A Place In the Wilderness

Introduction 3

Matt. 13:39 … the harvest is the end of the world …

Have we also been distracted from Christ by so many things? Have we wasted our days, our hours, our resources, our being on things other than Christ? Or have we redeemed the time to purchase the “oil” necessary for our “lamps” to shine brightly at the Lord's return?

Do not think that I am talking about eternal salvation. No! Once a person has believed into the Lord Jesus, that person is always saved from eternal perdition. The Lord will never cast those who have believed into Him into the lake of fire for eternity. Nevertheless, there may still be a problem between us and the Lord. Consider the incestuous believer in 1 Corinthians. There was a serious problem between him and God. Yet in this very book of 1 Corinthians the Lord makes clear through the words of the apostle that all believers, the incestuous brother included, will be saved. However, some will be saved through fire! Which one of us wants to be saved through fire? Whether that fire is a physical fire or spiritual fire, what difference does it make? None of us wants to be saved through that fire.

The Lord says that the harvest is the consummation of the age (or, end of the world) – the time of His return. A harvest is a reaping of the grain that is ripe. If the Lord’s second coming is a harvest, what is He coming to reap? He is coming to reap the ripened believers. So then we must ask ourselves, am I ripe? Am I a person who has matured in Christ? Am I a person who has gained Christ, whose whole being has become saturated with Christ? Am I one who has subjectively experienced Christ’s terminating crucifixion and His empowering resurrection, so that along with the apostle I can say, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me?” The apostle could say these things, but can we? Are we believers who are fully grown, fully matured in Christ? Have we grown in Christ into all for which God created us?

The Growth in Life