A Tender Heart in the Harvest

Once a year I stumble on a verse in Proverbs that always catches me, at least for that day, and always on the same day, since I read a one year Bible.

Proverbs 24:11 Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. 12 If you say, "Behold, we did not know this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not requite man according to his work?

I can't rest knowing that people are going to hell. And I really don't understand Christians who can "rest." I know that there is a genius to us not being able to fully absorb the danger of this life. If we could, we'd be totally hysterical and die of heart failure. So God is protecting us. We are led to laugh and enjoy what God provides. No problem there. But to ignore the dire need is, in my mind and heart, a disowning of the Faith. To not dirty our hands with the lost is to thank Christ for His gift and spit in His face.

Another verse that intensifies my hang up is in 2 Chronicles 34:27

Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you," declares the LORD.

Josiah wept when he finally got a copy of the Bible and read what was going to happen. It was this heart for his people before the coming storm and his desire to honor God that made him the best king Israel ever had. I wonder if we really care that there is a hell and people will end up there.

Laura and I were just studying 2 Cor. 5:14-21. How do you truly understand those words if you are not in the harvest.

Yesterday doing the survey I was praying to meet some people the Lord might have His hand on. The first guy "Joe" was what I was looking for. Not a believer and had never thought of the questions he might ask God, and when asked if he would have gone to church last Sunday, he said, "yes" in a sort of innocent way. He actually shook my hand for having bothered him with the whole thing. I think we'll invite “Joe.”

Then there was the Methodist in his man-cave, but obviously lost. A nice guy with no clue and running out of time.

Finally, buying stamps this woman comes in cussing up a storm as she swept into and out of the lobby of the post office. She apparently had been done wrong. I felt sorry for her, enjoying a little bit of hell here on earth. I remember what that was like, and in spite of all the other things that can go wrong, nothing rivals that sense of being lost on earth with no hope or solution.

Back at the ranch, I had a good talk with a neighbor and we sort of rekindled contact with the couple on the corner (all lost). All seed sowing, and I'm praying for a harvest.