ARTICLE – 28 August 2016
It is possible to be a Christian and yet spiritually asleep or to be a Christian and yet wasting time in life. You can act unwisely, uninterested in knowing God’s will and living a defeated Christian life. You may be growing, prospering, popular in society and satisfied. But contemporary satisfaction can easily breed spiritual indifference which dulls the sense of urgency in matters Christian. You must recover a Bible-based sense of urgency since opportunities have a limited shelf life and every day you need to declare the gospel is a gift. Pray with the Psalmist: “Teach us to number our days” (Psalm 90:12). Life is short. James calls it “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes“ (James. 4:14).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Nothing could be more ruthless than to make men think there is still plenty of time to mend their ways. Robert Moffett reminds us, “We have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only one short hour before the sunset in which to win them.” The season of harvest is brief. Harvest by its very nature is not open-ended. One of the saddest verses in the Bible is Jeremiah 8:20, “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.” Eternity is long and people who do not know Jesus will face a God- less eternity in the eternal judgment of God. One third of the people in the world today claim to be Christians. Still two thirds do not name the name of Jesus. Over 4 billion people have little or no access to the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ, along with thousands of Unreached People Groups.
God’s work of missions is urgent. In King David’s day “the king’s mission was urgent” (1 Samuel 21:8). It is different from the business of an ordinary subject or citizen. It is pressing. It calls for immediate attention. It demands high priority. In a word, it is urgent! Christians are people of the King. Hence urgency must characterize their planning. There must be real urgency in planning for missions work as time is short! Jesus tells us: “Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35).
We must make bold urgent plans. The un-evangelized areas must compel us to tear away the obstacles or barriers and open up the way for us to enter with His message of salvation before Jesus returns. Nothing must deter us in our planning for the Lord’s work in missions. Difficult problems or unrealised prospects may challenge us but it must never discourage, dismay or delay us. “Never lose your sense of urgency” is God’s message to all Christians, including us, today. God reminds us that sometimes we engage in pious procrastination when we should be doing something for the Lord – NOW! “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to move on” (Exodus 14:15).
