Chag sameach Sukkot - I hope your second day of the Feast of Tabernacles has been blessed! This message comes rather late as I was in hospital today and only returned late. Yahweh willing, we shall have morning messages for you during the remaining days of Sukkot and, of course, our regular Sabbath sermon on the Last Great Day.

Being regularly in hospital with several serious conditions that have been slowly building up over many years has made me do some hard thinking about life and how Yahweh works things out for us. The best way I can talk to you about that is to share a true story which a sister in Bulgaria sent me today.

Tim grows several rare varieties of grapes on the hillside behind his house. A friend was surprised to see that Tim had planted his vines along a steep and rocky portion of the hill. "Why didn't you plant the vines at the base of the hill?" the friend asked him. "The soil certainly looks a lot better -- and there's more sun."

Tim smiled. "There's a rule you need to remember when it comes to growing these special varieties of grapes," he said. "When you feed them luxuriously with lots of nutrients and fertiliser, the vine produces a profuse bush of leaves and cane. But the fruit it grows is sparse and very poor. Oh make no mistake," he laughed, "the plant loves lots of fertiliser. But it invests all those nutrients into growing lush, dark, beautiful leaves. And when the vine has finished doing that, it has very little energy left to produce fruit. It certainly looks like a beautiful vine. But that's it. It just looks good."

How, then, do you get good grapes? As Tim explained it, you have to make sure the grapevine struggles! You plant it in rocky, flinty soil, or you girdle the vine by wrapping wires around the cordons, forcing the plant to struggle as it tries to draw nutrients from its roots. This causes the distressed vine to divert most all of its prized and hard-won nutrients into the fruit, instead of the leaves. The result of these trials and tribulations is the sweetest fruit possible!

This puts a rather different perspective on the adversities and struggles we face in life, doesn't it? You see, the rocky soil and the steep inclines aren't so bad after all. The trials and struggles, disappointments and setbacks you face, this "girdling" that Yahweh permits to press you in from all sides ... is a bruising of blessing. And you won't bear a crop without it.

One day we will stand before Yahweh and thank Him for the brusings, rocky soil, steep inclinations and all that we think of that are negative because we want to be able to present to Him much sweet fruit and not just bushy leaves that were never the end or purpose of life. Remember what we are here for, as we learn why Yah'shua (Jesus) endured persecution, ostracisation, and finally the cross:

"This is to My Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My talmidim (disciples)" (John 15:8, NIV).

At Sukkot (Tabernacles) we gather to celebrate the fruit that we have produced for the Master and the fruit that we will yet produce if we remain faithful. This is the Annual Harvest festival of souls, of righteousness, of holiness, and of all that is good. That is what to present ourselves as His Bride means - presenting our fruits, our loyalty, our devotion - to His glory, and to the glory of the Father. Amen.