When I came to faith in Christ and my life began to change, the Lord gave me a real heart for lost friends.  All of mine but one were lost.  One in particular was my hunting, fishing, and dating friend from high school named Bill.  I couldn’t wait to get home so I could talk with him about Jesus.  The week before I went home I prayed daily and had some church friends do the same.

             When I got to Tallahassee I went to his house and asked him if we could go to his room.  He sat on his bed and I sat on the floor.  I began saying something like, “Something has happened to me, and although it is new it is also really wonderful.  I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, and He is truly changing my life.”

             The look on his face changed from pleasant to not so pleasant.  He looked at me and said, “Why are you telling me this?”  I said, “I don’t know.  I know your family is Baptist, but we have never discussed Christ in any way, so I figured you were Baptist like I was Episcopalian – in name only.”  “Well, I’m not.  I’m ok.”  It was pretty much the end of the conversation, and it put a real chill on our relationship for quite a while.

             Surprisingly enough I didn’t feel like a failure at the time, although the strain hurt me because Bill had been a friend of mine since cub scouts (and we still are friends.)  I did feel like I had done what the Lord would have me do and that I needed to leave the results to God.  With occasional twinges of regret, that’s what I did.

             Can you imagine the joy several years later when I heard from him that as a law student in Birmingham, Alabama, he had prayed to receive Christ? Now we were brothers in Christ.  It was also a real relief because all signs of the strain between us were gone.

             I remember at the time thinking it could be difficult to win a friend to Christ who had done so many non-Christian things with me and who would remember me much more in that light than he would in the new light of Christ and that if it put a strain on our relationship or indeed if I lost a friend but he eventually came to faith in Christ, it would be worth the strain.  I think that was the right calculation. Sometimes I think that I and the rest of us take the other side of the calculation – that I would rather maintain a friendship than alienate someone even for a time by seeking to share my faith with them.

             I hope you are thinking about who you can share your faith with, that you will share prayerfully, and that you will leave the results of your sharing to God.  God bless you as you develop the harvest mind and as you apply it to the people God has put in your life.

I had not been a Christian for long when I heard a pastor preach a sermon in which he put people down who came to church on Easter and Christmas and made it very plain that God’s true people were the people who came all the time.  I was very bothered by it at the time.  I felt somewhat good about the fact that I was an all-the-timer.  However, I was bothered about it because I thought about the number of times I went to church on Easter and at Christmas and felt very special about it and actually felt a touch of God.  I wondered how I would have felt if I had been at that stage and had heard him basically congratulate himself and all the regular attendees.  Now that I have had time to grow in my faith, I realize all that was wrong with that outlook. 

             Christianity is very different from Judaism in that Christianity is a faith composed of insiders who are committed to outsiders.  When we become a community of insiders committed to insider-ism, we become something Christianity has never been nor will ever be designed to do.  I certainly would never want to talk about Easter/Christmas attendees as being an ideal.  But to have unkind feelings or have the feeling that we are somehow special rather than people who are most fortunately graced by our great God is a denial of the truth.  We were all sinners when we were called.  We remain redeemed sinners in our calling, and when we go to heaven to finally be glorified and perfected, it will all be by the great grace of God. 

             Let us respond this Easter and every week to those who have not yet embraced our faith with a profound understanding that we are saved by the grace of God and by that alone, not by our inherent goodness. Let us grant to them a joyful welcome, letting them know we love and appreciate them.  Yes, they will probably get the idea that we really need them and will be lucky to have them and they’ll never really understand that that is not true until they come to Christ themselves and recognize what they’ve missed all their lives.  God bless you.  Happy Easter.  Let’s do all we can.

The “harvest mind” is one of the ways of looking at the world that I pray will become natural to you as a born-again believer.  What do I mean by the harvest mind?  As far as I know, this phrase was invented by a friend of mine named Ron Lewis. Ron was the church growth consultant at our church before he died of cancer several years ago serving here as our consultant for about 25 years.  He took the phrase from the Lord’s command to look at the fields that are white already unto harvest and to pray to the Lord of the harvest that He would send workers into the harvest.  The Scriptures from which this idea comes are Matthew 9:37-38, Mark 4:26-29, and John 4:34-38.  In each of these cases, the Lord makes the point that the seed of the Gospel has been sown in the world, that the Spirit of God has entered the world, that the Spirit of God is working in the church and in the preaching and witness of the church, and that there is opportunity in the world to reach people for Jesus Christ.

             A man I admired a great deal as a pastor once said he believed every person he met needed the Lord Jesus Christ – most of them just didn’t know it yet.  That’s a clear expression of the belief that people need the Lord and the Lord has made it possible for them to receive Him.  He has, in fact, worked in many people’s lives so they are ready.  However, He will not do the harvesting.  We must work at the harvest and pray for others to do the same.

