Showing posts with label harvest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label harvest. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Lenten Devotional - Day 25

Scripture: John 4:27-38
“Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, 'Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.” (John 4:34-35)
  The problems and challenges we face with alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse and dependency is not something that impacts us only externally. AOD issues are not someone else's problem to solve. We can’t just say that if only the government, the police, or social services would do this or that specific thing, the problem will go away in a few months. We, as a society, as a church, have a AOD problem. The AOD problem is ours by omission and when we fail to adequately live out the full expression of the gospel, we are advancing the development of AOD problems in our communities. AOD dependency, abuse and usage is as much a spiritual and relational problem than it is a physical or mental issue.

  Jesus is reminding us that we only need to look around us to find opportunities for mission, “the fields are ripe for harvesting.” (v. 35) To hear the cries of those suffering, a field of mission lies before us and is ripe for the harvesting. What churches DO need to know is how to recognize when it's time for the harvest. The Samaritan woman recognized something special in the person of Jesus, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!” (v. 29)

  The message of the harvest is always urgent, the destiny of neighborhoods, communities and families hangs in the balance. Every generation is crucial; every generation is strategic. We are not responsible for the successes or failures of a past generation and we cannot fully determine how future generations will answer the call. However, we do have our current generation! God will hold us responsible for what we do or choice not to do now. Someday, Jesus will ask us why we did not recognize Him in our neighbor.

  This relationship between God's mission and the church's work in the world is the reason Jesus reminds his disciples that sometimes the fields are ripe for harvesting - not just for sowing (v. 35). When the fields have already been plowed, and planted by God's own Spirit, then Jesus' disciples simply need to decide to join with God’s ongoing actions, for we are called to harvest this crop which we have not sown. 

  A group within Redstone Presbytery has been meeting periodically to discuss the problems and issues related to AOD facing our churches. Come and join us in the conversation. The Addiction Ministry Network meets again on Monday, April 3, 2017 at Noon at the offices of Redstone Presbytery in Greensburg, PA.

Lee McDermott, Contributor

Remember in Prayer: Ask God to show us the way to reveal our light to those living in the darkness and need someone to lead them out.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Lenten Devotional - Fourth Sunday in Lent

Scripture: John 4:36-38
“The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." (John 4:36-38)
  When we, as Christ’s church, set out to address the AOD problems in our communities, we will experience the joy of seeing a harvest through our efforts. While, on other days, we will struggle when all we can hope to accomplish is to sow. In our sowing, we may never see the resulting harvest within a single, individual life where we have placed a great deal of our effort. Sadly, our sowing may not produce any harvest because addiction is deadly and the end of the story is tragic and heartbreaking.

  When a person first enters treatment, their initial treatment experience may not produce a lasting journey toward recovery, but as an addictions counselor my responsibility was to sow a seed. Positive recovery outcomes may only bear fruit much later and the harvest may not be witnessed by us, but only by others weeks, months, or years later. As an addictions counselor, I know this happened frequently, I never clearly discovered what eventually happened to many of these individuals. What I did come to recognize is that God did. In turn, God allowed me the opportunity to meet some of these people months or years later.

  The ability to learn what eventually happened to these individuals, who were now recovering, was truly a gift of God’s grace toward me. I discovered that what I did, the actions I took and the efforts that I put forth did produce positive results at some future moment. They may not have borne fruit in the fashion that I imagined or the ways that I had hoped, but God did produce a harvest. I was privileged that God gave me the chance to truly see what my early efforts had achieved.

  As leaders within the church, we need to approach those who are lost and living in the darkness of addiction with prayer, discernment and trust in the Holy Spirit. We need to trust that God is indeed at work within the lives of these individuals. If we can trust where God is leading, and trust that God is hearing us, and trust that God stands beside us as we struggle each day to address the problems of AOD, God will bring an abundant harvest. As the church, we are called upon to sow and sometimes God will call upon us to reap. In whatever, circumstances we may find ourselves surrounded by God’s grace, God is calling us to be faithful and steadfast in our faith. And by doing so we will discover that we will indeed reap where we have not sowed, but our labors will never have been in vain.

  As a church, we are first sent out to sow and be faithful in the sowing, then God will not forget us, God will allow us to see an abundant harvest.

Lee McDermott, Contributor

Remember in Prayer: Churches able to see the harvest which lies all around them and how God’s Spirit will lead them to the right place.

Click Here PDF - Fourth Sunday in Lent Devotion