Sowing and Reaping in Troubled Times

Sowing and Reaping in Troubled Times

by Rocky Fleming

We are in our third week of the disruption of this nation’s way of life due to the Coronavirus threat.  Everyone has been affected in some way.  Loss of jobs and income, sickness, death, and isolation from social gatherings have occurred and are increasing.  The best way to say it is our equilibrium as a nation has been shaken.  But it has also shaken the Church in this nation.  Is this bad or good?  This is the question I want to address.

The Church, which is all authentic believers regardless of denomination or church affiliation, is One Body.   We have for some reason created separate identities though denominations or factions due to distinctions that include a point of view of certain interpretations of scripture.  Our FATHER doesn’t see us that way and I think He is driving home a point that we need to see each other as family and Him as Father.  He sees us as His children, and we are one family… His family.  We are called by Him in scripture as members of His Royal Priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), and it is in such a time as we are in that we need to start seeing ourselves as Papa sees us.  If we do, then we will see the great opportunity that has been given to us that He wants us to act on.

The bad news of this is that our separation and pride in thinking that "we are the right ones” is being removed.  But it should have never been that way in the first place, and it is good news that these distinctions are being removed for a greater purpose.

The bad news is our comfortable paradigm of doing church as it has been done a few hundred years is being challenged to move out and take the land.  The good news is the Church is being dispatched to fulfill Her purpose, which is to make disciples.

The bad news is we can no longer solely depend on our church buildings to invite and wait for people to come to us and receive the Gospel.  If that is the only way one sees church, then this will be bad news for that point of view.  But the Church, and maybe your church, is being dispatched to a greater audience, and to those who are ignorant of the Gospel, and that is good news.  We are being dispatched to them.

Those without Christ are being shaken and their idols are falling down around them.  Jobs, sports, work, relationships, and so many other things they put their trust in are being removed.  For them that is bad news.  But the good news is how it makes them open for God’s intervention in their life.

The bombardment of messaging we’ve heard from the atheists who are trying to reshape this country, and the media who has been constantly driving an agenda to remove God from our thinking is dead in the water.  They have been shut up.  They’ve been bound and gagged, for they have no answers using their own propaganda.  The stuff they’ve promoted about God being dead, or that He is not real in the first place is starting to haunt them, because if He were not real, there would be no hope otherwise.  What would they put their hope in, another idol?

The media and atheist who are anti-God still need Jesus as we all do.  They are starting to see it, and this is good news.  Pray that this new awareness will send them to Jesus and not a false religion.  If not, they will not find the truth they are needing.

Now let’s talk about our role as the Church.  I believe the Lord is asking His family to submit to Him to be used to reach a world that is desperate for Him.  For the first time in many of these lives they now realize their need for Jesus.  This is the great harvest Jesus spoke of.  This is the time that a great number of laborers need to be prayed for and raised up.  This is the time that we must sow the Gospel.  The ground has been broken up for us and is ready for the seeds.  Father has done this.  Like a farmer who sows seeds in the spring and reaps at harvest time this will happen for the Church if we will work together now.  What we do now with sowing will reap a great harvest later.  We must respond to this fresh tilled ground Father has given to us.  As the Church, it is our sacred responsibility to follow Christ into these opportunities and sow broadly.

For those of you who are not familiar with the term sacred responsibility, it is a term we use in our Journey Process.  Do you want to worship Him?  Do you want to join Him in His purposes if He invites you to do so?  Think it over and apply it to your life with the sacred responsibility that Jesus has given to you.  You are a member of His royal family and He has a purpose for you to fulfill in a time that you are greatly needed.  This is the definition:

Sacred: “Worthy of or regarded with religious veneration, worship, and respect,”

Responsibility: “The state, fact, or position of being accountable to somebody or for something.”

Sacred Responsibility: “With respect for my King and His purpose for my life, I accept my position, state of life, and circumstances as an opportunity to fulfill His sovereign plans, and in doing so I am provided an opportunity to worship Him.”