We All Have A Pulpit

“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.”  John 4:35

A few years ago I was driving through the southern part of the state on my way to visit my daughter.  It was the autumn of the year as I drove down the interstate highway, and I passed several fields of cotton with their white puffs on the tops of the stalks brightly glowing in the sun, seemingly ready to be gathered.  I thought about the above verse, about the fields being “white already to harvest”.  Of course, Jesus wasn’t speaking of actual cotton.  He was using the planted crops as an analogy representing souls, lost and without direction for their lives.  He was saying that the harvest for souls was needed immediately.

In Matthew 9:36-38, Jesus looked out over the multitudes and had compassion on them because they were wandering like lost sheep without a shepherd.  Jesus again used the analogy of a crop harvest to point out that these souls needed to be harvested for His kingdom, but the laborers, those who are willing to go and be witnesses to a lost and dying world, are few.  He said to His disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send more laborers out into the world to bring them in.

The disciples, men of integrity and with a steadfast loyalty to Jesus, worked diligently to spread the gospel and encourage others to do the same.  But what about those of us who are believers?  Are we willing to be a “laborer” for the gospel?  If we are truly born again, we have a story to tell.  While some of us have a real rags (of sin) to riches (in Christ) story to tell, most of us likely consider our encounter with Christ to not be very dramatic by the world’s standards, but most of the people in which we come in contact lead ordinary lives like us.  Perhaps they are morally upstanding folks who do good deeds and don’t stir up trouble, but if they do not know Christ as Lord and Savior, they need to hear about the peace and freedom that comes from a relationship with the Lord of lords and King of kings.  I think many folks who are not believers are searching for something that will give their lives purpose and meaning, they just don’t know in which direction to turn.  That’s why they need someone to point them to Christ.

We all have a pulpit from which we can tell the gospel story.  We don’t have to be a preacher or have a degree in theology to tell others about Christ and what He has done for us.  Some believers worry that they will be asked a question that they can’t answer.  (Why do some folks expect a Christian to be an expert in Biblical history and future prophecy?  I suppose some unbelievers like to challenge a Christian in an attempt to cover their own sin of unbelief.  People have all kinds of excuses for rejecting Christ.)  Don’t be afraid to tell folks that you are not a Biblical scholar nor a theologian, and that there is plenty that you don’t know about God’s word, but tell them what you do know:  that you are a sinner who asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, believed that He died to save you from your sins, and became one of His followers.  Then give them a personal testimony of how Christ has changed your life.  The Holy Spirit will then take over within their heart.  They may not respond in a way you would like, but they likely won’t forget what you said to them.  The seed is planted, the Holy Spirit will nourish it, and hopefully there will be a good harvest.

Dedicated to Matt 1979-2010