Fishers of men

As most of you are aware I just returned from fishing in Australia. I flew thousands and thousands of miles around the world and spent thousands and thousands of dollars in so doing. In spite of the expense and difficulty of getting there, including when we finally got to Australia, flying 260 miles out into the Coral Sea by float plane, landing in the sea, and rendezvousing with a mother ship which was our home base for six days of hard fishing, it was definitely worthwhile. My son and I had a marvelous time and caught the fishes of our dreams.

I returned home to the Florida Keys late Saturday night exhausted from the thirty hours plus of travel getting home. Sunday morning my wife was in a Christmas pageant for which I attended two of the four performances, (11:00 AM and 6:00 PM). After the final performance we held a party for the cast of the pageant and two hundred plus of those involved came to our home to eat. Everyone worked exceedingly hard for months on it and our little church spent thousands and thousands of dollars and untold hours of hard work. Most everyone was exhausted but elated. They worked for months on the pageant and it is the largest event of its kind in the Florida Keys and was a resounding success. I say that because every performance was standing room only in our rented large auditorium, and most importantly I was told by our pastor that at least fourteen people signed a card stating that they gave their lives to Jesus at the pageant. For the Florida Keys that is HUGE!

The Bible tells us that all of the angels in heaven rejoice over just one sinner repenting of their sins and accepting Jesus as their Savior. Imagine the thunderous angelic applause and joyous celebration in heaven over those who were lost and are now saved because of this pageant. I was thinking about this today and realized that most everything in life that is worthwhile takes hard work and tremendous effort, but the end result is well worthwhile.

As we wind up this year hopefully everyone will reflect upon their contributions toward the Kingdom of God. Is anyone going to spend eternity in heaven because of your hard work and investment last year? Did you invite anyone to church last year? Did you witness to anyone? Were you involved in Christmas pageants or similar happenings at your church? Did you finance anything for Jesus last year? Did you invest any of your time and money towards God’s eternal kingdom? The Bible states that the fields of humanity are “white for harvest” and just waiting to be reaped. Were you counted as one of the workers in this field last year?

If the answer is no, what a worthwhile goal to set for next year! It will take some effort, but the results will be well worthwhile. Unlike the temporal fond memories and gratification of catching big fishes on a difficult and arduous fishing trip, the effort put into leading someone to Christ will produce results that will be everlasting. Don’t miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime…

John 4:35
Behold I say to you, lift up
your eyes and look at the fields,
for they are already white for harvest!