Last weekend, a count from all our weekend services recorded a total of 305 salvation/re-dedications. It was an amazing harvest weekend and we rejoice for every person who responded and said YES to Jesus.
Over the past few weeks, during our staff meetings, it’s not uncommon to hear of the wonderful exploits of the staff as they reach out daily to people around them, in GRAB cabs, restaurants, while walking along the streets, etc. And the common refrain is – “people are just so open to the Gospel!”
To illustrate this, I was in a cab a week ago and I asked the driver, a man in his late 50’s, how life was and how was his business? In the next 10 minutes, he shared with me his entire life story; how he was facing issues with his daughter at home and he sounded pretty desperate. I thought, wow, people are really in need of a listening ear. The truth of the matter is, there are so many needy people all around us, and all it takes is for us to stop for the ONE. It’s harvest time, my friends, and all hands are required on deck.
Just going by the numbers alone, what our Lord said concerning the harvest is so true – the harvest is white and it’s plentiful. But are the labourers still few comparatively?
The Lord is a good farmer and He knows a thing or two about farming. The one mistake a good farmer never makes is, come harvest time, he’ll never have a lack of labourers for the harvest field. Everything that the farmer does right through from the plowing, to the sowing, to the watering, through all the labour and the hard work, is so that come harvest time; he’d reap a bountiful harvest. And to do that, he needs labourers. Lots of them!
And so the call goes out to any who’d hear the Master’s call to be enlisted into this great harvest force that’s being raised and as I speak, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even the millions, are now being prepared with sickles in their hands. It certainly is the most exciting time to be alive because the Harvest, according to our Lord Jesus, is at the end of the age, a time period in which I truly believe we’re in. Multitudes in the valley of decision, readied for such a time like this.
One of the things that we in Cornerstone have always endeavored to be – is being on the cutting-edge. But what does the term “cutting-edge” mean? I think a word picture will help us understand this better. Have you ever seen a picture where a harvester or a worker is working in a field? Picture a field that’s white for harvest and picture a line of harvesters. Now focus on just one workman. Now focus on the tool that he’s using – it’s a hand-held sickle with a finely honed, sharp edge. That sharp edge that you see: that’s the cutting-edge. It’s the part at the forefront of his effort. It’s in the leading position as he swings his arm towards the stalk of grain. It’s the part that’s responsible for the harvest. That’s the cutting-edge and that’s the kind of church we want to be.
It’s more than just being contemporary or relevant. We must be up-to-date; we must be relevant and all that is good. But being on the cutting-edge is really about being on the forefront. It’s being in the vanguard, the foremost division of an army, in the leading position as the Lord wields His sickle. A cutting-edge church will work diligently, creatively and effectively to complete its responsibility in God’s harvest and that must be the core business of the Church. We must be involved in the harvest. The Great Commission is not the Great Omission or the Great Option. When we obey it, we’ll see the fruit of our labour and be satisfied. But if we choose to disobey and refuse to participate, we’ll lose our cutting-edge and we’ll have to bear the consequences of our disobedience.
So, we must ramp up the machinery, put our hands to the plow and never look back. As the German Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke once said, “The Church of Jesus Christ is not a pleasure boat; it’s a lifeboat. Entertainers and performers are neither needed nor wanted. From captain to cook, all hands are needed on deck for soul-saving. The Church that doesn’t save the lost is lost itself.”
