Jump Start # 3741
John 4: 35 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.”
This week, we have been looking at long forgotten hymns taken from a 1914 hymnal entitled, The New Gospel Songbook. This hymnal was edited by G.H.P. Showalter and Austin Taylor. The hymnal is small and in paperback format. It contains 220 songs.
There are some really obscure hymns, such as: “The call from the Islands,” which is a plea to send the Gospel to the far away islands. There is also a strong military theme such as: Hold the fort, or, Volunteers to the front, or, The bugle call is ringing, or, as in our Jump Start yesterday, At the battle’s front.
The forgotten hymn that we look at today is called, “Be a toiler for the Lord.” The words and music were both penned by R. L. Leftwich. I could find no information about Leftwich other than the name of another hymn that he wrote.
Be a Toiler for the Lord
Dear Lord, why should we linger here, and with the idler stand,
With sickle dull, the harvest fair, and reapers in demand.
The grain is waving to and fro, O hear the tempest sweep,
As thro’ the harvest field it goes, haste, brother, let us reap.
Far down the valley idlers stand, not knowing what to do,
O give to them a helping hand, that they may labor too.
Dear Lord, help us to labor on in life’s great harvest field,
That when our toiling here is done, abundant be Thy yield.
Chorus: Brother, go and work for Jesus,
Be a toiler for the Lord,
Labor on and be a winner,
And receive the great reward.
This hymn sounds very similar to the words of our verse today. The Lord is calling for reapers. The harvest is ready. Lift up your eyes. Look. There are other hymns that carry the idea of laboring for the Lord. “To the work, to the work,” “Work for the night is coming,” “I want to be a worker for the Lord,” “Lord send me,” and the ole’ classic, “Bringing in the sheaves.”
Here are some thoughts for us:
First, we have a tendency to put off kingdom work. It’s important, we know that. But, somehow we take care of self first and the kingdom later. We wear ourselves out doing stuff for us, but little for the kingdom. Throughout the N.T., the call to busy ourselves in the work of the Lord is found.
There are people to encourage. There are people to teach. There are people to strengthen. And, if we don’t do it who will? Not the world. Not the entertainment community. Not schools. And, not many families. This work falls to us. If we don’t, no one will.
Second, there are those who will only do something if asked or paid. The spirit and heart of a servant is missing. The “why should I” ought never to cross our lips. We do because we care. We do because the Lord first did to us. We do because it’s the right thing to do.
Brother, go and work for Jesus. You’ll find more work than you can do. You’ll find the laborers are few. You’ll find many reasons to quit. You’ll find opposition every step of the way. Tired. Lonely. Weary. And, discouraged because of those standing idle, yet we must “go work for Jesus.”
The dedicated athlete will get up and run another mile after he has run so many already. He will do that when he is tired and his body hurts. He will do that when his mind is screaming “quit.” He will push himself onward because that is where his goal is taking him.
Go and work for the Lord.
Third, the work done in the kingdom is spiritual and eternal. It can change the course direction of a family. It can benefit hundreds of lives. Like planting a tiny tree, we may never enjoy the shade from that tree or eat of it’s fruit, but others will.
I think of my friend, Van, who in his 80s, travels to study the Bible with men on death row in Alabama. Talk about a tough work. But he has used his sickle to harvest fields that are ready for the Lord. His incentive is that this is right and good and everyone seems to have forgotten those lost souls. Go and work for Jesus is what he does.
Be a toiler for the Lord—it’s the greatest thing you can be known for.
Roger