Surviving Chaos

Matthew 9:37-38
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Yesterday I spend a large majority of the day in a place I never thought I would find myself; in a Combine. Now if you are like me you understand very little about farming and farm machinery. I try to understand but more times than not my ignorance finds a way of coming out. Yesterday was no exception.

Mind you I have been in a Combine before; well once before and it was only for about fifteen minutes. I never imagined sitting in one for the better part of a day. What can I say, it was an experience I will not soon forget.

Now for those of you who are still wondering what I’m talking about, let me define the type of equipment I was in. It is officially called a Combine Harvester. This is a large farm machine that is used in harvesting crops like Milo or Wheat. Actually it’s quite an interesting machine. It moves over the field with a 35 foot header attached to it’s front. The front blade rotates pulling the crop into the machine as another tubular devise called an auger spins counter separating the heads of grain from the stalk. Then the heads are carried into the Combine and separated, grain from shaft. All this happens in seconds. For someone raised around city life, this was truly amazing.

As I sat in the cab admiring this marvel of farm machinery, my mind began to race. I began to think about a number that was brought to my mind a few months ago; 50. Fifty percent of Ottawa County, the county in which I reside here in Kansas, does not attend a local church. This is a sad number to think about considering there are over twenty churches in our county. I started to then think about the words of Jesus, “The harvest is Plenty but the workers are few.” With over twenty churches, why do fifty percent not attend church.

The time has come for revival. Revival is the renewal of interests. We need to renew our interests in the souls of men. We need to be more concerned that there are people walking among us that will one day look into the face of God and be turned away for eternity. And we, the church, are going to be held responsible because we allowed them to slip through. I don’t know about you but I want God to look at me and say, “Well done good and faithful servant.”

It’s harvest time. Get in the Combine and start your engine.