Monday, April 20, 2015

“The Laborer In the Trenches”


    Most of that which is done in society and in the church results from the labors of average people whose names are not known, and whose efforts go largely unnoticed and unrewarded.  

    I thought of this the other day when listening to an address by a well known and highly placed political figure.  A speechwriter friend of mind wrote the words, which were well delivered.  However, in my opinion, the speaker's elocution did not begin to match the quality of the beautiful prose and rhetoric of the writer's essay.  More to the point, the speechmaker accomplished the fairly simply task of delivering a message in several minutes that my friend doubtless took many hours to research, write, and rewrite.  In this case, I was well aware of the laborer in the trenches who did most of the work, the fact of which greatly enhanced my experience of listening to the address.

   This "laborer in the trenches" reality particularly applies to the body of Christ.  

    "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 thing which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence" (I Corinthians 1:26-29).  

     Most of the Lord's work results from the faithfulness of believers exemplified in the everyday arenas where the sons and daughters of humanity actually live.  The Christian communicator whose words may lead people to Christ, or strengthen those already converted, merely reaps a harvest made possible by the lives, testimonies, and sacrifices of believers who bear witness of the Lord Jesus in the aforementioned trenches.  The preacher or writer has his role, of course, but any farmer will attest that the labors of harvest time pale in comparison to the preparatory work and time spent in plowing, cultivating, planting, and protecting the crop.  God, of course, supplies the leading and enabling of both sowing and reaping, but more Divine involvement and labor goes into the former than the latter.

   In the light of the "laborer", every believer takes his or her necessary place in God's redemptive purposes.  How we sow the seed of Christ by our attitudes, demeanor, words, actions, and reactions plays a pivotal role in the harvest of souls.  Someone else may reap by preaching a sermon or writing a tract, or bearing witness in the vital moment of a conversion.  If so, the far more involved preparatory work of tilling, planting, and cultivating was likely accomplished by faithful believers whose lives reflected the saving life of the Lord Jesus.  All glory proceeds to Him, but in that day when hidden things come to light, such glory will be known as it was revealed by the hidden ones who actually shined more brightly because their names were not known, and their labors went unnoticed.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven."
(Matthew 5:16)

Weekly Memory Verse
   Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness."
(Psalm 29:2)
   










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