Kenneth Olson.org

America The Harvest Field

I’ve been so inconsistent with blog writing over the past weeks, but not for the lack of a good reason. I’ve been laser focused on much planning and preparation as we gear up to take the next step for Authentic Life Church.

For some time now, I’ve been excited to dream of ways God is going to bless and move through our efforts to promote the message of Jesus.

 

I recently heard a statistic that less than 7% of those who live in the Twin Cities attend a Bible believing church. That’s a remarkable number to me! That means if we planted 50, 5,000 member churches tomorrow we would still only barely be reaching 10% of the Twin Cities population.

 

It’s easy to be blind to the fact that  America is one of the biggest harvest fields of our time. There are vast numbers of people who don’t recognize the Bible as a source of truth or Christianity as a relevant lifestyle.

If we are who we say we are, God’s people, our hearts should beat with a fierce desire to see people spiritually awakened. For people to come to know the timeless truth of His Son’s offering for sin and offer for a new life.

 

It’s time for us to be moved with a sense of urgency and compassion to do everything within our power short of sin to influence, compel and inspire people everywhere to live for God.

 

I’m beyond convinced that Jesus is already making preparation to gather the whitened the fields into His heavenly storehouse. Don’t forget, our ultimate mission is to serve in our Father’s field, to fervently laboring while there is still time.

 

For these reasons and more, I’m wildly passionate about the local church, about finding relevant ways to bring the message of Jesus in contact with people searching for true meaning, life-transforming power and unconditional love!

God-Ordained Opportunity

I've been thinking much lately about how God empowers us to advance in His plan for our lives. What we can do daily, weekly, monthly that will propel us to a whole nother level. What immediately comes to mind for me is the need to understand we're constantly surrounded by opportunities. 

In fact, your ability to stay on course and keep pace with God's plan for your life directly relates to your ability to see and seize opportunity. Someone once said, you pursue your God-ordained destiny by seizing God-ordained opportunities.

Sound easy, right? We'll, not always because opportunity seldom shows up on a silver platter with a self-help guide outlining five how-to steps to taking advantage of your opportunity. 

In my experience, God-ordained opportunity most often comes in the form of serving, giving, doing the right thing (especially when no one is looking), being diligent, being faithful, facing the tough issues of our lives, tackling the most difficult problem, overcoming our worst failure and never giving up.

But it's these daily and unlikely opportunities God uses to prepare and qualify us for promotion, increase and a whole nother level of His plan and blessing for our lives. 

I love what Colossians 4:5 says, making the very most of the time and seizing (buying up) the opportunity. - AMP