The Harvester

The above picture is called "the Harvester" by LeMoine FitzGerald of the "Group of Seven".  Today as I sat in my office praying, and was trying to "enter God's presence", God gently reminded me that while I was always welcome "to come to His Throne" -- that in fact He is always right here with me--even right now in my office.

At this reminder I boldly said--"O Lord I want to see and feel You tangibly HERE"...and I waited...soon I started to feel like I had no real idea what I was looking for...but I had a sense that God wanted me to keep waiting with my eyes open -- more time past and I felt less and less confident that I would encounter anything "supernatural"... then my eyes came to this picture which is on my calendar.  It's not the first time I looked at it, nor the first time I read the title of that painting -- but this time when I did my breath caught in my throat and I knew God was pressing in and speaking.

Just the other day I past a couple farmers, drenched in sweat from baling hay all day--and I recalled my teen years when I worked on farms, and among other things had to help with loading and unloading hay during the harvest--it is HARD WORK!  But it is also satisfying work for you get to see the bounty of the harvest pile up in front of you--and the better the harvest, the harder you need to work.

For the past 8 months I have tried every single day to pray the prayer that Jesus told us to pray in Luke 10:2--"The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.  Therefore, PRAY to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."  Right after this Jesus then says to His disciples: "Now go; I am sending you out like lambs among wolves."

(my alarm on my phone has just gone off--10:02am -- to remind me to pray that very prayer again!)

Here is the point I want Christians to hear -- especially my church family of Crossings:

Jesus said the harvest is ABUNDANT.  In fact in Acton, already many years ago we have had people who have seen visions of Acton as a golden wheat field; and other visions of people crying out to Jesus in the streets of Acton!  The Harvest is ready and it is abundant!

But are the workers ready?  Are the workers willing to put in the hard work that the harvest requires?

Remember, the more abundant the harvest the harder the work that is to be done--BUT--don't miss this--the greater the harvest the more abundant the JOY of the work.

God has called us into HIS harvest to be co-labourers with Him!  Dear Christian will you put on your work clothes, walk out into the harvest field and work hard?  Are you willing to sweat and feel the sting of the hard work of harvesting?  Are you willing even to be like a sheep among wolves?

It is time!  The harvest is abundant --- where are the workers?  Where are the ones willing to give themselves to the Mission God is calling us into?  Are you watching from the edge of the field?

There are long hard hours of harvest ahead -- it will not be easy -- BUT -- there will be GREAT JOY at the harvest -- and the Spirit will fill His workers with abundant provision for all that we need!   All the hard work will be more than worth it!

PRACTICAL WAYS TO START:

-Pray -- perhaps you want to join me in setting your alarm for 10:02am every day to remind you to pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send labourers.

-Pray for open doors and opportunity to share the gospel -- and go into each day expectantly

-Join other workers so you can work alongside -- encouraging each other, praying together, strengthening each other and spurring each other on.  (Crossings folks -- in the fall -- join a "Missional Community" to learn with others how to live out the mission in the everyday stuff of life!)

-As Jesus said -- "Now Go..."  --- get out there -- you may not know exactly how to do what you need to do--But once you are in the field, especially along with others, you will quickly learn -- but you need to "GO" -- you cannot harvest from the sidelines!

Exploiting the Vulnerable

Today I was rocked by a couple videos on a couple different subjects.

The first was a video about pornography and the affect it has on the brain and the harm it is causing in our society.  I was deeply troubled by the facts presented about how the sex industry exploits the vulnerable in our society.

The second video is one probably many of you have now seen--or at least have seen trending (and maybe are avoiding!).  It is the latest video exposing some of the practices of Planned Parenthood.  Again, my soul agonized at the ease with which our society discounts the rights of the most vulnerable for the desires of those who have the ability to wield their power over the vulnerable.

Both of these videos, while containing unique and important issues (that I will not address here)  pointed to one common disturbing trend in our society -- the exploitation of the vulnerable.

For a society that gets all up in arms over animal rights -- and is very vocal about our personal rights and freedoms -- it is frightening how quickly those same voices don't seem to grant the same rights and freedoms to those whom they somehow deem as having "less rights than themselves".

This is not new --- history going back thousands of years points to the repeated pattern of "powerful humans" exploiting "vulnerable humans" and using whatever means they needed to justify their actions.

