March 2011
VISION CHALLENGE: Now is the Time, Now is the Day. Workers together with Him! The urgency of spreading the gospel is in no way understated in the scriptures. It is presented as a matter of immediacy in the gospels and similarly echoed in the letters. Over 43 times in the gospel according to Mark, the word immediately is stated in different contexts yet commonly pointing to the work of salvation. It is clear that the Apostles and the Church realized that time is of the essence and so in different events across Acts and the letters, the urgency in seizing every moment to share the gospel and for those who are willing, to join them to the Church, is seen. From the day of Pentecost, through the recorded Acts of
the Apostles and to the final letter of Paul to Timothy the gospel is presented as the priority in every moment. The urgency is so much like the children of Israel who ate the Passover meal with haste awaiting the final wrath upon Egypt and anticipating the departure to the promised land. The Apostle James in his letter gives us an insight into this urgency when he writes that the coming of the Lord is at hand (5:8). It is with this attitude that the Apostle Peter on the Day of the Pentecost began the work of preaching the gospel and Paul writes so often to Preach the Word, to be prepared in season and out of season. Now is the time of God’s favor [1]
and now is the day of salvation – writes the Apostle Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians. He goes on to say that we are workers with Him in this great commission. There is no greater work in this world than the work of the gospel in saving souls from that dreadful lake of fire. The vision challenge for this month of March, 2011 is to realize that this is the time and this is the day for us to be workers in the field sowing the seed and reaping the harvest.