The Harvest is Plentiful

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest
to send out laborers into his harvest.
Luke 10:2

What did our Lord Jesus mean when he used this allegory of the harvest being plentiful, and the laborers few? Our Lord spoke to an audience that mainly consisted of farmers who knew all about harvesting, and it would have resounded deeply in them:

Here’s a farmer’s typical day: He wakes up at 4 or 4.30am, milks his buffalos and then sets off to the field. He stays in the field for the whole day, only coming back for lunch and dinner. He then sleeps at 8 or 9pm, and he wakes up again at 11pm to turn on the water for the field. During harvest time, this cycle changes drastically.

Recently, I spent a day in an Indian village in Bulandsharhr to understand more about our customers’ needs, and to gather more customer stories for our company. One person that we interviewed was a farmer, who explained that it is now time for rice harvest. They harvest the rice from 10pm to 5am, and I can only assume that their sleep cycle is totally reversed, or they sleep less.

So firstly, there is sacrifice involved in harvesting – because the farmers understand it as their topmost priority. They need to harvest when the crop is at its best. Similarly, Jesus is saying that the crop is ripe, right now. There is a crop for each generation and ours is ripe for the harvest. And I can bear witness that the harvest is plentiful just by looking at two countries I have been travelling to – there are 1.1 billion people in India and 1.3 billion in China. However, only 2% are Christians in India and 6% in China. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.

While at the village in the evening, I wanted to take some photographs and the villagers were keen to have me take photos of them harvesting the rice. So off I went with my colleague/translator and some 50 men, and I couldn’t help but laugh at what happened next. Half of them rushed for the stalks that have been cut and began beating the grains out of the stalk. It was instinctive; it was communal; and there was joy on their faces.

There is much to learn from the villagers about harvesting. The harvest of souls is meant to be the natural "job-fit" for a Christian, but it’s certainly not the easiest. We have to find time for fellowship and build relationships with the like-minded, so that when it is time for harvest, we can support each other and work together. We will face spiritual battles and discouragement. But there will be both joy and suffering in harvest.

Secondly, focus on the mission. That evening in the village, the villagers wanted to show me how they actually harvest the rice. Once the men had squatted with sickle in hand, they seemed to be driven by an irrepressible urge to keep cutting the rice. I had to tell them to stay still so that I could take photos, but you could tell that every inch of their being wanted to continue cutting the rice. There is a certain single-mindedness about farmers and harvest. It is what they have waited and toiled for months for, and the source of their livelihood. When harvest comes, they assume a posture of harvesting.

Are we as single-minded in responding to God’s call to harvest souls or are we often distracted? Do we condition our bodies and minds in a posture of harvesting by soaking up God’s word daily, keeping His commandments daily and listening to see how we can respond to His call daily? And the personal challenge for me – have I shared often enough that I may communicate the Gospel even more clearly and maintain an unflinching desire for God’s heart? Again I am reminded that we cannot let ourselves be distracted by lesser things. Together as a family of God, we need to get into the “stuff” that makes us a family – prayer, God’s word, outreach, worship, and in increasing and deeper measures – seeking for the places where deep calls to deep.

And thirdly, our Lord adds an important spiritual dimension to harvest in Luke 10 – he bids us to PRAY. Not only to pray, but to pray earnestly for the Lord to send out laborers into His harvest. If we are not going out into the Lord’s harvest day in day out, we need to pray for the Lord to call and send laborers. The early disciples too fasted and prayed as an integral part of their various ministries and church life.

Singapore has been incredibly blessed. A recent report on cities by the United Nations (24 Oct) lauded Singapore as the only city without slums out of 245 cities surveyed. Our crime rate is incredibly low and the Government is free of corruption. What does this mean to us when we look at the harvest as God’s church in Singapore? We are those we have been given much, and much will be expected. The monthly income of an Indian farmer ranges from 2,000 – 8,000 rs (that’s S$60 - $240 per month). That means the lowest pay that we pay our domestic helpers in Singapore is the highest pay for a farmer supporting his family in India. When the Day comes, there will be a reckoning for us if we have responded to the call to release the oppressed, to free the prisoners, and show kindness to the orphaned and widowed. With Singapore being so small and the blessings we have received, the majority of our harvest as a church in Singapore would naturally be outside of Singapore. He calls us to be a church that upholds justice, mercy and faithfulness beyond our borders.

