“Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.”
~ John 4:35
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever wished that your dad was a farmer? Your grandpaa grew up on a farm. Your grandmaa’s ma grew up on a farm. Your grandpaa’s dad’s farm was a quarter section – or 160 acres of land, that was located in eastern South Dakota. Your grandmaa’s grandpa’s farm was some land that was located in northeastern Maryland. Your grandpaa’s dad every year planted mostly oats and corn. Your grandpaa’s dad had a field where alfalfa grew each year – which your grandpaa’s dad would bale and use to feed his livestock in the winter, and he grew his own potatoes each year. Your grandpaa remembers his dad having at different times a field of wheat, flax and sorghum. Your grandpaa’s dad and ma had apple trees in the backyard of the farm where your grandpaa grew up as a kid. Your grandpaa’s dad and ma every fall would squeeze apple juice from the apples from those apple trees. Your grandmaa’s grandpa on her ma’s side of her family grew sweet potatoes. A Concord grape vine grew over an arbor that was near the house where your grandmaa’s grandpa and grandma lived. A farm can be an idyllic place to grow up on as kid. Farming can be a challenging occupation for making a living for a guy. A farmer has to know when to plant and harvest his crops. A farmer before planting a field has to know how to prepare the ground for the kind of seed that he is planting in the field. Your grandpaa’s dad taught your grandpaa how to drive a tractor when your grandpaa was still a young kid. Your grandpaa when he was a kid spent a lot of time for years in April and May – at times on really cool days, on a Farmall tractor pulling a disc back and forth over the fields where your grandpaa’s dad wanted to plant oats or corn. Right before your grandpaa’s dad used a drill to plant oats or a corn planter to plant corn, your grandpaa would go back and forth over the field on the Farmall tractor pulling a drag. Right after your grandpaa’s dad had finished planting a field with oats or corn, your grandpaa would again use the Farmall tractor to pull a drag back and forth over the field. As soon as seeds begin to sprout and as they begin to stick their stalks out of the ground, a farmer is concerned about a hard frost. A hard frost will freeze plants that have just started to grow. If there is not enough rainfall during the entire growing season, the plants will become stunted or they will wither up and die. If there is too much rainfall at any point during the growing season, a farmer will have trouble getting into his fields to cultivate his crops – such as corn and soybeans, and weeds will take over the crops. A farmer is happy when he sees a rainstorm heading his way but at the same time, the farmer knows that a thunderstorm may have with it hail that can strip his crops into shreds or a really strong wind that can push down his crops to the ground. At any time – from when the new seedlings begin to push up through the ground to when a farmer knows that it is time to harvest his ripened crop, a farmer can lose his crop. A farmer will have wasted a lot of time, energy and angst if he decides not to harvest his obviously ripened crops.
Why do you think that a guy or gal would want to be a harvester of souls? Souls are guys, gals and kids who God has placed as fields in your lives. It is up to the harvester of souls – which are all Christ-follower guys and gals, to farm each field – which are the lives of guys, gals and kids who are not Christ-followers. Each Christ-follower guy and gal is to prepare each field – which is the life of each guy, gal or kid who God has led into his or her life who is not a Christ-follower, for the seed – which is God’s Word, to be planted, then to cultivate each field – which is the life of each guy, gal or kid who is not a Christ-follower, and then to harvest the ripened soul – which is the moment when a guy, gal or kid is led to make a decision of faith believing that Jesus’s death on a cross was a ransom payment for his or her sins. Even after a guy, gal or kid passes through the faith/grace door into the body of Christ-followers, a Christ-follower guy or gal needs to assist maturing the seed – the new Christ-follower guy, gal or kid, to where he or she will have eternal value to and for every other Christ-follower and non-Christ-follower guy, gal and kid who is living on planet Earth. John in his John Book – in John 4, recounts the dialogue that Jesus had with a Samaritan gal. Jesus and His disciples at this time were on their way from Israel’s region of Judea to Israel’s region of Galilee by way of Israel’s region of Samaria – which was the most direct route but not the route that a ‘good’ Jew would take to get from the city of Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee but . . . Jesus wanted to go through Israel’s region of Samaria – which was inhabited by disenfranchised Jews – Jews being guys and gals who had Israelite people group heritage, and by displaced guys and gals from the country of Assyria, where Jesus met and then confronted a Samaritan gal at the well near Sychar, Samaria. When Jesus and His disciples arrived at the well that was located at Sychar, Jesus stayed at the well while His disciples went to a town to find something to eat. This is when the Samaritan gal showed up at the well where she met Jesus and . . . when Jesus’ disciples returned, they wanted Jesus to eat something but . . . in verse 35, Jesus tells His disciples that they have ‘work’ to do, “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” The life of each guy, gal and kid who you meet is a field to be farmed.
From preparing fields for planting seeds to harvesting and storing ripened crops, a farmer has to be committed to the task. A farmer of souls is always in God’s perfectly preordained seasons of planting, cultivating, harvesting and caring for and utilizing the harvested crop. Your grandma and grandpaa are God’s farmers here on planet Earth.
John 4 (611)