Pro 11:30
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. Apple trees are supposed to produce apples, pear trees, pears, except in my neighborhood where both are simply decorative, only for looks. They produce beautiful blossoms, but no fruit.
How similar to the overwhelming majority of believerdom, where most of our Christianity is for show. Little fruit results from our faith walk.
We are going to have a difficult time fulfilling the Great Commission, Jesus final instructions to His church, if we neglect the "go" in "go ye." I think that most Christians feel that that kind of stuff is best left to the professionals. But everyone thinks that everyone else is going to do it and guess what? It doesn't get done.
That's a shame, because the message we have to offer is life changing and eternally beneficial. Freely we have received, so we ought to freely give.
The #1 reason, of course, that we don't win souls is because we have spiritualshareaphobia. We fear rejection, we fear retribution, we fear nameless things that would never occur in a thousand years. But it is just enough fear to keep us from going to the trouble of trying.
But we have been equipped with a set of tools that makes it unimaginably easy to witness; the Word of God, which God promised would never return void to Him, and the Spirit of God, Who comes upon us to enable us to do what seems impossible.
And when we do take that step of faith and obedience to give a witness to a needy soul, we will be greatly rewarded with the satisfaction that the seed was planted and there will be eternal results, not the least of which is the "well done" from our Savior.
You see, the fruit of a Christian is another Christian, or as the writer here says, a tree of life. That is, the propagation of the Christian family. He that winneth souls is, therefore, a very wise believer. Another soul is the one and only thing we are able to take to heaven with us.
The story is told of the traveler in the woods who encountered an old wise man tending his camp fire. After greetings and food were shared, the wanderer readied himself to resume his trek. The wise man told him this in parting; "as you journey, you will find some perfectly round stones along the river's edge, put as many in your pack as you can, and in the morning, you will be glad and you will be sad."
With a thanks for his kindness and words, the young man continued on, selecting a few of these stones along the way. It seemed odd to him, so he didn't keep near as many as he found, thinking it somewhat silly.
Finally, he made camp, slept well and awakened to the new day. His first thought was of the stones in his pack and what the man had told him, "in the morning you will be glad and you will be sad."
Retrieving the stones, he was amazed to see that each perfectly round stone had transformed into a beautiful, precious jewel. He was gleeful that he would no longer a poor traveler, but a man whose needs would easily be met for some time. But suddenly he was sad. had he picked up every stone he had seen, he would be rich beyond all measure. Had he only collected more! Alas, the traveler was glad, but he was sad.
The morning is soon coming when all believers will be so very glad. Heaven's glory will be shared with gladness. Yet, we will have the stark reality that heaven will be missing millions of precious jewels because we failed to gather them along our journey to the Promised Land.
Friend, won't you depend on the Spirit of the Lord today to lead you to at least one soul with whom you can share the gospel message that was freely shared with you? It is the smart thing to do. Believe me, in the morning you will be glad.
Lord, empower us and lead us for witness before we pillow our
