thanks to you - Baptist Bible Tribune

dsee the Lord
By Jim Smith
It almost goes without
saying. But maybe that is
the problem. We go without
saying the obvious. If we
have been instructed by our
Lord to lift up our eyes and
look on the field, if we have
been instructed by our Lord
to pray that the Lord of the
harvest would send laborers,
it is clear that He wants us to
look to Him!
In all of your looking and
your praying and your giving
and your going, don’t forget
to look up and see the Lord.
Remember Isaiah? Before
he ever answered the call, he
saw the Lord “high and lifted
up!”
The next time you are
singing in your church about
the holiness of God, or the
presence of God, or the
greatness of God, stop and
see Him. Our worship of Him
is sincerely spiritual when it
is based on eternal, biblical
truth.
When we see the Lord,
we see that it is only by His
grace that we are used and
others are drawn to Him.
When we see the Lord,
we see that it is in His
strength alone that we can
accomplish the fulfilling of His
purpose in our lives.
When we see the Lord,
we see His holiness and we
see our sin. As we make
ourselves accountable to Him
and as we agree with Him regarding
our sin, He cleanses
us from our unrighteousness.
In Closing...
When you look and see the world, do you see it the
way God sees it? God has so much compassion for
it that He gave His only Son to die for the world. Now that
is unbelievable love and compassion! He saw them as
sheep having no shepherd, in the dark, without direction,
lost in their sins.
What about the ripe harvest? People are searching
for truth and are trying everything they can to find that
peace and fill that emptiness. You need to look around
at the harvest and respond as Paul told the Philippians.
They didn’t wait for someone else to do the job or be the
answer — they responded on their own. They gave and
continued to give without hesitation. “But I rejoiced in the
Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath
flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye
lacked opportunity. Now ye Philippians know also, that in
the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia,
no church communicated with me as concerning
giving and receiving, but ye only” (Philippians 4:10, 15). As
we see the harvest, we cannot afford to wait. We need
to respond by going and giving so others may go to the
regions beyond.
Then, have you taken a look at yourself? Have you considered
what it is that is keeping you from participating in
missions? Is there something other than Christ that you
are putting first? The evangelization of the world is not a
spectator activity. It takes everyone doing his or her part,
giving every bit of energy, ability, and commitment. Sure,
you might feel afraid, unsure, unable, even weak. Remember
what Paul told the Philippians in 4:13, “I can do all
things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Finally, look to the Lord. Paul reminded the Philippians
to remember all that God had done for them and how
it is God who will supply and sustain them. “But my God
shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). May we consider His
riches that He uses to supply our needs — all through His
Son Jesus Christ. Isn’t our God good? We can rejoice
over what God has done through the churches and missionaries
of the BBFI and join right in with Him.
Jeanne Hendricks wrote in her book Afternoon:
Living is not a spectator sport. No one, at any price, is
privileged to sit in the stands and watch from a distance.
Being born means being a participant in the arena of
life, where opposition is fierce and winning comes only to
those who exert every ounce of energy.
So it is with world evangelization. The choice is yours.
My hope is that you, like the Philippians with Paul, will
choose to get involved in missions and do all you can to
spread the gospel around the world.
Jon Konnerup
BBFI Mission Director
Global Partners
Baptist Bible Tribune [ January 2009 ] 25