BBD 07.19.21 Rescue the Perishing (Classic)

#1 · July 19, 2021, 11:00 am

Quote from Forum Archives on July 19, 2021, 11:00 am
Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Classic from 2002

The Burning Bush Devotional

19 July 2021

Rescue the Perishing

But when
He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were
weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His
disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore
pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’ - Matthew
9:37-38.

There
has been another rescue attempt that was valiant in its effort, but it has
failed. The first attempt to rescue the whales was successful for most of them
with 45 being pushed back out to sea. Sadly, the next day the whales again
beached themselves and again many tried to save the whales, but they could not.
Why the creatures beached themselves is uncertain and there are many
possibilities. It may have been because of illness of a few of the whales, or
because of the geography of the Cape Cod area interfering with their innate
sonar or something else entirely. Needless to say, it was a sad time for those
who had tried so hard to help the whales.

Have
you ever made a spiritual rescue attempt and failed? You’ve shared your testimony, or you’ve explained the way of
salvation, used the four spiritual laws, a tract, EE, CWT, or some other method
of witnessing but the person rejected Christ. It is a sad day when that happens,
and it is even sadder for us when the person is a friend or relative. For many
of us when we witness to someone, and the gospel is rejected we take it
personally as though the person was rejecting us personally. But that is not
true. We have fulfilled our responsibility before God being a watchman, sharing
the truth and when the gospel is rejected it is God they are rejecting.

Another
aspect of rejection is that it clouds our perception of the harvest, and we
tend to think that there are few that can be saved. But that is not what our
Lord says. He says and it is true even if our witnessing efforts have been
rejected that the harvest is still plentiful, and the workers are still
few. If today more people were trapped in a terrorist attack on a
building in New York City would the Firefighters and Police Officers fail to
respond because not all of their rescue efforts were successful during the 9/11
attack? Of course, they would respond! They would
respond again with courage, with great heroism even at the risk of losing their
own lives. Just because one rescue attempt fails does not mean that we eliminate
rescue attempts. We must continue on knowing that there will be failures but
that the harvest is still plentiful and if we faithfully share the gospel some
will be saved.

About
nine years ago I shared my testimony with a man, and he responded by saying what
I have heard many times by saying, “I’m not ready yet.” After hearing that response, I thought there was little hope that he
would ever be saved. However, recently one of our deacons shared with me that
he had talked with the man again about his salvation and this time he had
responded by sharing that he had been saved and was a Christian. Amazing! Even
though it may appear that we have failed we may still have sowed a seed into
their lives that others will water and eventually the harvest of their soul will
occur.

Don’t
give up. Keep on witnessing. Keep on trying to rescue the perishing
because the harvest is indeed plentiful!!

Copyright © 1998 - 2021. Ed
Wrather. The Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On
June 8, 1998, the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
Ed Wrather began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of
those first devotionals was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent
to prison facilities throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush website:

www.theburningbush.net

The Burning Bush websites are
celebrating 23 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the
Burning Bush Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to subscribers
across the world. At one time there were 18,000 subscribers in more than 70
countries to the devotional but that has now shrunk to around 9,000.

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right-hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the Devotionals at
the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of the home page.
Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Please pray for God to touch and
bring about His will in these lives: Caleb Freeman’ Pat S.; Buck & Barbara
Wright; GWEN PRUET; James Perkins and his wife; Vonnie; Evi Porter; Addison;
JoJo, Bailey and Nicky; Ralph and De Chapman; Hilary; Cody Stahlman; Patsy M.; Todd
Higgins; Brandy and Jadyn’s Dad; John W.; Patricia Rohman and Lisa Butler who
has had a stroke; Scott J.; Karla W.; Clayton T. and Sarah; Clark S.; Lana
Bass; Matthew Collins; Marjean C.; Bradley E.; Fern McVey; Bill S.; Nannie R.; Shonda
Hutson; and Sharon H.

Please pray for the coronavirus
COVID19 pandemic to come to an end. Pray for treatments and a cure for the
virus to be rapidly found and deployed. Pray for all those afflicted to be
healed and for our leaders to have supernatural wisdom and ability to lead us
through this pandemic.

Please pray for an end to the
rioting, looting, wanton destruction, and the racial hatred in the USA and that
it will be replaced with peace and love. May God help the USA! Many prayer
needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page. You
can also post your prayer requests there (Of
course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me. 03.18.18 I accepted the call to be the pastor of Fairview Baptist
Church in Elk City, Oklahoma. Please pray for me and for this church.).

