Matthew 9:35 -38 it says, "Jesus went through all the towns, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
I have been thinking about this passage of Scripture for a while now, and the harvest fields are indeed still plentiful, but Jesus wasn’t talking about us tramping all around in the harvest field, and beating it down. It seems to me that what passes for gathering in the harvest most of the time is Christians preaching "AT" the lost.
I heard it said that we need to earn the right to share the Gospel with people. You've probably heard it said people don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care. When they beat the lost up with Scripture they are no better than those Pharisees we read about in the Bible.
We've got to invest time first, earning the right to speak into people's lives, and then do what Jesus did; teaching them, sharing the good news with them and healing their bodies. After all that's what Jesus told us to do wasn't it? (John 14:11-13) And don't shoot the messenger, Jesus said it, I'm just repeating it.
We have got to remember that when people act like the world, it is because they don't know any better; this is why we have to teach them. Here’s an example. A Christian is talking to a worldly person and the worldly person cusses quite a bit. So he holds up a finger and says, "Excuse me, I'm a Christian and don't like the way you are cussing in front of me, would you please stop?" The person will more than likely stop, but from that day forward they will stay away from that Christian, keeping the Gospel from being shared.
No comments:
Post a Comment