through Jesus for the benefit of others.

That means that when you go about your routine, people are present who are prepared for your offering of blessing. With passages like this and others, we consider a non-random array of events and possibilities. You, sitting where you are today, doing what you do, going where you go, walk on fields which God has prepared. You journey about on prepared fields.

Two years ago I was visiting a friend. We were at the kitchen table when he dismissed himself and brought to me a book, over 50 years old. He said, "Look what I found. This is the book where my dad recorded the life of his greenhouse." Every plant he had planted, what he had fed them, all the details, right up through the final production were in this book. His father was the proprietor of a large green-house operation in Illinois.

Our minds are convinced that every difference we make in life is of our own creation. In our heads are records of all our toil to make ourselves what we are today. What God desires for us to learn is that it is not our harrowing which prepared the soil for the world to be blessed by us. Rather, God has done all that for us. As we are to be grateful stewards, we are also to be alive to what work God has finished so that we might go about our business of blessing others.

God's story is being written. Our story is part of it. How does your life intersect? Where have you given up the work of blessing others with the gospel of Jesus? It's God, not the harrow.