-Wisdom. The ability to apply what you know. Wisdom comes from above, from God Who gives it generously to anyone who asks in faith. It also comes from experience. And the tragic truth is that many believers have very little wisdom when it comes to relating to the ones outside because they have very little experience doing so and they pretty much never ask God for any.
-Those outside of course are the ones who are not (yet) following Christ, who have yet to trust in Him for the forgiveness of their sins. This reality should crash upon the shores of my comfortable every-duck-in-a-row life every day. Paul is talking about kairos time, special moments and seasons of time, God-ordained-and-appointed opportunities that He gives us with folks outside. And he says, redeem this time, buy up these times and make the most of them. So we desperately need the Lord to help us recognize these unique opportunities. But the truth is, my entire life is a kairos moment, a season of great opportunity! It's fishing season, and it began to moment I began following Christ (Matthew 4.19) - it's time for me to either fish or cut bait. God has a plan and a purpose and He has left me here for a season for a reason, and it is not about me. It is not for my sake that He has left me here. He has not left me here so that I can spend "my" time (which He technically has entrusted to me) simply gathering stuff and pursuing personal paradise on earth while it is perishing. Glimpses of paradise are glorious indeed, but there will more than enough time for that when we are finally and forever in the Real Thing. Our job now is to make the most of this season God has given us to help reach those outside of Christ and bring them INTO the Kingdom, which is the one significant thing we cannot do once we finally enter it in eternity.
-This is the parable of the talents (Matthew 25.14-30). Sure, not everyone will be able to lay thousands of souls (or even five) at the feet of Jesus. Not everyone is a Billy Graham. But the Lord of the Harvest is not interested in quantity. He is looking for compassion and faithfulness (Mathew 9.36-38). “What on earth did you do with the faith and gifts that I DID give you? Did you use them at all? Did you buy up even one soul?” Note that Jesus says the slave who received only one talent and reproduced nothing with it basically never had it to begin with (Matthew 25.29). Real genuine faith reproduces itself.
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