Robert Moffat, the father-in -law of David Livingstone, said, 'we have all eternity in which to enjoy our victories, but only one short life in which to win them.
Introduction
13 'we make the commitment (to Christ) and leave the results to God. in a sense, it's like signing a blank check and allowing god to fill in the amount. it can be a frightening adventure. but god will never demand more from us than we have to give. ...
..one of the most basic choices is where we will focus our attention, whether we will focus on ourselves or on the world around us. expressed another way, we face a choice to be WORLDLY CHRISTIANS or WORLD CHRISTIANS.
a worldly christian is one who accepts the basic message of salvation, but whose lifestyle, priorities and concerns are molded by self-centered preoccupation. the selfish spirit of
14 our age leads the worldly christian to look to God and the Bible primarily for personal fulfillment. the worldly christian looks to Scripture for personal blessing;prays mostly for immediate, personal needs and sees the christian faith as a way to 'get God on his or her side.
the worldly christian's desire for self-fulfillment and personal satisfaction makes his or her perspective very narrow. as such, he or she may oppose a worldwide perspective and can actually oppose the worldwide commission of the Gospel...
the worldly christian IS rigid in his or her thinking. the mind is closed to certain aspects of God's revealed will and attention turns inward...
everybody prides himself in having an open mind, but few actually achieve it. man's capacity for self-deception is enormous. we think we have an open mind while in fact we are victims of our own prejudices and predilections. we have long ago decided that there are certain things we will not do. we wouldn't dare say it to god, but in our minds we have decided, 'anything but christian service' or 'anywhere but the foreign field.
as christians, we face the choice: will we turn inward and focus on the new life we have in Christ only as it benefits us? or will we look beyond ourselves, opening ourselves completely to God and His purposes for us?
..'giving God the 'BLANK CHECK' of
15 our lives can be a frightening adventure because He may work in ways that we are not used to..
the world christian breaks the mold of a self-centered way of thinking. a world christian understands that Jesus calls us to deny ourselves (luke 9.23) so that we might respond to a world of greater need beyond ourselves. ..'World christians are day to day disciples for whom Christ's global cause has become the integrating, overriding priority for all that He is for them. like disciples should, they actively investigate all that their Master's Great Commission means. they they act on what they learn. christians are christians whose life directions have been solidly transformed by a world vision.
16 some things in life are optional and some are not.
wearing shoes is optional. but eating is not.
driving a car is optional. but once you choose the option, driving on the right hand side of the road (here in America) is not.
becoming a christian is optional. but once you decide to ask Jesus Christ to take control of your life, involvement in world missions is no longer optional.
i'm not saying that these things are impossible. you can choose to go without eating, but if you do you must take the consequences. you must be willing to exist at a low energy level, to invite infection and disease and if you persist, to die.
you can choose to drive on the left but you will pay fines and cause accidents.
to focus our attention outward,to grow as world christians, is really not an option at all. looking to the needs, concerns and opportunities of our world in the same way that our Lord would is a basic part of identifying ourselves with Him. if we choose to live with no outward focus, WE WILL SUFFER. peter wagner identifies three realms where our spiritual growth will be hampered if we choose to be worldly christians:
you can reject missions even if you are a christian. but the consequences are clear;
1. you will find yourself sitting on the bench while you could be in there playing the game...missions are on the cutting edge of excitement in the christian life. being left out means a dull existence as a child of God. it is less than God's best for you.
2. you will lose authenticity as a christian. you say the Jesus is your Lord, but yet you will be failing to obey Him at a crucial point. another word for that is hypocrisy.
