Recently I have found myself repeating comments about how lush and green everything is right now. The grass is green, the trees are leafed out, the flowers are blooming and the crops are growing. The "farmer in me" really enjoys having a field back of our church. The corn that was planted a few weeks ago is up and flourishing. You can almost "see it grow", and the progress only accelerates as the days grow warmer until you can literally "hear it grow" during the hot and humid mid-Summer nights.

In order to survive and thrive, a farmer must be a visionary. He sees what "city-slickers" do not. In fact, he envisions the harvest before he puts the seed into the ground. So while he is preparing the soil, planting the seed and controlling the encroaching weeds, he has the harvest in mind. And during those periods of rain, wind, heat or drought, he is potentially anticipating the day when the stalks are tall and golden and laden with healthy ears of corn that will yield a bountiful harvest.

One day Jesus and His disciples were in the field outside of the city of Samaria, and He said to them,

"Do you not say, ‘there are still 4 months and then comes the harvest‘? Behold I say to you lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are already white for harvest." What was Jesus talking about? Once again, He was using natural things to teach spiritual truths. Anyone seeing those green, young crops would agree that the harvest was several months away. But that was not the case with the spiritual harvest. Jesus taught them to lift their eyes above the natural and focus on the supernatural. Look beyond the temporal to the eternal. People have eternal souls. They desperately need the gospel message and some are ready to receive Christ now.

In this 21st Century, where most are enamored with worldly glitz, glamour, and greed, we need to intentionally shift our focus to what really matters, the eternal souls of our friends and loved ones.

People may appear to be happy to go their own way, but there is more than meets the eye. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Christ wants us to see people as He sees them, as sheep without a shepherd who are weary, lonely, lost and afraid.

Fellow Christian, like the 12 disciples, we need to radically adjust our focus. People all around us are living and dying without Christ which means they will spend an eternity in a burning hell with no hope or possibility of escape. Stop and contemplate what everlasting torment in a lake of fire would be like. It is an unbearable thought, and unthinkable horror, and yet it is true according to God’s inspired, infallible Word.

Now with that in mind, don’t you think it is time we quit "playing church" and lifted up our eyes above the petty pursuit of temporal pleasures and personal gain? Jesus calls us to turn our attention upon the spiritual harvest that is ripe and ready. Look all around you, asking God to help you see precious souls as He sees them. Then lovingly share your testimony with them, and assure them that the Lord can forgive their sins and change their life and destiny, just like He changed yours. May God help us to keep planting the seed and watering it with our prayers and tears. Then like "the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth" (James 5:7), keep your spiritual eyes focused on the precious harvest of souls that is sure to come. Ps 126:5-6.