LIVING PROOF THAT JESUS IS ALL-SUFFICIENT

Where did the disciples start their ministry? Jesus sent them to the distressed, the poor, those who were bowed down with sin, bondages and life-controlling habits. “And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and the hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23).

I think of the Teen Challenge drug and alcohol rehabilitation ministry, with its 1100 centers worldwide. And I think of scores of other reapers who have gone to other countries and seen miracles of salvation as they’ve ministered to the neediest, poorest, most devil-bound people. They’re starting to reap exactly where Jesus started His harvest: among the lost sheep, the captives, the brokenhearted, the prisoners, the lepers, the blind, the poor, those who mourn, those with a spirit of heaviness, those who are distressed and disconcerted.

Consider Paul’s words: “Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not . . . that no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Corinthians 1:26–29).

Dear saint, Jesus knew what we were going to face in these last days: a generation steeped in sin far more than any other; stress and loneliness such as has never been experienced by man; financial disasters; rampant divorce; militant homosexuality; immorality that would bring a blush to even the worst sinners just thirty years ago.

This is why Christ seeks laborers who have submitted to the fires and forgings. He wants a people who will stand before the world and proclaim: “God is with me! Satan cannot stop me. Just look at my life. I’ve been through fire after fire, pounded again and again. But I’ve come through it all more than a conqueror through Christ, who lives in me. What I have preached has worked for me. I am living proof that Jesus is all-sufficient!”