Matthew 4:18–22; Matthew 9:35–10:1 (read online ⧉)
Are you working for Jesus? Yes. As a Christian, you are called to.
The real question is, how well are you working for Jesus?
The calling of the fishermen to be disciples is a great example of how to respond to Jesus’ call on our lives. You, however, might be looking at that calling as if it doesn’t apply to you. You’re not one of the great Apostles.
Sometimes we see the prompt response as a conviction. We believe that we are supposed to drop whatever we’re doing and follow Jesus. We are. That does not mean—unlike the disciples—we are supposed to stop our career, stop our family, stop our schooling. What it does mean is that we are to now dedicate whatever it is to Jesus. Our goal is that whatever we do, we do it for Jesus.
As Christianity continues to decline in Western Civilizations, it continues to grow elsewhere. The estimate is that almost 1-in-3 people are Christians worldwide. It doesn’t feel that way here.
Jesus called on his disciples to be laborers in the harvest of the world. The church responds to that call usually via missionaries. We are all missionaries. We are all laborers. We are often blind to it.
The Global South (where Christianity is growing) is looking at the Western World to return the favor of being led to Jesus. Yes. The Global South is sending missionaries to the United States and Europe.
This doesn’t excuse us from sending and supporting missionaries. This should actually encourage us to do so. Missionaries provide us a better lens to view our biases and cultural blindness. This teaches us how to better missionaries to our own cultures, and to be better laborers.
Whether we are water-carriers, swinging the scythe, bundling the sheathes, carrying the sheathes, threshing the wheat, or gathering the final wheat, each of us has a task and purpose. We cannot leave it to others.
※Prayer※
Jesus, as the Lord of the Harvest, guide our actions to make sure that the entire harvest is brought to Heaven. Help to not look at ourselves as unqualified on not required. You have called us to your harvest. Amen.
1) What are your thoughts about being a missionary? Did you ever confuse the mission field with “someplace else”?
2) What is one of the hardest parts of being a laborer? What is one of the easiest?
3) Of the list of task orientations in the last paragraph, which one is yours? Why do you say that? Do you think there is a task missing?