Harvest Somebody Else’s Experience

Harvest Somebody Else’s Experience

Little Girl Sold

Author Marlena De Blasi tells the story of a nine-year-old girl sold by her merchant father to a rich prince.  The father is a cold-hearted and cruel man and repeatedly shuns the little girl’s love and attempts to return to her family home.

Once the little girl grows up and becomes a woman in the prince’s home, she inquires of him about her situation.  

The prince assures her that he had nothing but the best of intentions for her, but asks her a question of his own.  

”How did you manage to emerge from such hurtful abandonment by your father without growing bitter yourself?”  She answered by relating an experience she’d had in the village market one morning years ago.

”I never forgot this,” she replied.

”The way Signor Brasini turned to his wife, put his big farmer’s hands out and caressed her face got my attention.  Pulling her close to him, he kissed her just like in the movies, looked at her and smiled. When I saw that, I knew that their way would be my way and not my father’s. That was how my life was going to be. I knew that someday, I would be loved by a man like Brasini because I now understood how things worked.

The young girl had gotten better information.  Her whole life up to that point had been cold and full of bitterness; she had been mistreated and neglected by her father, yet, as soon as she saw an example of what she could and should be… she was forever transformed.  

THAT – is the power of information from the correct source.

It’s a straight line for those of us who have never seen anything but a crooked line.

So, WHAT is the RIGHT SOURCE of INFORMATION?

We live in a world that is critically changing faster than ever. Information is easy to access, but…

  • How do we know we’re getting the right information?  
  • How do we sort it all out?  

I believe the best information is what we learn through those who’ve walked the path before us, by Somebody Else’s Experience. They are an example of where we want to be and what we should do to get there. I love having those conversations with these people.

There’s a cute saying that says, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”  

Not only don’t we know what we don’t know but we’re also forgetting much of what we have learned!  To top it off, a lot of what we know isn’t even right.  Think about how many things you trusted and believed that turned out to be lies and deceit. Example: We’re told to try the latest greatest thing on the market, then find out two years later that it’s harming us. We can’t know we’re on a crooked line until someone shows us a straight one.  

”Somebody Else’s Experience is the Best Teacher.”

‘The best way to walk through a minefield is to follow the footsteps of someone who has successfully crossed.

 ”The problem with educational institutions is they try to teach people WHAT to think instead of HOW to think.”

John Maxwell  


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All of us need help traveling through this life. We need a compass for our instincts, morals and right living.

If our compass was perfect, we’d have no need for the help found in Scriptures.

There’s a way people think is right, but it only leads to death.

Proverbs 14:12

When God enters into an intimate relationship with us, he says I have a map for your life in the Bible.”  When faced with any kind of situation, God says, I have a map to help you navigate your way through life. 

  • Many think the standard Bible map for directing our lives is obsolete. 
  • Many are skeptical of writings as old as 1500 B.C. can tell us anything in the twenty-first century.
  • Philosophy teaches that regardless of how advanced this world becomes or how primitive we still are in the ways we treat one another, what we have in common is our search for meaning and direction.
      • Does God exist?
      • Is our universe real?
      • Do we have free will?
      • Is there life after death?

Psalm 119:33-40  

33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end.
34 Give me understanding, that I may keep your law & observe it w. my whole heart.
35 Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.
36 Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!
37 Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.
38 Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared.
39 Turn away the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good.
40 Behold, I long for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life!

Before the Written Word We Call the Holy Scriptures, People Asked:

  • How did we get something from nothing?
  • How did the world get people that spoke multiple languages? 
  • Who established the moral laws that we live by? 
  • If God exists, does God know me?  Can I know God?
  • When we die, is that the end of life?
Psalm 119:33-40


The Scriptures we know came into being because people had questions God answered & inspired people to write.

The Bible is our road map for living, dying, and living again.

Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”


Harvest Somebody Else’s Experience World’s Truth vs God’s Truth

The uniqueness of the Bible is that it’s HIStory. The story of Jesus, the ONE who created heaven and earth. He’s the Alpha and the Omega who began the world and he’ll bring it to conclusion.

For those who believe there’s no god, the Bible’s just another religious book with no special purpose or meaning as we journey in this life.

However, many people read the Bible with no belief and end up convinced God exists. They discover His love value of the Bible as His road map for life. The fact is that when we read the Bible, a life-changing experience begins.

While mere men wrote these words, they were inspired by God to write. The hearts of those who read the ancient words still ask the same questions and the same Spirit who spoke to the writers still speak to you and me. 

The reason for this is given to us in Hebrews 4:12:

“The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword,

it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow;

it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”


God’s Word Penetrates Our Hearts

“So shall my Word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.Isaiah 55:11


We come to realize that the road we’re traveling we’ve mapped for ourselves or been told to follow are not happy, content, peaceful, joyful, satisfied or fulfilled.

When we read the Bible, we’re not just reading the history of how God created the heavens and the earth. We’re reading how God remained involved through prophets, priests, and kings.  He became involved in our history in a personal, intimate way, by coming to this world in the flesh, in the person of Jesus.

God Left Heaven to Join the Human Race.  Why Would He Do That?

It takes trust to follow someone, but it’s nice to follow someone who knows the way. That’s what God did: He came down through Jesus, and said: “Just follow me.” “Follow me,” was one of Jesus’ favorite lines when he was gathering his disciples. 

He told people the kind of life they should be living and the kind of path they should take. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24.

The Bible’s Important Because It Leads to Jesus, the Saviour of the World. 

Jesus understood that the Scriptures we now call the Old Testament was HIStory. He became an important figure two thousand years ago when calendars began to be marked in some distinctive way, His Story became the standard for dividing all of time.

Anything that happened before the birth of Jesus was noted as B.C. “before Christ.” Anything after the birth of Jesus was noted as A.D., the abbreviation for “Anno Domini,” the year of our Lord. Jesus rewrote history by conquering death.  Because Jesus conquered death, we have faith that the road he tells us to travel is reliable. Jesus knows the way to heaven, and we can follow him there safely.

If you’re not opening your Bible and following God’s Word, it’s time to admit you’re too prideful to ask directions.

In the Middle of Pride, is “I”

Commit to God by reaching for the Bible regularly. It’s “God-breathed, useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  2 Timothy 3:16-17

When you PRAY, you talk to God. When you READ, God talks to you…

Norma Bourque Niles