Christian Harvest and Faith – Episode 223
What is a Christian Harvest? It is a time for a harvest of souls for Christ. We can only plant seeds, and the Lord reaps the harvest. So what is our duty as Christians and are we even obligated? That will be our focus in today’s episode.
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I love fall and where I live there is green-green-green all around me. Yet, I can still celebrate the fall season with decorations around my home. Fall is a time for harvesting after the hard work of planting seeds, nurturing, and caring for them. We celebrate harvest time in many ways, maybe you decorate as I do, or you can look out your window and see the glory of the changing leaves and the beautiful scenery that God has given you. Another way we celebrate is with food, especially pumpkin. Is it just me, or is there “pumpkin” everything now?
How do we look at harvest in the spiritual world? When we think of harvest, we think of it in terms of the harvesting of souls. Souls for Christ. As a young Christian, I focused on sharing the good news, but I also want to see the results or the “fruits” of conversion. You can imagine how that worked out. It was not my job to plant and reap, only the Lord can reap the harvest. But it is our job to share the wonderful works of the Lord and in our hurting world, the people are hungry for good news.
I recall a sermon that taught “faith is not faith until it is tested,” and so too our faith is tested daily. We are given a chance in our lives to plant the seeds of faith so that others too may be saved.
As a follower of Christ, you are a disciple and you are tasked to share the good news. So what do disciples do? We receive instructions from Scripture. In Luke 10:1-5 we read (on air).
Is it possible in this current time to leave everything, go two by two and visit homes to share the good news? No. But, there are other ways that we can serve the Lord as laborers. One is to pray! I know there are many of you listening that would love to be used by the Lord to spread the good news. As I’ve shared in the past, if we ask the Lord to use us there will be opportunities that come to us. I’ve had repair people that have shared their struggle with faith and how they either left a church or left their belief altogether. I could listen and instead of sharing a bunch of what I thought were good solutions, I asked if I could pray with them. In my prayer, I asked the Lord to intercede, to heal the hurt of their heart, to open their eyes to sin in their life in need of repentance and I asked them if they wanted to rededicate their life to God. Some said yes and others, not right now. All I can do is plant the seeds.
One thing I could share with people I’ve met who are hurting because of wrong against them is to share that the greatest evil was the unjust crucifixion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and out of that horrible, evil tragedy and sacrifice was the greatest gift given to mankind, our salvation. Some people accept that as truth and others do not.
Some time ago I read a book written by an atheist turned Christian and she gave the clearest reason she remained an atheist for many years. She was forced at around the age of 10 to become a Christian and accept Jesus as her Savior. She had no idea what this meant. All she could see were angry, judgemental people who were upset she would not accept Christ. She was scared and had questions but she was afraid to ask. The lady asked said, “If you do not accept Jesus you will not be like us – you will go to hell and you will not be a Christian.” All this young girl could think was… “okay I won’t be like you who I find scary and hateful and I will be like my parents who are not believers? I chose them over you.”
It took her many years to understand they were well-meaning but their approach was all wrong. They used threats, fear and intimidation instead of openness, love, and invitation.
We are all refined in this life – in Malachi 3:1-3 we read (on air).
As the Lord uses us to help as laborers for the Kingdom of God we are open to learning, and understand that we should not be afraid, that God will provide for us, and that God will give us the tools we need when we need them. Our journey is one we do not take alone but with the Almighty beside us.
When we personally encounter Jesus, we can’t help but want to live our lives in a way that is pleasing. We are filled with the Holy Spirit and that overflowing of God’s love is too hard to contain! We are called to love and to have compassion, we are called to be there for others. If you can just listen. Being a good listener is a gift. We don’t need to come up with solutions we need to be open to hearing and discerning. Maybe something that is said will spark an idea that might be helpful. We are called to be faithful and to be bold! We are witnesses to the faith.
In Scripture, we find the times of harvest were usually when things were going badly for the people and they turned their “hardened hearts” back to God. Now is a time for people to turn back to God. People are sad, they are afraid, they are confused.
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