As a Christian this is an especially important trend to pay attention to as God has always been One who sought the care of the "poor, needy and marginalized" --- When Israel was rebuked by their Prophets one of the re-occurring things that was rebuked was the exploitation of the poor!  (**note that "God's people" were not exempt from this shameful exploitation -- repeatedly, right into the Christian Church in the New Testament, God's people at times had to be rebuked and corrected because they started to overlook the vulnerable)

When Jesus walked the earth--He had harsh words for the rich who exploited the poor but extended incredible compassion to the vulnerable.  The Apostles continued this emphasis and one of the marks of the early Christian faith that the world found so intriguing was that "none among them were in need".  And this teaching continued as over and over Paul, Peter, James and others taught Christians to make sure that the poor, the orphaned and the widows (the most vulnerable) received special care.

Perhaps the Church is in need of another reminder of our responsibility to look after the most vulnerable!  Both these cases (Abortion and Pornography) exemplify our societies justification of  "the powerful human" exploiting the "vulnerable human". (The rights of one trump the rights of other)

Simply ask yourself this:  Is the life of an unborn child not of just as great of value as your own? (What about the life of an aborted baby who still has a heartbeat?)  Is the life of a woman sold and exploited for sex not of just as great of value as any other human?  (I watched another documentary a while back on how we get such cheap clothes by exploiting humans in other parts of the world-- Are they of the same inherent value as you?)

The actions of our wider culture say NO.  Somehow the value of one human becomes greater than another.

However, the Gospel says ALL HUMAN LIFE IS OF GREAT VALUE!.   As broken and depraved as humanity is, even at the core of our nature, God determined by His love that we were still worth saving.  The gospel is good news extended to ALL PEOPLE that brings forgiveness and life to all who will come to Jesus. -- The gospel declares that all of humanity is loved and valued by God.  Therefore those who live by the gospel ought to live in a way that sees ALL LIFE of great and equal value.

Dear Christian -- let the gospel change you and cause you to rise up and defend the vulnerable just as Christ rescued you when you were weak and powerless in sin.

Dear friend who does not yet know Jesus --You are loved already, you are valued even if you have no regard at this moment for God -- He does not abandon, and He will not abort the mission of making known His profound love for you through Jesus!

below is the link to the video on the effects of pornography.  The other video I'm sure you can find trending in cyberspace!

The Porn Pandemic

The Documentary on cheap clothing and its true cost can be found here.

Return to MILK!

One of the most misunderstood and misused metaphors used by a lot of well-intentioned Christians is the metaphor of "solid food vs milk".

I am not going to go into the fact that solid food is NOT more complex theological studies--but rather a life changed by the gospel and shaped by obedience (happy to talk in person to anyone about that!)

Rather the focus of this post is to call us back to GOOD MILK!  In the mix of Christians talking about wanting "solid food", "milk" has gotten a bad rap...However listen to what Peter says to a group of Christians:

"DESIRE the unadulterated spiritual MILK..." (1 Peter 2:2)

What is this milk?  It's Jesus Himself!

"...coming to Him, a living stone..."  (1 Peter 2:4)

Peter's point to a people who are already saved, and increasing in knowledge and holy living is that they should never give up their infant like dependency on the pure milk of Jesus...for Peter says it is by this milk that we "may grow by it in salvation" (2:2b)

So what's my point...why I am I bothering posting this?

Somehow, somewhere along the line a lot of Christians (myself included) fall into a peculiar trap--we start to act as if we must do more for God and prove ourselves "mature" and worthy of "solid food", and we view the simple, pure, unadulterated intimacy that we have with Jesus through the gospel as "beneath us"...or at least, in our past as we have moved on to "deeper things"!

Here is the problem -- without ongoing, continual intimacy with Jesus, we cannot and will not accomplish anything worthy of being called glorifying to Him...we will pile up "good works" that are nothing but "filthy rags" in His sight (google "Isaiah filthy rags and good works" if this reference doesn't make sense to you!)

So if you are like me, and all too often have started trying to pull up your boot straps to "do more for God"...I invite you to STOP and come back like an infant who longs for pure milk -- come back and enjoy "your first love" (see Revelation 2:4) ... You are never "too mature" or beyond the pure, unadulterated spiritual milk of intimacy with Jesus -- it is GOOD and we are meant to ALWAYS drink of it (Him) -- for He is Living Water (or milk if you will!) and true life is only found as we drink deep of HIM!

If you struggle to find this kind of intimacy -- you are not alone -- don't over complicate your approach to Jesus -- He is not needing you to prove anything, but only to seek Him!  (I'd love to talk in person to anyone wanting to discover more about what ongoing intimacy with Jesus looks like -- you can walk alongside with me as I discover it more and more for myself!)