Collect Souls for Jesus!

Many people go through life collecting things. Some of these collections, like rare stamps or coins, may have great monetary value, and the collector may even count on selling his prized possessions to support him in his old age or to finance a child’s college education. Some collections have no intrinsic value but become an heirloom to pass on through the generations, like baby’s first tooth, lock of hair, photo, and rattle. Other collections, like dried flowers pressed in a book to commemorate special occasions, are valuable only to the collector for the memories they bring to mind.

While material collections may bring security, pleasure or happiness, we should be careful not to give them undue importance:

Luke 12:15 And [Jesus]said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

Then there are the “collections” that can actually harm the collector or those around him – pornography magazines, leftover prescription medications, notches on a bedpost representing sexual conquests, music or DVDs reflecting questionable values, and empty chocolate boxes, wine bottles, or menus from restaurants where the collector overindulged fleshly appetites. Taken to an extreme, collecting anything material, even if valuable or pleasing, can lead to hoarding, with the resulting clutter preventing repairs and visits from friends and even endangering health.

But the bottom line is that when we leave this earth, we can take none of these collections with us, and we should use what God gives us to further His kingdom, storing our treasures in Heaven where they bring us eternal benefits (Luke 12:16-34).

As the Rapture draws nearer, we should all realize that the only treasure that matters is what we can lay at Jesus’ feet and that will withstand the purifying fire. The gold, silver and jewels that emerge unscathed from the fire of judgment are those deeds done with the right heart and the right motive to further Christ’s kingdom, while those “good deeds” we did out of pride or for our own selfish motives will burn up like wood, hay and stubble (1 Cor 3: 11-15).

One of the best crowns we can lay at Jesus’ feet is the soulwinner’s crown – a living crown of those souls we helped bring to Jesus (I Thess 2:19-20) – not necessarily by being the one who led the unsaved person through the sinner’s prayer, but rather by playing any part in the process. Planting or watering the seed by witnessing, sharing a tract, inviting someone to church, supporting missions can all make a difference (1 Cor 3:5-9). Not until we reach Glory will it be fully revealed to us how each prayer we prayed for missionaries, or how our gifts to support missions, led to specific people being saved! What a blessing it will be to meet these people in Heaven!

A prime example in the Bible of a “soul collector” is the apostle Andrew. As soon as Andrew was saved, he shared his acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah with his brother Peter (John 1:41). Even though Peter, and not Andrew, became part of Christ’s inner circle, Andrew did not appear to grow bitter, but rather kept right on collecting souls for Christ. Although it was Peter who preached the sermon at Pentecost that led to thousands of souls being saved (Acts 2:41), Andrew must have shared in that crown to lay at Jesus’ feet, simply because he was the one who brought Peter to Christ!

Through Andrew’s passion for collecting souls, he was able to play a part in one of Christ’s recorded miracles by bringing the boy with the loaves and fishes to Jesus, resulting in the multitudes being fed, and no doubt many being saved (John 6:8-9). Later, Andrew shared the Gospel with the Greeks (John 12:20-22), even though many of the Jews did not yet realize that God intended for them to be part of His Kingdom too, and not just His chosen people the Hebrews.

So let’s follow Andrew’s example, lay up our treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6:20), and be soul collectors for Jesus!