What can one person do? With God, all things are possible (Mark 10:27) and all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Ro 8:28). Archie Coates’ message for Holy Trinity Brompton Church connected the message of harvest to my experience in the village, and he further brought up the example of Henry Martyn, a missionary in the 18th Century. He graduated at the top of his class in Cambridge and received the prize for Classics. He chose to abandon a secure academic career and became a missionary to India. Ill health befall him shortly after, and he never really recovered. Henry died at the young age of 31. However, during the short 7 years he was in India, he translated the whole of the New Testament into Urdu, Persian and Judaeo-Persic. Only one person came to Christ through Henry during these 7 years, but his work has laid the foundation for the missionaries that came after him. We may not all be called to be missionaries, but we are all called to be harvesters in the field, with whichever gifts that God has blessed us with.

Henry Martyn's love for God and for justice, mercy and faithfulness saw him through his ministry. In his journal entry on 6 October 1812, it read, “Oh! when shall time give place to eternity? When shall appear that new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness? There, there shall in no wise enter in any thing that defileth: none of that wickedness which has made men worse than wild beasts, none of those corruptions which add still more to the miseries of mortality, shall he seen or heard of any more.”

Pictures of Poverty

These images are taken from outside the church I attended on Sunday in the EMBASSY sector of Delhi. There are slums even at the heart of its diplomatic quarters. While my mind reacts at the irony of it all, which includes the poster hanging across the slum on "voices against poverty" - I felt powerless to do anything. It would be useless for me to give them any money - a full education programme, schooling incentives, public housing+resettlement programme, employment and infrastructure building would be needed...

Preliminary thoughts to Living Waters Methodist Church

One prevalent area that I had the privilege of witnessing is really the poverty, social and economic stratification in India. Likewise, social issues, such as the homeless, ethnic enclaves (maids working in Hong Kong) and refugees are obvious in Hong Kong. Now, the social issues in Singapore are often underplayed in the news... sometimes to avoid racial tension, at other times it is because the Government takes care of it. Afterall, any homeless persons reported in Singapore would be escorted off to a home in no time. How do we, as Christ's body in Singapore, make God's gospel relevant to the society? Do we not go into certain areas because the Government is already taking care of it? Who are the orphans and the widows whom our Lord's heart bleeds for? What is our responsibility as one of the wealthiest nation in the world to the rest of the world? If we're not actively reaching out to people in poorer nations, does that mean that we don't hear the cry of the needy and the Lord will hold us accountable on the day of judgement? In an increasingly connected world, where Singaporeans can afford to fly, it's not enough to say that we have kind of ministered to our local congregation and that the poor in Thailand or India is too far away.

Secondly, being out here away from home makes me more keenly aware that we have only this life. With the grace of God, we will be able to accomplish all that He has set aside for us. BUT, we need that sense of thirst, of active seeking after God. Everyday, we are bombarded by the work, many other things and distractions jostling for our attention. And we suffer from the sometime guilty realisation that we need to spend more time with our loved ones. And then there is ministry and quiet time with God is somehow squeezed in. Without the wisdom of the Lord, it is not possible to live this life to the full. Without seeking first the Lord, who changes and renews our minds and hearts, it is not possible to live that "balanced" life, which is a life marked by an inner peace. We have not prayed enough. We are not desperate enough to hear from God. We do not love Him enough.

If we want to see the Lord move in our church, let's commit to meet together and pray, to seek first our Lord. Be encouraged by the Lord - that is to meet him, have our hearts changed to align with our Lord's will, that we may be en-boldened, en-couraged for the Lord. Can our lukewarm little hamlet change? Sure, we are faithful in service in many matters, but I long to see our church as a church that moves by the power and might of God - the day that our church may be able to reflect more fully the great God we worship...

Anyone from Living Waters feeling the same pls email me.

