Urgently Needed: Labourers for the Harvest

Dear Friends, As an evangelist a passage of scripture I often look at is Luke 10:2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. “The day is short, the work great, the workmen idle, the reward abundant, and the master of the household is urgent.” We know it’s true, but what puzzles me is why then there are so few labourers. I found a few answers as I was reading an old classic “The divine art of soul winning” by J. O. Sanders. ©1937 So I’ve copied and pasted a few sections that were a blessing and a challenge to me.

ABSENCE OF CONVICTION THAT EVERY IMPENITENT SOUL IS UTTERLY LOST.

Judge Mingins had been an infidel in his youth, and had lived with his infidel companions in Philadelphia. Sometime after his conversion he was visiting one of them, who said: “George, I hear you are a Christian now. Is that so?”

“Yes,” said Mr. Mingins.

“George, do you believe in God?”

“Yes.”

“And do you believe in Hell, and that all who do not believe in God and in Jesus Christ will ultimately go to Hell?”

“I do, most certainly.”

“Well, George,” said he, “does Christianity dry up all the milk of humanity in one’s body as it has in yours?”

“Why,” said Mr. Mingins, “what do you mean?”

“I mean this,” He replied, “that here you have been living under my roof for three days and three nights, knowing and believing all this, and yet you never put your hand on my shoulder, or said one word to save me.”

How many of my readers are in the boat with Judge Mingins?

Many years ago, Charles Peace, one of the greatest of criminals, was brought to justice. A burglar, forger, and double murderer, he was condemned to death. As he was being led to the scaffold, the chaplain walked by his side, offering what we call “the consolations of religion.” As the chaplain spoke of Christ’s power to save, the wretched man turned to him and said: “Do you believe it? Do you believe it? If I believed THAT, I would willingly crawl across England on broken glass to tell men it was true.”

Thank God it is true; but if the measure of our belief in its truth were the efforts we are making for the salvation of souls, I am afraid our belief could not be described as vital. General Booth once said that he would like to send all his candidates for officership to Hell for twenty-four hours as the chief part of their training. Why? Because it is not until we have a vital conviction of the irrevocable doom of the impenitent that our belief will crystallize into action.

ABSENCE OF CONCERN FOR THE LOST. Christ had a concern for the individuals and for the multitudes. His concern was so real and so deep that at times the flood of tears could no longer be restrained, and rolled down His compassionate face. Jesus, the manliest of men, wept. Paul, the brave, besought men, night and day with tears, to be reconciled to God.

When a young missionary, who had been invalided home, was asked why he was so eager to get back to his people, he said, “Because I cannot sleep for thinking about them.” Oh, for tear-filled eyes! Oh, for sleepless eyes, because of the imminent danger and doom of the unsaved! Do the tears ever start unbidden from OUR eyes as we behold our city filled with sin and suffering and shame? Does sleep ever flee OUR eyes because of our concern for the souls around? How cold, and callous and benumbed are our souls!

When William C. Burns, so greatly used in revival work in Murray McCheyne’s parish, and later in China, was commencing his ministry, his mother met him one day in a Glasgow close. Seeing him weeping, she said: “Why those tears?” He answered “I am weeping at the sight of the multitudes in the streets, so many of whom are passing through life unsaved.”

General Booth received a message from one of his captains that the work was so hard he could make no progress. The General sent back a reply of two words: “Try tears.” Success visited that corps.

WHAT CONCERN FOR THE LOST CAN ACHIEVE “I went to hear D. L. Moody preach when I was a country minister and he so fired my heart, that I went back to my country church and tried to preach as he preached, and we had really a great work of grace. It did not start immediately; and I was so discouraged, because things did not go as I thought they ought, that I called my church officers together and said: ‘You will have to help me.’ They promised to do so, and finally an old farmer rose and said: ‘I have not done much work in the church, but I will help you.’ One of the officers said to me afterwards: ‘Do not ask him to pray, for he cannot pray in public,’ and another said: ‘Do not ask him to speak, for he cannot speak to the edification of the people.’ Next morning we had one of those sudden snowstorms for which that part of the country is famous, and this old farmer rose and put his horse to his sleigh and started across the country four miles to a blacksmith’s shop. He hitched his horse on the outside, and went into the shop all covered with snow, and found the blacksmith alone. The blacksmith said: ‘Mr. Cranmer, whatever brings you out today?’ The old farmer walked to the blacksmith’s bench, and putting his hand upon the man’s shoulders, said: ‘Tom!’ and the tears started to roll down his cheeks. Then with sobs choking his utterance, he said: ‘Tom, when your old father died, he gave you and your brother into my guardianship, and I have let you both grow into manhood and never asked you to become a Christian.’ That was all. He did not ask him then; he could not. He got into his sleigh and drove back home. And he did not go out again for months; he almost died from pneumonia.

“But that night in the meeting, the blacksmith stood up before my church officers and said: ‘Friends, I have never been moved by a sermon in my life, but when my old friend stood before me this morning, with tears and sobs, having come all through the storm, I thought it was time I considered the matter.’ We received him into the church, and he is a respected church officer today. PREACHING FAILS, SINGING FAILS, BUT INDIVIDUAL CONCERN DOES NOT FAIL.”

ABSENCE OF CONCEPTION OF THE VALUE OF A SOUL. A man will work harder to recover diamonds than gravel. Why? Because they are of so much greater value. How then can I compute the value of a soul?

BY ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN. Man was made in the image of God, and into him was breathed the breath of God. Man is an immortal being.

BY THE DURATION OF ITS EXISTENCE. The human soul exists eternally, and either in bliss or in woe. (See 2Co 4:18 1Co 15:53 Ro 8:11 Jude 1:7 2Pe 3:6,7 Mt 25:46.)

BY THE COST OF ITS REDEMPTION. It required not shining silver or yellow gold to pay the price of man’s redemption, but crimson drops of precious blood from the broken body of the Son of God. This makes even the meanest soul worth saving.

As we look across Africa there is still a ripened harvest that must be reaped – opportunities we have now may not be available tomorrow. I think of the lyrics of an old Broadway song. A bell is not a bell ’til you ring it. A song is not a song ’til you sing it. Love in your heart is not put there to stay. Love is not love…’til you give it away. The Gospel is not the Gospel until it’s given away! His heartbeat has become our heartbeat, as we begin 2010 may we understand the value of a soul. May what is important consume us. With a renewed passion we launch out into the deep for another mighty catch. From 20^th to 28^th February we are returning to the Republic of Congo to a remote village Lout?t?. In January we will minister in and around Nairobi, as well as spend time in prayer and preparation for 2010. We are aiming and praying about returning to Southern Sudan in May June July and August.

Family news. On Christmas Eve at about 9pm our car finally arrived. Timothy and Joshua were both home for Christmas. We spent our time together in Nairobi. One highlight was a family picnic in Naivasha in the Rift Valley.

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