Day 5 - The Field is the World

Imagine that you are a farmer with a 100 acre field surrounding your home farm. You purchase seed, fuel up your equipment, and begin to plant the barren ground. But rather than covering the entire field with seed, you choose only to plant fifteen acres out from the edge of your yard, ignoring 85% of the field. “Why plant seed way on the other side of the field, when there is so much barren ground near my farm?” We would question the mental state of a farmer who would employ such logic, and rightly so.

Christ presses for the advance of His kingdom in two directions. He is passionate to expand His reign in new areas of the believer’s heart, and He is passionate to expand His reign in new areas of the map. In Matthew 13:38, Jesus explains the scope of His desired expansion: “The field is the world.” When we accept the call to participate in the advance of God’s kingdom on the map, we need to understand what He envisions. The entire world is the field into which the seed must be spread.

The unfortunate reality is that many, like the farmer in our example, feel it best to plant seed near home, rather than worrying about the global advance of God’s kingdom. “Why work to advance the kingdom on the other side of the globe when there is so much need locally?” is the argument.

Jesus explained that we do not know where the seed will take root, so we need to plant everywhere. We think we have answered Christ’s call when we take the Gospel to our neighbor, not understanding that the call is global. We have answered Christ’s call only when we seek to spread the seed to the entire field.

- Lucas Aufenkamp, ND Men Director