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Harvest

Sunday: What a Great Day!

by TerryLema

On Sunday Christian Faith Center (CFC) Middleton launched! We are set on a path to harvest souls in Middleton, Idaho, for the glory of God. And what a great morning it was!

There were 20 first-time families. There were four people who surrendered their lives to Christ Jesus.

THAT IS WHAT ALL THIS HAS BEEN ABOUT.

Everything that has been done is for the harvest. Jesus reminded his followers that His greatest desire was to finish what God sent Him to do. “’My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work,’ Jesus told them.”

But then He told them that they too had to finish their work. They were to open their eyes and look around them, the fields were ready to be harvested.

“Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ready for harvest.” [John 4:34-35 HCSB]

The return of the Lord is closer to us than ever before. And there is a great harvest field awaiting us. Our eyes are open to the field in front of us and we have begun to move into our field!

Amen & Amen!

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The Great Commission

by TerryLema

Matthew 28:19-20 contains what we have come to call the Great Commission.  “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [HCSB]

Apparently, in the original Greek, the only direct command is to “make disciples.” The others are indirect commands. “Going,” Baptizing,” and “Teaching” are how we fulfill the command to “make disciples.”

The command to make disciples was given to those original disciples of Christ Jesus … and to all that would come after them. That command is still the essential command of Christianity. So how did we get so caught up in thinking other things are as or even more important?

My heart grows sad and my spirit weary when I see the church fussing over things that have no eternal value – things that have nothing to do with fulfilling the Great Commission.

When Jesus looked around, He saw an abundant harvest of souls. “When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.’” [Matthew 9:36-38 HCSB]

When we look around, what do we see? Things that have no eternal value, or an abundant harvest waiting for us to “make disciples?”

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The Increase

by TerryLema

Our daughter and son-in-love came over last week to take down the Christmas lights that decorated the front of our house. We had taken down and put away most of the Christmas decorations on January 1, but the lights hanging from the roof required a ladder to remove and my almost 81-year-old husband does not need to be going up and down a ladder. My son-in-love, who put the lights up, came to take them down.  Appreciate him so much!

While we were all together Bob and our daughter started a conversation about this year’s garden and what Bob was going to plant.  I am still appreciating last year’s garden … at the time in the slow cooker was a stew that contained tomatoes, green and yellow beans, peppers from last year’s harvest.

After my daughter and son-in-love left, I was reminded about Paul’s description of a spiritual garden in his first letter to the church at Corinth.  It came after he described some of the problems ripe in that church, problems that included division, envy, strife, and blatant sin.  Paul reminded his readers that there should be no divisions, we all participate in God’s spiritual garden in different ways.

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” [1 Corinthians 3:6-7 HCSB]

As I look back on my life, I see that gardening principle in action. I have often planted seeds in people, and I have done a lot of watering through encouragement and care. Surprisingly, I have not harvested many of the seeds I planted or even those I watered, but I have been honored to harvest seeds that others planted and watered.

Our privilege is to plant and to water and to harvest – but it is God’s job to give the increase. He is the one who convicts and through the power of His Spirit enables a soul to respond in faith to His grace.  Each soul is to His glory!

How grateful we should be that God invites us to participate in His Spiritual Gardening of Souls. Let’s make sure we scatter a lot of seed and do a lot of watering. I anticipate a great harvest in the near future!

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