After changing the life of the Samaritan woman at the well by offering her the water of life, Jesus explained to His disciples that true food to Him was to finish the work the Father had given to Him. “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together” (John 4:34-36).

            When Jesus told His disciples to lift up their eyes and see the fields “white already to harvest,” He was telling them that it was almost too late to reap the harvest, that there was no time to delay. The urgency of that day has not diminished in any way.

            Consider the doors closing today. Seven states in India have enacted laws banning conversion to Christianity through a so called “freedom-of-religion” bill enacted through the leadership of India’s Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party. The laws target Dalits, the “untouchables” under India’s caste system. Dalits face five years in prison if they convert to Christianity.

            Even in a free country like Israel, there is pressure to limit conversion. Yakov Margi, a member of Israel’s Knesset [Parliament] has proposed a bill “completely forbidding preaching and proselytism” in Israel. Margi said, “Whether it’s Christians coming from abroad or Jewish converts working in Israel, they all have the same agenda—to destroy every trace and memory of the people of Israel, and they plan to do this by converting the Jews” (Christianity Today, May 2007, p. 17).

            Several European countries, as well as Canada, have adopted, or are proposing laws that would define teaching the Bible as it relates to homosexuality  as “hate speech,” punishable by imprisonment.

            Will we miss our opportunity to evangelize the world in our generation? The fields are “white already to harvest.” We cannot wait!

White Already to Harvest

by Bob Prichard

www.oxfordchurchofchrist.com