The Greatest Opportunity in History
“My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.” John 10:27
“Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” Matthew 9:38
“I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.” Ezekiel 34:11
Summarizing the things heavy on God’s heart, the passages above speak to the times we live in today. There is unprecedented opportunity. There is unparalleled risk. More people live today than in all of history. Perhaps half of all humans ever are alive today. There are billions of sheep and they are harassed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd; and they are hungry.
The risk is that we stay within our fortress walls and also starve from the siege our enemy brings against us. In all the great stories of God in history, the believers were required to take great risk, to go out and expose themselves to ridicule, to opposition and to danger. We must expect supernatural favor agains our enemy. Jesus faced in Mark 3 actually two risks simultaneously: the crowds were pressing so hard he feared being crushed by the hungry sheep; the hardened leaders were also plotting to kill him because he was not doing good according to the rules.
God wants us to accept that we must take risk. The amazing occurrence in today’s world is that just when we have approximately seven billion people alive and in need of knowing Jesus, we also have a free worldwide internet to use. This is not just an email network, but all modern media can be adapted to the worldwide web. Video and movies, audio and music, text and published books all are available.
If you have any capacity to develop a message in print: start a blog. If you do not know how, contact me or someone else you know. If you write music, get it out there. You can blog music, too! If you are an energizer, a networker or a helper, influence people onto and within the internet. Help them to feed his sheep. Forward messages to your friends. “It is time to wake up my little children” is the message I hear over and over this week in my mind. Develop a network.
For years I have helped people on the internet: one email at a time. I should go back into my email archives and find some of the best writing I ever did. However, it went to only one person at a time and that was the end.
Today, I can write something helpful and post it on this blog and not only can one person read it but many, perhaps a 100 times as many in one day; but then more read it, and then the next day more. Theoretically, until Jesus returns these blogposts can be found in archive by the millions of hungry sheep in the future plus all said in the future, too. I believe God created the internet to reach the billions of sheep worldwide. Lets go and use it. Lets created worldwide networks to do good. Lets take full advantage of God’s gift to send out God’s voice to His sheep!
This small blog represents speaking to the massive crowds Jesus saw that nearly crushed him they were so hungry.
Bob, God is revealing through you how important it is for His children to take a stand for Him at this time in history. God will continue to use you as long as you are faithful and obediant to Him and keep Him first in your life. Your brother in Christ.
Great insights. Always keep your eyes and ears open to hear the voice of God.
thanks,
urbanminister
http://twitter.com/urbanminister
Hi Bob, Great message. You know I agree with you. Blogging might well be the most important means to reach the lost and lonely. Most of God’s children don’t understand. We have to continue to model what God wants us to do regarding sharing our stories, products, and services with the world. You’re doing a great job with your consistent messages inspired by the Holy Spirit. Blessings, Randy
Greetings Bob,
Had a pastor that once said: “Can’t live great life without great risks.”
I could easily find comfort in my own “little tent” all zipped up & safe from the hurts and pains of real world. Then again, why should I waddle around in a puddle when God gives me an ocean of opportunity to swim in?
That is what the internet,twitter,facebook & blogging have done. We hav an ocean in front of us that we can use effectively to reach more people with the good news of the gospel. God is into management and I’m into sales-Lets showcase our product line & increase our numbers.
Thanks for great post.
Melinda
Wow. What an eloquent and beautiful comment, Melinda. “Then again, why should I waddle around in a puddle when God gives me an ocean of opportunity to swim in?”-That concludes the whole message. I love how you said that. God told me if I would wake up at 8:00 this morning, before a 9:00 breakfast meeting He would lead me in writing a blog. So, I got up tired from a late night, drank tea and He said, “Start writing.” I said what? Then he just seemed to prime the pump with a few ideas and words. The point is this, I had it posted by 9:00 and got more comments on Twitter than I ever have about this being a consensus idea-so many of us are hearing and feeling this from God. I am so glad we are finding one another. We are a refuge community with many “houses”!! It is just invisble and electronic!! And God is speaking-so comforting. Bob
I agree with your point entirely, Bob. I read a few days ago that it is He who find us, though we often say we ‘found’ Jesus. Pastor Joseph Prince once said, He was not lost so we did not find Him. It was He who found us. I do believe the trials that some of us experience are to prepare us to serve him better when our lives and our thinking move in a direction that can be of no use to Him.
Although I can never repay the favor to a dear soul who has been steady in encouraging me to express my thoughts in writing, this message was hammered into me today while reading Brennan Manning’s “Ruthless Trust”. The message he conveys was so powerful and impacted my own thinking and self-perception so radically that I could not help but realize what will appear to be an obvious fact to many — how life transforming a written message can be. Yes, I have read many books and learned very ‘valuable information’. Some have even influenced my ‘thinking’ in important and enduring ways. However, other than reading the bible and the Word of God, I never imagined this would be a remote possibility from a mere book.
As you can imagine, I now believe, if there is a clear message crafted with care, it can in fact be the God-send for someone out there. As Manning was for me, perhaps, God can use me to relay a message to someone else who may need to hear it.
I will work on the skills and competencies required to blog with efficiency and meaning. I will continue to read and study the Word and the world so that I can be of use to Him if he so chooses to use me in this manner.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart, Bob. You have the light of God upon you and you reflect it well so that we are all warmed by it and bathe in it at our leisure. You use it to light our path so that we may walk carefree and not stumble as we seek Him.
I can only offer peace and blessings. You will remain in my prayers, my brother in Christ!
Thank you Kirsten,
I feel that the real competency for blogging is not mainly writing skill. I think it is being willing and able to speak from your heart. I think also God has to take the ballast out of our hearts. I am answering all three comments with this. Psalm 34 says the angels (angel can be translated angels also) stand guard over our hearts and deliver us from everything. The description of your life recently, even the change in colors and perception, is what I see as “angel” activity also. I was so excited you shared that. We are in the midst of a massive awakening now, but it is happening in private and at such depth. No awakening in history reported to me has ever been quite this way. If I can help you speak your life story and your God stories in any way, contact me at bahamabob@mac.com. I will help if I can. I am learning at the speed of light.
You also cannot know how supernaturally God reached out to you. I wrote the blog originally about Matthew 6 and my dictation software fritzed and erased the finished blog before bedtime. I am posting it tomorrow. As I walked last night, God spoke to me and said, “Tell part of that… story instead.” So, I rewrote the blog and posted it at 1:00 AM. God did that for many people, but he definitely did it for you. The passages relate, but he wanted Isaiah 58 for you (and for all of us.) If you give water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, food to the hungry etc. you do it as for Jesus himself. This is the heart of the heart. I have tears welling up in me as I write this. I was hoping if just one person caught this for life, it will change so many other lives we cannot count them. Well, at least one did!
Also, I am new at this too. It was only in February and March that God spoke to me and said I must do this. I did not even read blogs. Now I are one:-) Thank you for the thoughtful comments, the prayers and the blessings! ~Bob
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