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Thanksgiving!

November 20, 2004
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by Ralph Hood, Major – 

Thanksgiving always gives me warm feelings of family, food and fellowship. What a wonderful time of the year, when we get together to share a meal…and then tell family stories that bore the children and amaze the grandparents with facts they never knew!

While the celebration is focused on the family, the season is really a celebration of the “harvest.” The fallow ground that had been dormant during the previous winter has been cultivated, planted and irrigated by the farmer’s toil, and God has provided everything else needed to bring it to the “bountiful harvest.” What a blessed time of the year!

I was reading from Men of Integrity, published by Promise Keepers, in my devotions recently; it had a whole week with the theme of “Closing the Call.” In the introduction to this section, Paul Borthwick, who teaches Missions at Gordon College, relates a story about sharing with a young adult Sunday school class. He asked, “What is the Great Commission?” A talented young computer geek responded, “Ten percent would be good, 20 percent better and 30 percent a great commission.”

At first I laughed, and then I was upset, to think someone would take such a worldly view of something so important in the Christian church. Finally, God the Holy Spirit got hold of my heart and mind to remind me that it is my generation that has handed the “Millennial Generation” (those born in the ’80s) the present emphasis on material things. As the week progressed there were other ways in which the devotionals challenged my heart about the example we set for this new generation of “harvest workers.”

I reviewed again Matthew 9:35-38 in the New Living translation. In verses 37 and 38 “He said to his disciples, the harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send out more workers for his fields.” For the first time the word “so” stood out almost in bold print to me:

SO GREAT
SO FEW
SO PRAY

That day was certainly not much different than today. All around me are “souls for whom Christ died”—how are we going to reach them for the great harvest? How am I going to live and convey to this generation that “The Great Commission” is not 30 percent but 100 percent of life commitment?

Matthew 28:18-20 says: “Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” What a great challenge and what a great promise. The one who is “in charge of the harvest” is with us to all generations to accomplish the preaching and teaching of the Gospel. The harvest is his and we are his workers. Let us first be sure we are in the field doing our portion of the work as an example to all those around us.

Second, let us PRAY for more workers. Out of this generation we need new, dynamic individuals—some who will move into the fields of the inner cities of America and some who will move into the fields all over the world. Let us pray for lieutenants to enter into short-term mission projects! Let us pray for cadets who will enter the School for Officer Training to become “blood and fire officers” of this day and age! Let us pray for auxiliary captains who will commit in midlife to a new direction and calling from the Lord of the harvest! Let us pray for local officers who will move into their communities for the Lord!

In the “Weekend Wrap-up” of the devotions, the author says “God often answers our prayers by using us. Are you prepared for God to use you?” I had to pray, “Take my life and let it be ever, only, all for thee.”

Will you join me? God bless and use us all as workers in the harvest field! Then we can be truly thankful.

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