Will you join us for a season of prayer throughout the month of October? Listen to more about this here: You can download an electronic copy of the entire October calendar by clicking here.
Read moreThere is a group of ladies at the local church. You know them. You can even picture their faces in your mind. On the outside they look like they lead simple, quiet lives. They’ve raised their families. They work in their gardens. They bring casseroles to the sick. They gush over new babies and encourage blushing new brides. They sell handmade items at craft fairs to raise money for world missions. They give advice on how best to thaw that frozen chicken. They bring jars of honey and jam as gifts. Many have husbands who are also active in the church.
Read more“Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” Matthew 9:37-38 In this passage of Scripture, Jesus gives us three ways to reach the lost: praying, sending, and going. The one command is “pray earnestly.” It’s one word in the original; it has the connotation of pleading for something. We all have the responsibility to plead for the lost, praying specifically that the Lord would send out workers to reap a harvest of lost souls. They are there ready to be “reaped.” This type of pleading prayer is set in the context of Jesus going from village to village seeing the people that were like “sheep without a shepherd” (v. 36). Christ had compassion for the lost and he was asking for his disciples to have that same kind of compassion. In essence, Jesus is calling the disciples into a Gospel partnership as they plead with the Lord for harvest workers.
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