In Due Season
Guest Blog post written by: John Ed Mathison
One of the marvelous serendipities of this leadership ministry is the fact that God has let me cross paths with a lot of outstanding people from all denominations. One such person is the famous Baptist evangelist, Junior Hill. I even had the opportunity to be on the same program with him a couple of times.
Junior is from North Alabama. He has preached in most every large Baptist church. He is an encourager. He receives my blog each week, and most always makes an encouraging comment. In response to last week’s blog he wrote:
“An encouraging word!! How good it is to hear of seeds we scattered years ago in the hearts of others, often coming back later to bless us. Last month I went to my physical therapy session and the lady at the front desk said, “Oh brother Junior, many years ago when I was a young girl you came to my church to preach and I was saved! Thank you for all that you do.” Makes the verse, “Do not grow weary in well doing for in due season you shall reap if you faint not” come alive. But the problem that many of us have is learning that “due seasons” don’t come until they are “due.”
Wow! God lets us do evangelism, but He is the one who is in charge. We all have to learn to function on His time table. We don’t know when the “due seasons” are “due.” Only He knows that.
I think most Christians are frustrated because we don’t get immediate results. Sometimes we never see the results, but we must remember that we are called to be faithful, not successful. (Tweet that!)
Evangelism is planting seeds. We all today sit in the shade of a lot of trees that somebody else planted. Our task is to plant the seeds of a positive winsome witness, and in “due season” it will someday bear fruit.
Jesus gave a great teaching in John 15 about how God owns the whole vineyard, Jesus is the true vine, and we are a branch. The branch must be fruitful, or it is cut off and carried to the edge of town to be burned. The test of a branch is not in how pretty it is or how many leaves it produces – it’s proof is in the fruit that it produces. (John 15:1-8)
I’m grateful to a lot of people who share my blog each week. One such person is my friend, Jere Beasley. He has a huge mailing list. I’ve been in several states when people make a comment about the blog, and they said they read it because, “Jere Beasley sent it to me.”
Jere made some personal comments about last week’s blog emphasizing the priority of evangelism. He said he agreed with what I said. Friends, when Jere agrees with you, that’s valuable. When a jury agrees with what Jere says, the result is a lot of big bucks! Participating in daily witnessing to our faith is far more valuable than any amount of big bucks because the population of heaven is changed!!
In “due season” every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord! (Romans 14:11)
John Ed Mathison
