Friday, December 5, 2014

Selected For The Harvest (Mt. 20:1-16) (Part 5)

Conclusion: The Cave Analogy (Plato)1

“Suppose a man is born in a cave and spends his entire life tied to a post, facing the wall at the rear of the cave. He cannot look to the right or the left, only forward. The light from the outside shines form behind him on the wall he faces. Occasionally people and animals walk by the cave's entrance and, as they do, their shadows are cast on the wall. These shadows and the dim light on the wall are all he ever knows of reality. To him they are reality. To speak of a world outside the cave, made of color and three dimensions, would be incomprehensible and unbelievable to him. But what would it mean if a mirror where held up to him, in which he could get a glimpse of the world outside the cave? Everything would change! He would then see the shadows in the context of a larger and deeper reality of depth and color.”

Is it possible you don't know of a world outside your Christian “cave” called church?  Today I have tried to hold up a mirror, so you can get a glimpse of a serious reality.  The harvest is ready.  If the urgency and immediacy of the harvest are not addressed, then the travesty will come.  While you continue to gather for church services, lost people will die, having never made right with their Savior, Jesus Christ.  What are you going to do about it?

The Lord is calling workers.  The harvest of souls will not gather itself.  Have you heard the Lord's voice today, calling you to speak to lost souls?  Perhaps it is that you still don't grasp what's at stake. Souls who are not gathered, those who are not won to Jesus, will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. What are you going to do about it?

Since the harvest is ready and the Lord is calling workers, you must answer His call.  The call is to work in the harvest, not just in the church.  What you do for the Lord inside the church primarily benefits those who claim to know Him, those who have been harvested.  Is your time taken up with Christian activities, leaving no time to impact lost people? What adjustments do you need to make?


1 Patterson, Ben. Deepening Your Conversation With God: The Life-Changing Power of Prayer. The Pastor's Soul Series. Ed. David L. Goetz. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 1999. p. 99.

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