For the farmer harvest time is the most important time there
is because it is then and only then that he can be sure of how much grain his
crop will yield and therefore how much income he will have to carry on for the
next 12
months.
The bible frequently talks about this separating of the grain
from the husks and in most cases is referring to God’s followers as the grain
and makes it clear that they are the ones who inherit the Kingdom of God,
whilst those who ignore God are the husks and will be rejected. A typical example of how it works in practice
is what happened to me in Honolulu.
I was standing on the edge of a roadway inside the campus of
the University of Hawaii handing out copies of The New Testament to students as
they came past in their cars or on foot. One car pulled up and the young lady
asked what I was giving away so I told her and offered her a copy. She was a
strikingly beautiful looking girl; blond, beautifully groomed and dressed, and
to finish the picture she was driving a brand new biscuit coloured open Dodge
convertible with white leather seats. You couldn’t have added anything to
improve the picture, unless of course you placed a young Elvis Presley in the
passenger seat. However when I handed her a Testament she gave me a
condescending smile and said: “It’s Okay” and drove off without taking it.
My guess is that this young lady was probably quite a nice
person, brought up in a wealthy family by parents that doted on her and she had
everything in life that she needed, therefore she probably felt that religion,
and Christianity in particular, had no relevance as far as her life was
concerned and might just spoil the life she was enjoying. Jesus summed it up by
saying in Matthew 19:24 “It is easier for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man (person) to enter the Kingdom of God”. Mind you
it is not only rich people who refuse the gospel but they don’t feel the need for
it as much as the poor people do because the rich tend to reverence money and
put their faith in it.
The next day I was involved again with the bible distribution
in a different part of the University grounds, standing beside a footpath that
had a hedge of lovely Azaleas, when along came an African American; a
powerfully built young man taller than me and having very black skin. He was
wearing Jeans, a denim jacket and a denim cap. He stopped and looked at me and
said with a very deep American drawl,
“Are you giving away bibles?” “Yes”
I replied, “I’m giving away New Testaments supplied by the Gideon organisation”.
He then took my left wrist in his left hand and turned my hand so the palm was
facing upwards and brought his right hand down and clapped my hand with a
resounding “whack”, as he did so, he said, at the top of his voice, “Well
praise the Lord” and then
asked if he could have one copy for himself and two more for two friends he
knew. What a different reaction to that of the young lady! This chap was
walking and probably came from a family that didn’t have a lot of money, but he
knew the Lord Jesus and wasn’t content to leave it at that either but, thinking
of others, he took the opportunity to obtain copies of the written word of God
to give to his friends. Jesus told us to spread the Good News and he was doing just
that. Romans 10: 15 Says “How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad
tidings of good things!”
The interesting thing is that the grains and husks
illustrated in these photos had no control over their destiny, however each of
us can choose to be husk or grain (Just
like those two young people I met at the university) because “God so loved the world (us) that He gave His only begotten son (Jesus) that whosoever
believeth on Him shall not perish but inherit Eternal Life” (John Chapter 3
Verse 16). What a colossal privilege you and I have in being offered the
opportunity to decide our own Eternal Future! Best
wishes, Tom.
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