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Thoughts On Missions Matthew 28:19-20
It's been almost a week since I just returned from a 10 day mission trip. Lots of Folks are asking how it went. The short answer is, " it went really, really well." Team members grew in faith, and I even matured some more. People that we served were uplifted, emotionally, spiritually, and with practical physical help. No radical conversions were seen, but I believe that God was glorified in most everything that happened. A few of the highlights will have to settle into me before I can write them in detail. The rest of this blog entry was written just before the trip.
In 2002 one of my sons presented me with a bi-lingual bible. a couple weeks ago I was cleaning out the office and finally threw the tattered torn book away. I usually try to transfer any notes I can from one bible to the new one, and review what God has spoken to me during the seasons that I have had that last copy. Not this time. For three days I had been cleaning my office and getting rid of any thing that could possibly go. This time there was not time to even take a look at the "best highlights." The words are holy, not the pages or the book. One of the quotes written in the pages did get saved. I tore it out just before I tossed the book along with a huge pile of papers in my cluttered office.
" Preaching the gospel is like attending a birth. With most of our 9 children, I have been just as exhausted as Marianne by the time the birthing process is over. Only the Holy Spirit can give birth to some one. Only the convicted person experiences the birth. We, as attendants, labor also, and experience the energy and exhilaration and exhaustion after."
In obedience to go, make disciples,baptize, and teaching others to obey Jesus, we find a promise. Jesus knew we would need his comfort and assurance when times of adverse circumstances tempt us to be doubting him. When we are facing persecution and suffering for doing the right things, Jesus proclaimed that he is with us.
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. - Mat 28:19-20 NKJV
Learning to have the right priorities first is so important in our daily walk, and as we seek to serve others in the kingdom. Here is another note that I kept back from the "burn pile". John Piper once wrote,
"Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. When this age is over, countless millions of the redeemed will fall on their faces before the throne of God, and missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever. Worship, therefore is the fuel and the goal of missions. Worship is the goal in missions. Because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white hot enjoyment of Gods glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God."
Thirdly, I would like to quote from a devotional that had been a real help to me in learning how to serve. "My Utmost For His Highest" March 11th, Oswald Chambers, Acts 26:19
"If we lose the vision, we alone are responsible, and the way we lose the vision is by spiritual leakage. If we do not run our belief about God into practical issues, it is all up with the vision God has given. The only way to be obedient to the heavenly vision is to give our utmost for God's highest, and this can be done by continually and resolutely recalling the vision. The test is 60 seconds of every minute, and the sixty minutes of every hour, not our times of prayer and devotional meetings."
What is the vision that you have received? If you have not received a vision of what God has called you to, or you've struggled keeping the most vision your main priority, like I have been struggling with the last couple years, you are in grave danger. Where there is no vision, the people perish: prov 29:18
My vision is to run the race of following Jesus as his disciple. To continue in the right direction to obtain the completeness that I have been called to; Philippians 3:12.13 If new births occur and disciples are made along the way, then all glory be to Our Father. He is the only one that can open the eyes of our heart and draw us to Jesus. See Matthew 16:17 and John 6:44 May Holy Spirit be using us more than ever in this rescuing and caring for His sheep. G.W.
