To The Work

To The Work

by Frances J. Crosby, 1869

To the work! To the work! We are servants of God;
Let us follow the path that our Master has trod;
With the balm of His counsel our strength to renew,
Let us do with our might what our hands find to do.

Refrain:
Toiling on, toiling on,
Toiling on, toiling on;
Let us hope, let us watch,
And labor till the Master comes.

To the work! To the work! Let the hungry be fed;
To the fountain of life let the weary be led;
In the cross and its banner our glory shall be,
While we herald the tidings, “Salvation is free!”

To the work! To the work! There is labor for all;
For the kingdom of darkness and error shall fall;
And the love of our Father exalted shall be,
In the loud swelling chorus, “Salvation is free!”

To the work! To the work! In the strength of the Lord,
And a robe and a crown shall our labor reward,
When the home of the faithful our dwelling shall be,
And we shout with the ransomed, “Salvation is free!”

This song is talking about our working for the Lord and His kingdom.
1 Corinthians 15:58 - "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

Colossians 1:29 - "Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily."

I thought of this song as I reflected back on the yard work Ilene and I did today.  Hoeing in our little garden, repotting tomato sprouts, pruning the roses, peonies and lilies and then raking all of the plant garbage to the field. And the Lord allowed us to get it all done before the rain came!  We did work in a few sprinkles, which felt good!

Work is good for the body and soul.  After all, even in His perfect world of Eden, the Lord gave Adam and Eve work to do!  Being fruitful and multiplying, replenishing the earth, subduing it, having dominion over the fish and the fowl and every living thing, dressing and keeping the garden.....all of this was going to involve work!

Genesis 1:27 - "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
Genesis 1:28 - "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."
Genesis 2:8 - "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed."

Genesis 2:15 - "And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."

Then Adam and Eve ruined the goodness of work by disobeying God.  So God cursed everything that was good about work!  He cursed everything that was good about their lives!

Genesis 3:16 - "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.  17 ¶ And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

We cannot be judgmental towards them, however!  If we had been in their "shoes" we would have done the same thing!  I just glad that God planned a remedy for man's sin!  Thank You, LORD, for being willing to leave heaven to be born of a virgin, live a sinless life, die on the cross in my place and then rise again to give me eternal life!  What AMAZING GRACE!!

I see a heart!  We are getting a few strawberries from the plants in a barrel in the front yard.  We had to put some screen over them as the birds were eating them, red or green!

Ilene got a nice Great Grandma visit last night from her newest great grandson, Roman.  Would you look at all of that hair!  He is so sweet!

Look at that happy face!

Our green pepper plants are looking good!  I made some "pesticide" from dish soap to spray on the leaves.  Hopefully that will take care of the insect that is chewing holes in them!

Here's our little garden of squash and tomatoes

More tomatoes repotted.  If all of these survive, we will have tomatoes coming out the wazoo!

The roses are now naked!

The ground is covered in rose petals!

We took our baths after working outside.  We are having a sweet potato and black berry cobbler for supper!  Then we are going to watch the movie, "To Joey, With Love."  Have a great evening!