Matthew 9:37-38 “Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
John 4:35 “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”
II Timothy 2:2 “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”
I met a young lady a few weeks ago at Spiritual Leadership Conference Asia who had a compelling story. She was a Haitian orphan who was led to Christ by a missionary couple to Haiti from the Philippines. They adopted her, and invested in her life and her growth. This young lady is now on deputation, raising support to go to Quebec, Canada as a missionary herself. Her native French-language skills will be helpful to this calling, but ultimately her preparation was fundamentally shaped by her adopted parents who spent time loving her and intentionally developing her.
The cycle of growth is powerful and poignant. In the case of this young lady, it went from the United States (a missionary who ultimately developed the sending Filipino Pastor) to the Philippines to Haiti to Canada. It is especially important for Christians, because it is the way we meet the needs of a field that is white already to harvest and a situation where labourers are in short supply. The demand is not being met, in part because the Christian community is not intentionally developing its own to carry on the calling of Christ.
Replication does not happen by accident, nor does growth or productive development. We need to be committed to committing the things we know to others. Additionally, we need to remind them as we do so, through our model and our methods, that it will ultimately be their responsibility to do the same for others. It that way, we can better produce a supply that will meet the demand of a growing harvest field.
PLEASE PRAY THAT CHRISTIANS IN AMERICA AND ALL AROUND THE WORLD, WOULD INTENTIONALLY DEVELOP ONE ANOTHER FOR SERVICE TO THE LORD. We need to be committed to deliberately committing our knowledge and our passion to others.
