What’s so special about October that today’s pastoral letter should be entitled “Entering the Month of October?”  There’s nothing special about it because we will be doing what we need to do for the past months: serve God, take care of the family, do our job, etc.  It is, however, special because we enter the last quarter of the year which means that there is not much time left before the year ends.  Yet this period of three months is not that short either.  It is long enough for us to finish an important task.  In other words, we still have some, but not much time to do something so that this year could be counted a year well spent.  Thus, the question is: what do you need to finish so that this year could be a counted a year well lived?

You must bring a lost soul to Christ, or the least you could do is to bring that person to the door step of salvation.  God willing, if the Third Person of the Triune God, the Holy Spirit works, there is time to identify someone, pray, care, bring him to church, attend the Basic Bible Class, share the gospel with him and lead him to the Lord.  I urge you to strive to bring someone to the Lord within these three months.

To do that, however, requires you to make sacrifices.  This reminds me of a car dealer who in an attempt to meet a sales quota for that month which was soon ending, even offered to give me a discount out of his own pocket.  Why?  This money that he dug out of his own pocket would win him a bonus that would cover his loss.  For that reason, he went all out to close this deal.

The principle is applicable here.  If you want this year to be a good year, you need to put aside all other concerns to create extra time because the year is soon ending.  It is simply not possible to say you want to save a soul in such a short time but yet still want to cling on to your usual lifestyle.

There are several things you can do.  First, cut down 15 minutes of movie watching.  If you read a lot of news, read the important ones but just gloss over the titles of news that are less important.  The principle is this: if you just cut down a little time for each activity, you would save enough time to do gospel work.

Use the time that you have redeemed to “FLIP” lives for God.  The acronymn FLIP stands for “Friend,” “Life,” “Invite’” and “Pray.”  You must “pray” for the Holy Spirit to open the spiritual eyes of the unbeliever.  Be his “friend” by sincerely loving and caring for him unconditionally.  Live a good Christian “life.”  Be holy in your manner of life.  Then “invite” him to church or to the Basic Bible Class.

There are only three months left.  If you do not work hard to try to save a soul now, when you come to the end of the year, you would feel that the year has been wasted.  But if you work hard to save a soul, God may use you to lead someone into eternal life.  But even if you do not bring someone to Christ despite having done your part, you will also rejoice because you have been faithful to God and God is pleased with your faithfulness.  “Carpe Diem!” (“seize the day” in Latin).