The Harvest

Psalm 19:2-4 says, “2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. 3 They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. 4 Yet their voice[a] goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.”

This is a quote from my devotion this morning, “The apostle Paul referred to this psalm when he explained that everyone knows about God because nature proclaims God's existence and power. This does not cancel the need for missions because the message of God's salvation found in his Word, the Bible, must still be told to the ends of the earth. While nature points to the existence of God, the Bible tells us about salvation. God's people must explain to others how they can have a relationship with God. Although people everywhere should already believe in a Creator by just looking at the evidence of nature around them, God needs us to explain his love, mercy, and grace. What are you doing to take God's message to the world?”

We again see this statement that God is known by all in Romans 2:8. “8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil.” Then we move onto see that God again has said that He has made himself known. Romans 1:19-23, “19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.”

I feel that this is a call that we should all really take hold of. What is this garbage that we keep replacing God with? We say that we are ok and that we are walking a good life with Christ but we really know what is going on. There are idols in our lives that have replaced the one TRUTH!

Because of the truth of Christ the following is what we should really be doing. God has called us to explain his love, mercy, and grace to people that do not know understand the salvation message of the gospel. What are you doing to take God's message to the world?”

There are people out there that live in such a fear of death that they do now know or understand the message of salvation of Christ. We have people that are trying to predict the end of the world and there are some that are saying it is soon. But we are not to live like that. As a friend pointed out to me, Jesus tells a story in Luke 19 that speaks of him and his return in v13, he says “engage in business until I come” when he returns, we are to be found with our hand on the plow, not sitting on a hilltop waiting around.

We tend to look at the now and worry about how things will end or how we should live but Jesus tells us that we do not need to know and that only God the Father knows when Christ will return, Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32 both times Jesus says "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Now we look in Acts where Christ is raised from the dead and is addressing the disciples again after the disciples had asked Jesus, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) Jesus responds in verses 7 and 8, “7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Christ not only shows us that we are not to be concerned with when the end will come but then, “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” Mark 1:17. After we have dedicated out lives to following Christ he then says in Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Not only are we called to follow Jesus but now he is telling us that there are few people out there that can help spread the gospel “the workers are few” and that we should be asking the Lord to send out His workers because the harvest is plentiful and God has made himself know to everyone.

When we think about going out to witness because that is what this is telling us to do here, “Go and witness to all mankind” but he speaks on John 4:35 about how we truly feel about going out witness to the gospel, “Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” I feel like this is our true response to the call of being “fishers of people.” Basically we are not trusting in God to help with the harvest that he is calling us to be working for. We get such a fear in us (failure, embarrassment, etc.) that we say to God, “it is still four more months until the harvest” in our words, “I am not ready to be out there Lord, I don’t know enough scripture to be challenged” or “ I am scared of what people will think of me or do to me.”

This is Gods response to our petty wimping out. Acts 18:9-10 “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” The call to trust and follow God and as it says about John the Baptist, John 1:6-8; “6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.” We also are not to be or try to be the light but as it says be a witness to testify to the light! What is this light, John 1:9-14; “9The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

My final challenge to myself and to everyone who follows Christ as Lord and Savior is this. Can we be a witness to the light that is Jesus Christ to the world that has replaced the truth of God with a lie? Are we so confident in God that we can be that witness knowing that God has called us not to be silent, not to be afraid and trust that he will speak through us. The harvest is plenty, the harvest is ripe, it is not 4 months away, and it is now!

Pray! Pray! Pray!

From Idolatry to LOVE!

Idolatry, it was a challenging subject to address! Last night in our Young Adults study, we really got challenged as to what the idols are in our lives. A definition was shared, "anything that takes the place of God in your heart!" With this they listed of so many different things that can be an idol and most I had never thought of. When we look at these idols that are in our lives we really must come to reality and not let selfishness get in the way or there will be no truth behind what you are looking at. We must get to the root of the problem and not just talk about it and say we have addressed it. If we are doing that we are just putting this issue on a back burner and never really seeing what the root cause of the problem is. We have to take this things to Jesus and let him help us see how to replace the lie we have embedded in our hearts with the truth of the gospel!

This video is one that was posted on the blog before but worth posting again. It is of Mark Driscoll (Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle) speaking and ABC news about this same subject "Idolatry" which I though was good to watch!



This morning while getting ready for work and making breakfast I was overly joyed to hear music in the background! I felt the joy of the Lord instantly! Then I stopped and looked at my bible and it was open to Galatians 5:1 that says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and don not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." How awesome of a message is this to get in the morning! After last nights study I was weighed down a little by the strength that we often pull with idols in our lives! I can feel the burden on my heart of effects that idols can have on us! As i read on jumping to Galatians 5:6b, "the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." What does this mean i think to myself all morning? What does faith do for us? The Bible says that we are saved through faith! (Gal 2:15-16, Rom 3:22, Eph 2:8-9). This saving faith is a living faith in a living Savior and thus is the expression of love-motivated deeds. Talk about love, what is that word mean, John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." I can't even fathom that concept. Is true love is giving up everything for those have nothing? What is it?

True love is what Christ did for us First we have to look at who we are in this mess of a world! Titus 3:3, "At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and ency, being hated and hating one another." This is who we really are. Also in Rom 1:21-25, as we have talked about before, we are a wicked people who have suppressed and replaced the truth of God for a lie!

Now we go back to Titus to again understand what this love is. Titus 3:4-8, "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, who he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal live. This is a trustworthy saying.

What a picture of this love that God has for us! As it says and Titus and I fell that we should emphasize the love of God appeared first then HE saved us and again not because of our righteousness but because of his MERCY. How did he save us? as it goes on the say, "through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." Again think about what a baby is covered with when first born. They are covered with blood and yuk from the birthing process. so the be saved through a washing of rebirth, God comes to us and cleans the yuk off so that when he looks at us we are seen and clean and a new creation in Christ Jesus. Sometimes this is symbolic through baptism of believers who have committed their lives to Christ! Then comes the renewal by the Holy Spirit, which is a leading, or a conviction, and consistent imparting of divine life to believers as they surrender their lives to God (Rom 2:2).

Now that we have been saved through faith in Christ alone, and washed clean, and renewed by the Holy Spirit, we have been been justified by His grace so that we might have eternal life! Paul goes on to finish this bold statement but saying, "This is a trustworthy saying." in other words we can trust in the fact that through faith in Christ alone are we saved and can have hope and a life in eternity in heaven with our Lord and Savior Jesus!