Are You the One?

Faith stories and salvation harvests, don't look like what we expect or often want. We want the Good News to be a simple report broken down in ways concrete evidenced by the "numbers": Gospel proclaimed so many times, "x" number of people saved, "y" number of Bibles given - a natural sentiment.

Even a great man of faith, John the Baptist, looked for it - reassurance from Jesus "are You the One"?

He (john the Baptist) sent two of them to the Master to ask the question, "Are you the One we've been expecting, or are we still waiting" Luke 7:19

It is not easy to be a "sower", not seeing the growth or the harvest from a labor of love and inconvenience. But some of the seeds planted will produce (as His word promises) a great harvest. Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary to China, was confronted by the questions "What took you so long to come and share the gospel in China?" A convicting statement indeed. Today's workers in the harvest fields of communist countries make a commitment to be available to share the Good News in places closed to traditional methods of evangelism. As Mordecai reminded his niece Esther, "maybe you are here for such a time as this". We should keep up the sowing, planting where we find good soil, and breaking up the fallow ground for the next of the faithful who find themselves in a position to throw the seeds.

Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us, that THEIR faith and OUR faith would come together to make one complete whole, THEIR lives of faith not complete apart from OURS. Hebrews 11:39

That includes the Hudson Taylors, the Billy Grahams, and the Jim Elliotts that precede our work. ALL are together complete as one body. Our current President is pushing our Far Eastern neighbors to exhibit more religious freedom. With many people already in place may our prayers open more doors for faith sharing.