17 3. you will be poorly prepared for that judgment day when what we have done here on earth will be tested by fire and only the gold, silver and precious stones will survive. I corinthians 3.1`2-5
in order to become world christians, we must learn to combat the overwhelming spirit of selfishness that we see (note - in our world and in the church...)
the most basic way to do this is to start seeing the world as God sees it. we must believe that 'the origin of missions is ULTIMATELY to be found in the heart of God...no thought of God is true to His revelation of Himself that does not rest on the fact that He 'so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son' that by believing in Him 'the world should be saved through Him.
this truth (which has) transformed many...can transform us too. when we start to see the world with Christ's love and compassion (in the words of bob pierce, to have our hearts 'broken with the things that break the heart of God), our perspective enlarges. like david, we will say, 'I will run the way of Thy commandments, for Thou will enlarge my heart'. psalm 119.32
seeking God's perspective on the world can quickly overwhelm us,, however, if we are not focusing our attention on Him. only He can love THE WORLD; we do not have that capacity. this need to focus first of Godis why the leaders of WORLDTEAM challenge those who would be world christians to remember that, 'for the World Christian, life begins
18 with God, not the world around him, nor even the need of world evangelism. he is absorbed first in God and for that reason he becomes absorbed with humanity. the World christian takes up the case
of world missions because he understands that to be God's cause. because 'God so loved the world', the world christian absorbed in God is committed to His program of world redemption.
I AM SO FAR FROM THIS IDEAL, you may think. I WANT TO SEE THE WORLD FROM GOD'S PERSPECTIVE AND I WANT TO BE SO ABSORBED IN GOD THAT I AM LIKEWISE ABSORBED IN HIS PURPOSES, BUT I AM NOT THERE YET. take heart! none of us has arrived. none of us are fully world christians, but we can choose to grow in that direction....
anthropologists...explain that at our cores is a basic view of reality - a worldview. that worldview determines who we are, what we will value and how we behave.
if our worldview is unchristian, or less-than-biblical, it will inevitably surface in values and actions that contradict the heart of the biblical worldview...
but if my actions stem from a biblical worldview, then it becomes a matter of FAITHFUL OBEDIENCE. i can allow a fad to slip away, but not something that goes as deep as obedience. i have decided to follow Jesus with my whole life and i understand where He's going. it's no longer a matter of choosing a career or lifestyle - it's a matter of faithfulness.
the choice to grow, therefore, is basic to our starting the process of developing biblical world visions. to be faithful in
19 that which we learn is also basic, but there is more.
if we are going to go forward as world christians and be stretched by an expanding view of God's world, we must make two choices.
FIRST, WE MUST DETERMINE TO GET OUR EYES OFF OURSELVES.
like the apostle paul, we must say, 'i no longer live, but Christ lives in me (galatians 2.20) and 'if we live, we live to the Lord. (romans 14.8) our lives are not our own. we have been 'bought at a price' (I corinthians 6.20, and OUR GOAL IS TO GROW AS DISCIPLES - those who choose to be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ.
in practical terms, this may mean overcoming our fear of others and sharing the gospel with peers or coworkers. it may mean revising our sleeping, eating or spending habits. whatever it means to each of us, it is a conscious statement to ourselves that we are going to allow Jesus to be our LORD.
SECOND, WE MUST BUILD FOR GROWTH. all of us realize that we are far from our goal of being world christians, both in terms of personal worship of our great God and in terms of our obedience to His calling into the world around us. but we can grow!
building world vision in ourselves and others means that we grow toward God's goal that every people and tongue and nation would worship Him ( revelation 7.9-10) by starting right where we are. in the process of building a world vision, we may become discouraged when we see how far we have yet to go, but we can also turn around and be encouraged by how far we have come.
developing a world vision does not mean that we forget about the people around us. it does not mean that we become preoccupied with the people 'over there' (a phenomenon eugene peterson calls 'Afghanistanitis', the belief that the real needs are all beyond us), nor does it mean we pack our belongings and head to the airport while praying for
19 God to direct us to the 'right' plane to take overseas. we must not neglect the need and mandate to be witnesses right where we are. as our worldwide compassion for the lost builds, we must demonstrate this compassion to friends, relatives and neighbors - people God has put in our lives right now. reaching out to those who are near us will remind us of the millions around the world who have no opportunity to hear of Christ and will challenge us to pray and act.
