By Mitch Glover

I read a story about a man who experienced problems one after another in his home before he left for work. Calls came in about problems at his workplace. Finally, he had to call a taxi because his car wouldn’t start. The driver asked, “Where to?” He replied, “It doesn’t matter, I have problems everywhere!”

Plenty of problems seems the way things go sometimes. We feel like we get more than our share when they pile up on us.

The beginning of summer brought a lot of sunshine, now we are getting plenty of rain. Mushrooms are sprouting up in different colors, shapes and sizes. I guess that’s a little plus to help us put up with the rain.

Now that we are nearing the end of the summer, the lawn seems to be lush and green. The leaves on deciduous trees seemed more plentiful this year. Now we get to see other colors appearing, adding to the beauty of this time of year.

I hope your garden produced what you expected and hoped for. I appreciate the fresh kale and cucumbers shared with us because I know there is plenty of work that goes into growing them. Our raspberries spread and continued to ripen. I don’t mind picking plenty of them because my wife makes great jam. No blueberries this year because the plants got munched by moose.

The Bible story of Joseph in Egypt preparing the harvest in the seven years of plenty (Genesis 41:29) teaches us some vital lessons. Taking care of the harvest, storing it, keeping inventory, and then distributing the food was a colossal undertaking. I wonder how much sowing was done to get that bumper crop of corn. It was as plentiful “as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering for it was without number.” It was important for Joseph to prepare because the plenty was not going to last.

Jesus told a parable about sowing and growing. “The sower went forth to sow…” he began. Four types of soil are mentioned, each with different results. The amazing thing about the “good soil”; that is, people who hear and understand the word of God, is that it can bear fruit, as much as thirty, sixty, and an hundredfold. That’s quite a return!

A principle stated in the Bible is you reap what you sow (Galatians 6:7). Planting and putting out what you want to harvest and reap in life is the lesson. That’s why the scripture teaches to sow to the Spirit and reap life everlasting. How is that done? A focus of faith on the things of God and obedience to his word is a simple start. The spiritual life continues after being born again in the water and Spirit.

An old saying gives good advice, “Make your words sweet for you may have to eat them.” David wrote that the word of God is “sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” It is a good idea to “taste and see that the Lord is good” for ourselves. There are plenty of promises waiting for you to experience.

Mitch Glover pastors the Sterling Pentecostal Church. Sunday Bible class at 10 a.m. and worship at 11 a.m. am are live-streamed on Facebook as well as the Thursday Bible study at 7 p.m. Visit the services and sterlingpentecostalchurch.com.