Sunday, October 02, 2005

Christ: A Seeker of Souls

Christ: A Seeker of Souls

When you run your errands in and around Mower County, do you “people watch?” And do you pigeonhole people? Do you do it without fully comprehending what you’re actually doing? You know: “Oh, there goes a Welfare Mother…Elderly Woman… Professional Businessman…Weird Teenager…Minority… Wealthy Retiree…Likely Criminal…Busy Stay-at-Home-Mom….” Do you ever just see an ocean of lost souls?

If we’re honest, we all have the tendency to classify people. Oh, but if we could have the same compassion and vision for the lost as Christ!! He had a mission to seek and to save the lost. And once someone was saved, Christ prepared that person to go and bring yet more lost souls to Him. Christ commenced His ministry by seeking followers. His words in Matthew 4:19 say, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” During His ministry, His followers were sent out to the lost sheep of Israel (Luke 10:6). Later on, the same followers were sent into the highways and hedges to compel anyone they could find to come to Christ (Matthew 22:9). See a pattern here? Christ was seeking souls.

Besides breaking most of the customs of the day, Christ shattered racial and social boundaries to bring the Message of Salvation. Of His most-cherished workers were those of “ill-repute.” (e.g. The Samaritan Woman, and a “crazy” Gadarene.) Christ was always on the lookout for souls -- whether up a tree (Zacheus), under a tree (Nathaniel), the local Tax Office (Matthew), the community well (The Samaritan Woman), or a cemetery (the “crazy” Gaderene). Christ was always looking for and winning souls! No pigeonholing of people-types here!

Christ’s soul-seeking mission affected even His perspective on the everyday, ordinary things of this earth. When He saw a grain field “white already to harvest” (John 4:35), He instead saw the harvest field of souls. When He heard about a lost sheep, a lost soul came to his thoughts. When a women’s dowry coin was missing and later located, it became an illustration of lost soul found. And when a prodigal son came back to his father, it became a beautiful account of His Father’s heart receiving a lost and sinful soul.

Christ’s final words a He ascended up into Heaven were, “Go and make disciples. . . . ” Let’s start right here in the Whitened Harvest Fields of Mower County. Let’s stop pigeonholing those people that we encounter throughout our days. Instead, let’s start seeing them as Christ did: as a lost soul.

Anticipating a Harvest in Christ,
Your Fellow Worker,
-- Pastor Mark

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