Courageous Faith

The Harvest Waiting for a harvest, talking about a harvest and thinking about a harvest are not ways to bring in a harvest! Jesus viewed the people of his day as a crop of sorts, ready for spiritual harvest. In fact, the abundance and readiness of the crop for harvest was not in question. Finding people to get it done was (and is)! The people following Jesus in Mathew 9:36 were, as many are today, distressed and downtrodden. The scripture records that recognizing this, Jesus felt compassion for them. His initial response was to turn to his followers and say: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." The  people were literally ripe for spiritual harvest but there were very few people who knew what to do about it. Jesus went on to say, "Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” But who are those workers? "Waiting for a harvest, talking about a harvest and thinking about a harvest are not ways to bring in a harvest

The natural goal of fear is to promote self preservation - a fight or flight response. For a Christian, however, fear can take you from a place of faith and power to a place of anxiety and shut down the Mission of Jesus when people most need it. So how do we address the waves of fear and despair that continue to billow from every direction? Recognize that in as much as I am fear-filled, my life is still my own. It seems like many ministers are spending a lot of time telling their people how to apply their faith to "protect themselves" from the current "threat." In listening to this, it strikes me that the focus is placed on the individual and counterproductive. I don’t fault anyone for concern, but “faith” for self-preservation denies three important truths: 1) If I have given my life to Christ, it is no longer my life to worry about. 2) An inward-focused church is not a mission-focused church. 3. God's faith working by love within us is for others! 1) I