We were talking about the two young men who had just been saved from the fast food restaurant where he and his brother used to work. Recently, I had a conversation with a humble young guy from my church named Matthew. The Four Stages to Harvest Breaking the Fallow Ground We are but laborers, each of us doing what we can to help. He is the one who has orchestrated the process from beginning to end. It’s always God because He is the Lord of the harvest. Even if we are the ones who ultimately lead someone in the salvation prayer, it’s never a person who gets the glory for that. Instead, it takes conversations, situations, and God’s intervention to get people where they need to be for them to submit to Jesus as the Lord of their lives. Even when we, as Christians, use our lives to shine the light of Jesus Christ and talk to others about Him wherever we go, people aren’t always receptive at His first mention. And, just as planting, growing, and picking real fruits and vegetables takes time, the harvest of souls also doesn’t happen in a day. If you get hungry for an apple, do you take a seed out to the backyard and plant it? You would have a very long wait for your snack if you did. It’s a metaphor for the saving of souls. Matthew 9:38 says, “Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” As the church, we are the laborers, and we all have our part to play in the harvest of souls. And, throughout the Bible, the concept of the harvest - plowing, planting, and reaping - occurs again and again. But this harvest isn’t about corn and beans. God used object lessons to draw parallels to Israel’s spiritual unfaithfulness (Hosea and Gomer) and teach us about compassion (Jonah’s vine). Jesus used parables to illustrate such concepts as forgiveness, the kingdom of God, and how to treat other people. One way God communicates important spiritual truths is by comparing them to situations in the natural that we already understand.
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