This past Sunday, at our church, we focused on the story of Jesus and the Samaritan town of Sychar, found in John 4. As I've read this chapter in recent years, one thing has really jumped out at me. But to bring that out, let me briefly run through this story.
Jesus and His disciples are traveling through Samaria. The disciples go to a town (which I suppose is Sychar) to get some food. Jesus rests by Jacob's well. During the day, a woman comes to the well. She and Jesus have a conversation on a number of things, and she runs back into the town to tell everyone that she has just met the Messiah. Meanwhile, the disciples come back, and in their conversation with Jesus, He says that they merely have to open their eyes to see that the fields are white with harvest. Pretty quickly, it becomes apparent what Jesus means, as the whole town comes out to meet Him, at the word of the woman, and invite Him to stay with them for two days, during which time many people come to believe that He is God's Messiah.
The thing that has jumped out to me is this. What did the disciples miss here? A whole town seemingly came to faith in Jesus, and they didn't even see any signs of it. They went into the town, and what did they see? A lot of these same people, but it appears that the disciples only saw godless, mixed blood heathens who worshiped wrong and believed in false gods. But Jesus saw how those same people were white with the harvest of God for eternal life.
The disciples missed that a whole town was white for harvest in front of them. And to my eyes, it seems that this is because they simply were not looking at the people of that town as people who would be part of God's harvest. They merely seem to have seen people from which they could purchase food as they hurried on their way to "God's people".
It really makes one think. Are we Christians missing God's harvest in the same way? How often do we see the people in front of us every day as people that God's Spirit is preparing for the harvest? How often do we just see them as people that we have to put up with? As people who annoy us? As people who are godless and god-forsaken? How often do we go through the grocery store line and think that the young man or woman is someone God's Spirit is preparing for the harvest? How often do we think of the person waiting on us at the restaurant as someone with connections to a whole slew of people that could come to faith in Christ through their sharing?
For the rest of this week, I'm going to focus on what I will be calling "weaving Gospel threads" into your life, but more importantly, into the lives of those you encounter daily. We might be tempted to ask, "What harvest", but I'm convinced that, as we begin weaving Gospel threads in our lives, we just may have our eyes opened to see where the Spirit is preparing far more fields for harvest than we could ever imagine.
Jesus and His disciples are traveling through Samaria. The disciples go to a town (which I suppose is Sychar) to get some food. Jesus rests by Jacob's well. During the day, a woman comes to the well. She and Jesus have a conversation on a number of things, and she runs back into the town to tell everyone that she has just met the Messiah. Meanwhile, the disciples come back, and in their conversation with Jesus, He says that they merely have to open their eyes to see that the fields are white with harvest. Pretty quickly, it becomes apparent what Jesus means, as the whole town comes out to meet Him, at the word of the woman, and invite Him to stay with them for two days, during which time many people come to believe that He is God's Messiah.
The thing that has jumped out to me is this. What did the disciples miss here? A whole town seemingly came to faith in Jesus, and they didn't even see any signs of it. They went into the town, and what did they see? A lot of these same people, but it appears that the disciples only saw godless, mixed blood heathens who worshiped wrong and believed in false gods. But Jesus saw how those same people were white with the harvest of God for eternal life.
The disciples missed that a whole town was white for harvest in front of them. And to my eyes, it seems that this is because they simply were not looking at the people of that town as people who would be part of God's harvest. They merely seem to have seen people from which they could purchase food as they hurried on their way to "God's people".
It really makes one think. Are we Christians missing God's harvest in the same way? How often do we see the people in front of us every day as people that God's Spirit is preparing for the harvest? How often do we just see them as people that we have to put up with? As people who annoy us? As people who are godless and god-forsaken? How often do we go through the grocery store line and think that the young man or woman is someone God's Spirit is preparing for the harvest? How often do we think of the person waiting on us at the restaurant as someone with connections to a whole slew of people that could come to faith in Christ through their sharing?
For the rest of this week, I'm going to focus on what I will be calling "weaving Gospel threads" into your life, but more importantly, into the lives of those you encounter daily. We might be tempted to ask, "What harvest", but I'm convinced that, as we begin weaving Gospel threads in our lives, we just may have our eyes opened to see where the Spirit is preparing far more fields for harvest than we could ever imagine.
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