Thoughts on Church

Just a short post before the work week starts. For someone who usually goes to church 2 to 3 times a week, I have not realised how closely my emotional and spiritual rhythm have been tied to the act of going to church and being amongst a familiar body of believers. I have not been able to go to church in Noida this past 2 weeks - for various reasons. Last week, a few people from the office decided to go partying on Saturday night and I thought it would be good to get to know the others better. And it was good. Excepting that we reached home at 4.30am. Although I managed to wake up on time, I couldn't get to any churches for the fact that I spoke no Hindi to arrange for transport. This week, I lost my phone enroute getting to church and I am inclined to believe that there is some kind of spiritual battle going on.

While having a community enjoined by prayer and faith is a good thing, the fact that I was very upset and disappointed that I have not been able to go to church in Noida also seem to reveal a few things of what church means to me. Surely I meet with God in my prayers and during quiet time - is God insufficient for me? Why do I not encounter the same sense of disappointment when I am not able to do quiet time daily? I was very much looking forward to go to church. Do I not have the same level of desire to meet with the Lord daily?

What has corporate worship through songs of praise come to mean for me? God says that the object and the attitude of worship is more important than the form of worship. Have I been so caught up in the atmosphere of worship that I fail to focus on the object of worship in whatever form my worship might take? I am reminded of missionaries who go into places where the gospel have not yet reached, and they have to fully lean on God, often without benefit of having a community to worship God on Sundays. Certainly God is pleased with the work of their hands.

When I strip away corporate worship, what is left in my life? God has been gracious in providing me with a great sense of His peace while I have been in India, but I sense that I cannot get complacent or comfortable in this peace. This peace is a security such that I may be free to move on to other things, and a deeper level of walking with Him. But what and how?

Signs from the Lord

When do we ask for signs from the Lord? When is it right and when is it offensive to the Lord?

In Isaiah 7:10, the Lord bid King Ahaz to ask for a sign, and when Ahaz replied "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test," he was reprimanded in trying God's patience. Yet in other places, such as 2 Kings 20 when King Hezekiah asked for a sign to show a certainty of his recovery, Isaiah remanded him, saying that the Lord will do as He promised. Certainly in many other places in the bible, the hearts of those who have asked for a sign is not made clear - Jonathan, when launching an attack on the Philistines ( 1 Samuel 14), spoke quite plainly that if the Philistines said "Come up to us," it would be a sign from the Lord that He had given them into their hands.

Primarily, a sign from the Lord shows that the nature of a particular course of events is His will. He uses signs (such as the miraculous signs and wonders done by Moses) that people may know that He is God. And to those who already believe, we may be prompted to ask for a sign from the Lord, but we must never hold the Lord at ransom by asking Him to perform a sign that is uncalled for. An example of this was the temptation of our Lord Jesus in the desert, when the devil cajouled Him to perform a sign if He was truly God's son. The basis of asking for a sign by us believers is never a question of God's identity, that if He is really God could He please do such and such. Those appear to be reserved for unbelievers and usually initiated by God Himself.

So when do we ask for signs as believers? In my recent experience when I was seeking for a new area of work, my heart was prompted to ask for a sign while reading an e-newsletter from a company. The thought of asking for a sign had never crossed my mind and I prayed for a sign immediately following that prompting. That was the weekend that my friend who worked for the company turned up in church in Singapore - all the way from China. And my heart trembled at the knowledge of the fulfilment of that sign.

Certainly signs are a rare occurance, entirely of the Spirit's leading. Most of the other times, the Lord speaks to us of His will through His word, His peace that guards our heart, or through the wisdom of older Christians. And sometimes, when the Lord finds us at a low point in our lives, He provides other "signs" that assures us of His sovereignty, and surely that close presence of God in our hearts is much better than any sign. Similarly, at other times, the Lord chooses not to move or show any clear signs, and asks of us to continue to obey and be faithful with what we have already been given. This is what I experienced when as a young staff, I first wanted to change jobs after two years, but the statement from the Lord was to stay and obey. He gave the certainty of this direction in other ways - there was no other doors I should step through and continued to speak to me through my daily work. Specifically, this "speaking" from the Lord was not in the form I had originally desired, which was to acquire new knowledge at work. The Lord gave another form of training and knowledge - which was how to conduct my daily work in a manner that acknowledged the Lord and in a manner that pleased Him.