Harvest - the Fruit of a Christian's Life

“Whoever gives seed to the sower and bread for food will provide plenty for what is sown,you and will multiply the fruits of your righteousness, so that you may be rich in everything for all generosity, which through us produces thanksgiving to God." -  2 Corinthians 9:10-11

Church pastor Pavel Rumachik recalled that “The Harvest celebration is commanded in the Bible, unlike, for example, Christmas or Epiphany, which we also celebrate. “Observe both the feast of the harvest of the first fruits of your labor, which you sowed in the field, and the feast of gathering in the fruit at the end of the year, when you have gathered in your work from the field” Exodus 23:16. And the joy of fellowship between brothers and sisters on this day is also great because we examine our hearts, and consider our “fruit” in the Lord.”

Hymns of worship filled the church with a powerful stream of blessing, performed by children's and adult choirs from the “Truth” and “Salvation” churches from Dedovsk, Istra urban district.

O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder

Consider all the worlds thy hands have made

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,

Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee:

“How great Thou Art, how great Thou Art.”

The greatness of the Lord lies in the ability to transform our hearts. Mark Mazur testified about his repentance. He was baptized on July 16, 2023. “This is not a celebration of physical fruits, but spiritual ones. The decision to follow Jesus Christ must be weighed 100%.” Accompanying himself on the guitar, Mark sang a hymn that was in tune with the state of his soul:

Radiant eyes saw me,

I groaned in pain, not knowing joy.

But now Christ has come as my good Shepherd,

I recognized His face, He looked on me with love. 

“And he said to them: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; “Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” Luke 10:2. The minister of the Salvation Church, Vasily Smirnov, spoke about how the “harvest workers” work in the summer camp “Nabat”: “The service for teenagers has been held since 1996. This year the theme was “Choice”: purity, lies, hard work, laziness, obedience, autocracy... Every day each of us makes this choice, and the more important it is to tell young people about overcoming ourselves. God worked miracles this year too! He blessed the team of both ministers and youth with unity. Every day we added to and “attached to our hearts” the prayer list, told Bible stories at night, and organized a study of the Word in a form accessible to the children.”

Pastor of the Strogino Church of Evangelical Christian Baptists “Resurrection” Sergei Belov proclaimed “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18. “How to give thanks in the valley of death? Here’s what my brother says: he was fired from his job because he acted according to his conscience. Yet the mortgage remains, three children need to be fed... In order not to suffer shipwreck in faith, you need a foundation in faith! The Church is many different people which God unites everyone into one body. Amazing grace! Based on Jesus Christ, let us honestly ask ourselves: how many of us dream of Jesus’ “career”? We turn to the Word of God in every situation of life, and if something confuses us, it means we don’t understand what God wants from us. Humble yourself, endure, act according to the Word and - give thanks!!! We will be most grateful for the greatest difficulties. 

“For love, for mercy, for salvation, accept gratitude from us!”

The pastor of the Salvation Church, Alexey Smirnov, compared our baptism and consent to “doing the harvest” with signing an employment contract in the armed forces. We don’t ask every day: should we work?.. what should we do?.. “If you came to God, go work, do what you were destined for!” “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to walk in.” Ephesians 2:10

Alexey Vasilyevich suggested “daily harvest” to Christians: “In the evening, write down the good deeds that you managed to accomplish, and compare yourself with the Word of God. And ask every day - haven’t you buried your talents in the ground?.. Maybe you’ve eaten it up, or lost it... Compare it with what you used, with what you produced. The minute-by-minute timing of our lives is with the Lord. Where will he send us? “Take therefore the talent from him and give to the one who has ten talents, for to everyone who has it more will be given and he will have an abundance, but from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. but throw the worthless slave into outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 25:28-30 We need to change and work for the Lord. Every person is not accidental on this earth. God does not care about the smell of French perfume, “but thanks be to God, who always allows us to triumph in Christ and spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Himself to us in every place.” 2 Corinthians 2:14. 

Christ will deal with us according to our deeds. The harvest is the result of our life.

Alla Stambolidi