             The harvest mind is the opposite of the attitude many modern Christians have.  Perhaps Christians have always felt that way, but I’m only familiar with the Christians of our day.  Too many of us believe that all people are basically resistant to the Gospel, religion is a private matter, and we should not intrude in other people’s lives or seek to impose our values on them.  If we ever decided we wanted to share, it’s something we should only attempt after lots and lots of relationship building and after earning the right to be heard.  Jesus simply said, “The harvest is ready, and it is time for workers to be sent.”  You and I are those workers.  My experience is that unless we develop a mind that sees the world that way and honestly believe the Lord Jesus has done His work so the harvest is ready, we will probably hang back in timidity.  Do you have the harvest mind?  Ever?  Occasionally?  Never?  Begin praying to the Lord of the harvest and ask Him to give you a harvest mind. Tell Him you’d like to have a fresh vision of the world that sees the world as ready to respond to the Gospel.  Ask the Lord to lay some soul upon your heart that you may begin to reach out to them in the name of Jesus.

Anchor 2: Calloused Knees

Anchor 3:

WORN OUT SHOES – Romans 10:15 says, “How beautiful are the feet of them who bring good news…”  Are you seeking to tell others about the Lord Jesus?  He is the only Savior anyone can ever have and they cannot have Him unless they are told about Him (Romans 10:13-14).  When you tell, you have to leave the harvest in the hands of God.  You sow the seed.  You don’t make it grow.  Not ready to tell?  Then make a list of people you think need the Lord that you wish you could tell. Don’t tell anybody (yet).  Now put some calluses on your knees for the people on this list.  Sometime you might begin saying, “Lord, please give me the opportunity to tell (a particular person) about Christ.  See what happens.  Get trained in faith sharing.  Call Clay Smith’s office (clay@shandon.org or 782-1300 x186) and ask for help in doing so. 

Anchor 4: Well worn Church Clothes

             A few months ago when I felt led to preach the four sermons for Christmas, I was bothered because I wasn’t going to read the Christmas story and the sermons were coming from the Gospel of John, which doesn’t recount any of the birth narratives.  Yet I felt strongly led to do it.  The sermon I felt the most strongly led to preach was the one from this past week titled, “The Gift of Eternal Life.”  However, I felt it was a little out of place at Christmas.  Every time I thought about changing it, the Spirit of God said, “Don’t do it.”

             At the 10:00 service, I felt good about the message and how it went, but at the 11:30 service when the invitation was given and a lot of young people who were here for the Chick-Fil-A Classic Basketball Tournament came forward, I thought, “That was God’s purpose in putting this on my heart.”

             The experience this past Sunday was very different from many of the other times we’ve hosted these young people from around the country.  We had about 20 or 25 people come forward at the end of the worship service making different kinds of decisions but all moved by the Spirit of God.

             I’m grateful to the Lord that He led me to do that and gave our church the opportunity to see that kind of response to His message and the work of the Holy Spirit.  Keep praying that the Lord would work in my heart, in the hearts of each staff member, and in the hearts of the lay leadership in our church.  God is good.  He is at work in this world of ours to will and to do for His good pleasure and for His glory.  It is a joy to be a part of that.  I hope it is for you too.

  I once had the opportunity to interview a staff member in Jacksonville, FL (actually Jacksonville Beach).  I arranged the interview so I could be at First Baptist in downtown Jacksonville to attend their weekly worker’s meeting followed by their Wednesday evening midweek service.  The teacher’s meeting was amazing.  Imagine me still remembering a Sunday school worker’s meeting this many years later.  Guynelle Freeman gave a five-minute talk about reaching the lost that still makes me want to go out and reach out. 

             As soon as this worker’s meeting was over, I walked to the sanctuary so I could get a good seat.  I hadn’t been there two minutes when a gentleman came, sat down beside me, introduced himself, and said, “You know, I love my church.”  I said, “I can see why.  It’s a tremendous church.”  He said, “But I never knew what it meant to love my church until I repented of my sins and received Jesus as my Savior.  Has that ever happened to you?” 

             “Oh, yes,” I said.  “Could I tell you about it?”  I did, and he asked, “What do you do?”  When I told him he got embarrassed.  I said, “Thank you for giving me the chance to be sure.  Your love for the Lord inspires me.”  Ten minutes later another gentleman did the same thing with the same results.  That (not the sermon, the music, the budget, or the buildings) is what does make a church great.  By that standard, how great are you making our church?  It’s a good question for all of us to ask week by week as we are called to go into the highways, hedges, pews, and hallways to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ.

            Years later a man named John Ruff joined our church and mentioned he was from Ridgeway.  I started talking about this store and he said, “That’s my store.  It’s been in my family forever.  Come back and I’ll show you around.”  I took him up on it.  Back in the warehouse of the store I ran across a seed rack that he said was from the 1800’s.  Think of that.  Tomato seeds, turnip seeds, watermelon seeds all sitting around with perfect potential but never producing anything.  As the Lord Jesus said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies it will bear much fruit” (John 12:24).  We have the seeds of the Gospel in our Bibles and, if we are converted, in our hearts, souls, and minds.  At the end of your life will the seed God has placed in your life look like Mr. Ruff’s seed rack – interesting, old, and unused – or will it look like well used, sown, and multiplied sources of joy in eternal life in the lives of the people with whom you shared them?