Wow! 2011 has come and gone! I am happy to report with rejoicing that we closed out 2011 with a blessed harvest of souls! Approximately 100 people received the Holy Ghost and we baptized 85 in the wonderful Name of Jesus in the latter part of the year. It is hard to believe that 2011 came and went so quickly, and that we are already in January 2012!
Jesus spoke in John 4:35 and reminded his disciples of the times: “Saynot,thereareyet four months,and then comethharvest?Behold, I say unto you, Lift upyoureyes,and look on the fields;for they arewhitealreadytoharvest.” Jesus basically says that the harvest is not 4 months away, but harvest is now. Harvest was not to be pushed into the future, but rather now is the time of harvest. Time can be a thief that subtly steals and destroys the valuable things of life. Along the road of life we read epitaphs/tombstones of men and women who passed through youth, adulthood, middle age and their senior years allowing time to be wasted without ever accomplishing their dreams. These men and women lived and died in vain.
It is true that we either allow time to serve us and bring success, or we serve time and become great failures along life’s road.
We at the First Pentecostal Church of Denham Springs have 2012 before us. Let us pledge ourselves to the abundant harvest that awaits us this year. I, as senior pastor, will meet with our sub-shepherds and all department heads to pray, plan and set goals for the coming year, so that we will enjoy the greatest harvest this church has ever known.
As you read this article, be reminded that conditions all around us demand that we have red-hot, heaven-sent revival. Events in the mid-east cannot be ignored, as they fulfill prophetic scriptures that many of us thought we would never see fulfilled in our lifetimes.
New ideologies, such as the emergent church, New Age, Post-moderate theories, and other anti-Biblical theories are designed by the evil one to annoy us and even destroy our faith.
The slowing economy, and other factors in our world, has upset our American dream. The decline of Biblical values screams at us that the harvest is white. We cannot only gaze at the fields, but we must obey the words of our Lord Jesus. Take the sickles of faith, be resolute and go into a prepared field and achieve the harvest. Out of all the conditions that we have named, designed by hell to destroy us all, yet there are hundreds and even thousands who reach their hands to us for help. Yes, I can still hear the cry that Paul heard in his world, “Come to Macedonia to help us!”
I am ending this article with a challenge to every member of the First Pentecostal Church of Denham Springs: let’s sow the seeds of the Word abundantly, for he who sows abundantly, shall reap abundantly. Let us refuse to serve time or allow time to impair our vision and blind us to the harvest and cause us to miss God’s will and purpose for the church. On the contrary, let’s allow time in 2012 to serve us well, so that we may reap the harvest God has promised us.
Let’s have red-hot, heaven-sent revival in 2012!
Reverend W. R. Johnson, Sr.
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