Where are the laborers?
Proverbs 14:4”Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.”
Abundant crops come by the strength of the ox! Did you hear that? If the barns got to be filled with harvested crops, the ox is needed! If the church has to be richly populated, the ox, in other words, the believers are needed. Any Christian project or work of God, needs workers for it to flourish! Are you listening? When was the last time you chauffeured people to your church? When was the last time you volunteered to help in your church’s revival crusades? When was the last time you helped your pastor in the administration work at the office? If only you determine to set aside time in the midst of your chaotic life style to help God’s work - there are plethora of ways to do it! Sacrifice is involved in this, though!
Except for a small board in front of our school, we have no other boards, fancy billboards on the main roads or at important locations to brag about our School or our offers; we avoid in order to keep away greedy crowd who would come for the freebie offers. We wait patiently for the genuine ones, who are in real poverty but in need of education. Are you curious to know how we get such cherry-picked ones? The old students and the grateful parents are our ambassadors! They are the rare few who do this job for us. Without such lovely people our barns (School) would be clean and empty too! Listen to this awesome testimony:
Recently, a father of our school student, who works as a helper, came at an odd hour, around 11 am (when people would be at work) to meet me along with a big family of five children. Since I had work, I had to make them wait, the father patiently waited outside the gate and then met me, he pleaded me to join the children who lived in his neighborhood, the kids had to drop out of school because of financial problems at home. Having been benefitted by our School, the father met the parents and spoke to them about our school, he did not stop there but escorted the entire family to the school, waited patiently for a long time at the gate and then spoke on behalf of the under-privileged kids. This poor man had to take permission from his own job, take the efforts to bring the family, wait at the school gate so that someone could enjoy the blessings that he had got absolutely free! I felt dwarfed by the phenomenal attitude of this poor parent! Have we learnt our lessons from this illustration? It is all about us and our time, isn’t it?
Likewise, we have enjoyed the gorgeous freebies through salvation: new covenant, new life, new joy, pardon of sin, favor of God, peace of conscience, promises of the gospel, deliverance, access to the throne of grace, comfort, friendship with Jesus, relationship with God, and hope of eternal life. Phew! What a joy! When we step into a good church with sound doctrines, we get all this free! Imagine! Don’t we have to do all that we can for the barns to be full and overflowing with rich harvest of souls for God? Gear up to help your dear pastor, the church, the Sunday Class etc. in whatever way you can! Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean! Stop being guests at your church, get involved!