You can contact Ed Wrather at
theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com

If you enjoy the devotional please
recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by
sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time constraints
the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a blank email
to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond to the
confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

--

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org

Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Classic from 2002

The Burning Bush Devotional

19 July 2021

Rescue the Perishing

But when
He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were
weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His
disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore
pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’ - Matthew
9:37-38.

There
has been another rescue attempt that was valiant in its effort, but it has
failed. The first attempt to rescue the whales was successful for most of them
with 45 being pushed back out to sea. Sadly, the next day the whales again
beached themselves and again many tried to save the whales, but they could not.
Why the creatures beached themselves is uncertain and there are many
possibilities. It may have been because of illness of a few of the whales, or
because of the geography of the Cape Cod area interfering with their innate
sonar or something else entirely. Needless to say, it was a sad time for those
who had tried so hard to help the whales.

Have
you ever made a spiritual rescue attempt and failed? You’ve shared your testimony, or you’ve explained the way of
salvation, used the four spiritual laws, a tract, EE, CWT, or some other method
of witnessing but the person rejected Christ. It is a sad day when that happens,
and it is even sadder for us when the person is a friend or relative. For many
of us when we witness to someone, and the gospel is rejected we take it
personally as though the person was rejecting us personally. But that is not
true. We have fulfilled our responsibility before God being a watchman, sharing
the truth and when the gospel is rejected it is God they are rejecting.

Another
aspect of rejection is that it clouds our perception of the harvest, and we
tend to think that there are few that can be saved. But that is not what our
Lord says. He says and it is true even if our witnessing efforts have been
rejected that the harvest is still plentiful, and the workers are still
few. If today more people were trapped in a terrorist attack on a
building in New York City would the Firefighters and Police Officers fail to
respond because not all of their rescue efforts were successful during the 9/11
attack? Of course, they would respond! They would
respond again with courage, with great heroism even at the risk of losing their
own lives. Just because one rescue attempt fails does not mean that we eliminate
rescue attempts. We must continue on knowing that there will be failures but
that the harvest is still plentiful and if we faithfully share the gospel some
will be saved.

About
nine years ago I shared my testimony with a man, and he responded by saying what
I have heard many times by saying, “I’m not ready yet.” After hearing that response, I thought there was little hope that he
would ever be saved. However, recently one of our deacons shared with me that
he had talked with the man again about his salvation and this time he had
responded by sharing that he had been saved and was a Christian. Amazing! Even
though it may appear that we have failed we may still have sowed a seed into
their lives that others will water and eventually the harvest of their soul will
occur.

Don’t
give up. Keep on witnessing. Keep on trying to rescue the perishing
because the harvest is indeed plentiful!!

Copyright © 1998 - 2021. Ed
Wrather. The Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On
June 8, 1998, the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
Ed Wrather began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of
those first devotionals was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent
to prison facilities throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush website:

http://www.theburningbush.net

The Burning Bush websites are
celebrating 23 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the
Burning Bush Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to subscribers
across the world. At one time there were 18,000 subscribers in more than 70
countries to the devotional but that has now shrunk to around 9,000.

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at http://www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right-hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the Devotionals at
the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of the home page.
Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Please pray for God to touch and
bring about His will in these lives: Caleb Freeman’ Pat S.; Buck & Barbara
Wright; GWEN PRUET; James Perkins and his wife; Vonnie; Evi Porter; Addison;
JoJo, Bailey and Nicky; Ralph and De Chapman; Hilary; Cody Stahlman; Patsy M.; Todd
Higgins; Brandy and Jadyn’s Dad; John W.; Patricia Rohman and Lisa Butler who
has had a stroke; Scott J.; Karla W.; Clayton T. and Sarah; Clark S.; Lana
Bass; Matthew Collins; Marjean C.; Bradley E.; Fern McVey; Bill S.; Nannie R.; Shonda
Hutson; and Sharon H.

Please pray for the coronavirus
COVID19 pandemic to come to an end. Pray for treatments and a cure for the
virus to be rapidly found and deployed. Pray for all those afflicted to be
healed and for our leaders to have supernatural wisdom and ability to lead us
through this pandemic.

Please pray for an end to the
rioting, looting, wanton destruction, and the racial hatred in the USA and that
it will be replaced with peace and love. May God help the USA! Many prayer
needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page. You
can also post your prayer requests there (Of
course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me. 03.18.18 I accepted the call to be the pastor of Fairview Baptist
Church in Elk City, Oklahoma. Please pray for me and for this church.).

You can contact Ed Wrather at
theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com

If you enjoy the devotional please
recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by
sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time constraints
the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a blank email
to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond to the
confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org