Still thinking about apples.
Don helped me the other day to trim the trees and bring in
most of the rest of the apples. I’ve given away bags of them. I’ve made another
apple cake, apple juice, and apple butter, but yet more bags of apples sit on
the kitchen floor.
The clock is ticking. If I don’t find ways to deal with them
in a few weeks, they will spoil.
Years ago, Billy Graham came to Aberdeen for a three-night
outreach. I was there, (freezing even in June in Aberdeen’s outdoor stadium,
Pittodrie). Each night, people poured onto the field after his message, giving
their lives to Jesus. The fields were ripe and the evangelist harvested them
into taking a public step of commitment to Jesus.
But then what? Billy Graham flew away. Many local churches
just sailed on in their customary, traditional way, welcoming new visitors but
perhaps not going much further than that. There were some believers who invited
the new Christians in to their homes, in to small groups, to disciple them. But
I suspect there were not enough of us tending the harvest of new believers,
discipling them. Turning them into apple pies, apple butter, apple juice, apple
muffins … according to their gifts.
This is an imperfect metaphor I know. Messy with the apples
so much on my mind, and messy with young believers who come into faith without
knowing much about Jesus.
But as darkness and lies pervade the airwaves and the
internet these days, I believe the fields are increasingly ripe unto harvest.
Alpha courses are better attended. Teens are serious in their search for truth
and life. People are open to the gospel, hungry for God.
May we all be alert to those who are taking tentative steps into
the Kingdom, aware that as we come alongside them, the Holy Spirit will guide
our witness and our conversations, bringing rich rewards for the world to feed
on. May no one be left languishing
untended and undiscipled.
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