Category: Autumn

Sealed

We who have believed in Jesus Christ, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit…

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These jars of applesauce were cooling on the counter.  There was the anticipation and hope that all those lids on those jars would seal.  The reason I canned them was so that there would be delicious sauce to eat with a slice of pumpkin bread or as a simple dessert like applesauce jello.   If a jar or two don’t seal, I can put them in the refrigerator and we can feast on it for the next week.  The least desired option is to reheat the sauce and go through the canning process again.

How wonderful that we who have believed and trusted our lives to Jesus are also sealed with the Holy Spirit!

Unsealed jars will become spoiled and contain harmful bacteria.   The seal of the Holy Spirit keeps us from the harmful effects of becoming dead and contaminated with the former lusts of the flesh and of the mind. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

The canning process heats the contents of the jar so that all harmful bacteria are killed.  Submitting to God is a dying to ourselves.  During the process it seems like the heat is being turned way up!

I remember a season in my life, when my husband and I each had a parent who needed lots of care.  We were in the middle of parenting five children and homeschooling.  There were pressure times with other circumstances and I remember asking the Lord to help me learn the lessons that would draw me closer to Him so I would not need to keep being reheated!

May you draw closer to Jesus in whatever circumstances you are experiencing….

If you have believed in Jesus and have trusted Him with your whole life…

you are sealed with the precious Holy Spirit which has been given to us so we may experience life to the fullest and know that we are God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.  Ephesians 1:13

 

 

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Preserving the Harvest

In August there is an unintentional decision made that affects the garden.  The decision to harvest and preserve or weed and have a  clean garden.  Of course picking the tomatoes, okra, peppers, and beans is why I planted the garden in the first place.  Thankfully we had wonderful rains every week which kept the plants watered and the weeds sprouting!  The frost will come and that will be the downfall of those weeds, literally!

But jars of produce keep filling my cellar and will be there to savor all winter long.  There is such a satisfaction seeing the end result of jars lined up in rows, after many days of canning in a hot, humid kitchen is but a faint memory.

Preserving lends itself to doing it with others.  My daughter, Celeste, has had an abundance of tomatoes in her garden.  Nice red paste tomatoes.  Over a half bushel a week.  Having extra produce is like an addiction to preserve.  So we cut those tomatoes, put them through a sieve, cooked the red sauce and made tomato soup.  Canning the soup together speeds up the process.  While I ladle it into the jars, she wipes the rims, adds the citric acid, and puts on the lids and tops.

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A verse that I have recently received encouragement from is this.  In all labor there is profit, But mere talk leads only to poverty.  Proverbs 14:23.  

Seven quart jars or nine pint jars fit in my canner.  It doesn’t seem like very much for all the time and labor spent in preparing the tomatoes for preserving.  But when I reach for a jar of tomato soup on a cold winter day, it warms my heart in a way that Campbell’s can’t even compare!

What is your labor that seems so insignificant but it is yielding great results in warming someone’s heart?  You might be working at a project that will be beautiful to observe or use?  If you are doing more than talking about doing it, there is profit, my friend!

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