Evangelism Is For The Birds

As I look out of my office window, the world is in the grip of winter. It isn’t windy or snowing. It is just silent, still and very, very cold.

Our house is warm, thanks to a furnace in the basement. It is tempting to stay inside and look out at the bleakness through our double glazed windows.

Unfortunately the bird feeder is empty. It does a roaring trade in weather like this. The word has got around that there is food here, and the regular sparrows, finches, cardinals, crows and doves have invited their relatives to eat at our expense.

It isn’t the expense we mind. It is keeping the thing stocked. My wife hates cold, but if she senses the supply of seed is running low she will brave the elements to go out and fill it.

Like my property, our world is held in the grip of hostile conditions. In Romans 8, Paul reminds us that the creation “groans and labors with birth pangs” waiting for the time when it can be “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

But we must not wait until conditions are ideal. “As you look around right now, wouldn’t you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest?” said Jesus. “Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you…It’s harvest time! ” (John 4:35 Message Bible). We can’t (yet) make the whole world a better place. But we can do something to show those around us that there is another way to live.

At least get out and feed the neighborhood birds.

Prayer
As we witness the groanings in the world around us, God, help us to remember that our lives should exhibit the joy and hopeful faith that will lead the way to you. What we do is not just bird feed, but the seeds of your kingdom sown in a barren world, to reap in the end-time harvest.
Amen

Study by John Halford