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DAY 5: DON’T BRUISE THE GREEN APPLES
Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! John 4:35 (NKJV)
Have you ever tried debating with friends or relatives to try to convince them to follow Jesus? It doesn’t work, does it? I used to love debating with people about my faith. I was always ready to defend my beliefs. But over the years, I’ve noticed that those arguments rarely (if ever) resulted in someone coming to Christ. My attempts to win arguments about spiritual topics were more about pride than they were about Jesus.
If someone isn’t ready to hear about Jesus and they just want to argue with you, I call them a green apple. If you try to pick an unripe, green apple, the whole branch bends and creaks under the pressure. If you’re not careful, you could break the branch off and damage that apple. The same is true with people who aren’t ready to hear about Jesus.
But when you pick a ripe apple, you only have to turn it a quarter turn and it just drops into your hand. As our verse says today, the fields are ripe. In other words, many just need a gentle nudge in the direction of Jesus and they will give their lives to him.
When we approach people with love and acceptance, we don’t bruise the green apples. If we’re real and authentic, if we let our actions speak louder than our words, and if we stay tuned in to the Holy Spirit’s leading in our everyday lives—in other words, if we’re Spirit Contemporary—we influence people for Christ to a greater degree than any amount of debating could ever do.
Thousands of people are very ready to hear about Jesus, if we go about it the right way. Jesus said the fields are ripe for harvest (John 4:35). All we need to do is meet people where they are, and it will be obvious when they’re open. They may not know what they’re looking for, but we can help them find the answers they need in Jesus.
Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! John 4:35 (NKJV)
Have you ever tried debating with friends or relatives to try to convince them to follow Jesus? It doesn’t work, does it? I used to love debating with people about my faith. I was always ready to defend my beliefs. But over the years, I’ve noticed that those arguments rarely (if ever) resulted in someone coming to Christ. My attempts to win arguments about spiritual topics were more about pride than they were about Jesus.
If someone isn’t ready to hear about Jesus and they just want to argue with you, I call them a green apple. If you try to pick an unripe, green apple, the whole branch bends and creaks under the pressure. If you’re not careful, you could break the branch off and damage that apple. The same is true with people who aren’t ready to hear about Jesus.
But when you pick a ripe apple, you only have to turn it a quarter turn and it just drops into your hand. As our verse says today, the fields are ripe. In other words, many just need a gentle nudge in the direction of Jesus and they will give their lives to him.
When we approach people with love and acceptance, we don’t bruise the green apples. If we’re real and authentic, if we let our actions speak louder than our words, and if we stay tuned in to the Holy Spirit’s leading in our everyday lives—in other words, if we’re Spirit Contemporary—we influence people for Christ to a greater degree than any amount of debating could ever do.
Thousands of people are very ready to hear about Jesus, if we go about it the right way. Jesus said the fields are ripe for harvest (John 4:35). All we need to do is meet people where they are, and it will be obvious when they’re open. They may not know what they’re looking for, but we can help them find the answers they need in Jesus.
Scripture
About this Plan
How would your world change if you regularly experienced the miraculous everywhere you went—in a way that attracted people to Jesus? It wouldn’t just make a difference in your world...it would make the world different. That’s the Spirit Contemporary life! This 7-day reading plan reveals the key to living an empowered life—one that connects your day-to-day with God’s supernatural power.
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We would like to thank Leon Fontaine, Penguin Random House, and WaterBrook & Multnomah for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: www.leonfontaine.com/book