..building a world vision, however, is still a challenge. it requires discipline, hard work and the willingness to fight against our own self-centeredness. 'admiral mahon of the american navy during the War of Independence is said to have insisted on a dictum when teaching his officers: 'gentlemen, whenever you set out to accomplish anything, make up your mind at the outset about your ultimate objective. once you have decided on it, take care never to lose sight of it'. let us not lose sight of our goal of becoming world christians!
BUILDING BLOCK ONE - THE SCRIPTURES
23 ..john stott..at urbana..said a number of times..OUR GOD IS A MISSIONARY GOD ...he showed us this from the old testament.
these tow points stayed with me because they opened my mind to the fact that missions is not an addendum that God had Jesus command His followers to pursue just before He left the earth. instead, missions comes from the heart of God. the message of missions is woven throughout the Bible and the sending of God's people into all the earth was not an appendix to the story of redemption. missions was in God's heart all along. our God is a missionary God!
many people who think themselves to be 'missions
24 minded' still need to look at the whole of Scripture to see God's entire witness. missions is not a new testament idea; it permeates Scripture. a careful study of Scripture reveals God's consistent, purposeful and merciful desire to see all peoples come into fellowship with Him. david howard explains the scriptural foundation of missions this way:
the missionary enterprise of the church is not pyramid built upside down with its point on one isolated text in the new testament out of which we have built a huge structure known as 'missions. rather, the missionary enterprise of the church is a great pyramid built right side up with its base running from genesis 1 to revelation 22. all of Scripture forms the foundation for the outreach of the gospel to the whole world.
what better place to start, then, that with Scripture as we seek to build our world vision? the Bible promises that it is profitable for our 'training in righteousness' II timothy 3.16, and if developing our world vision is part of that training, we must start in God's revealed Word.
....'why do many ministers fail to teach world mission in their regular Bible exposition? why do students fail to
25 pass on this vision to new christians? WHY DO MANY CHRISTIANS OF ALL AGES CONSIDER OVERSEAS MISSION TO BE AN OPTIONAL EXTRA? the fundamental reason is that they do not see it as a basic teaching of the whole of Scripture. it is a failure to grasp the biblical basis of mission that stops it being taught in the normal everyday programme of Bible teaching.
with our eyes open wide, then, let us take a look at the scriptural witness.
Creation - the book of Genesis opens us to what scholar Johannes Verkuyl calls the 'universal motif' of the old testament. through genesis we see that God created the heavens and the earth. he is introduced as the Lord and Maker of all creation. 'the relation of God to the world is not the relation of cause to its effect..the relation is rather one of a personal Creator to His creation. God is personally interested in all of His creation, not just one group of people or one isolated geographic area.
from out of His creation, God created His ultimate master piece - mankind. in his prefallen state, this perfect man was given a commission, which theologians call the 'cultural mandate, to 'be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it'. genesis 1.28 man was also instructed to enjoy all of creation in its 'vast array' genesis 2.1
but then adam and eve sinned. God, in His desire to have worshipers and not puppets, had given them the freedom to choose and they chose o disobey God. because of their disobedience, fellowship with God was broken and God's perfect creation was marred by imperfection.
26 yet even in the crisis of adam and eve's sin, the fact that God is a missionary God is evident. although their fellowship was broken, God sought out His created beings in order to demonstrate His desire for reconciliation and redemption: 'but the Lord God called to the man, 'where are you? genesis 3.9
so from the Fall onward, God has been seeking to call men and women back to Himself. in genesis 3.21 we read that 'the Lord God made garments of skin for adam and his wife and clothed them. as the making of the garments foreshadowed, God was willing to shed blood so that the effects of sin could be covered.
our God is a missionary God. He demonstrated this in His creation and in His pursuit of man after the Fall.
Abraham - as a result of adam's sin, human civilization began outside of fellowship with God. humanity populated the earth, fulfilling the mandate found in genesis 1.28, but without God's intended perfection. so in time God destroyed the earth because of man's wickedness (genesis 6.5-6), but He redeemed noah and his family because of their righteousness. genesis 7.1 later, confusion reigned at the tower of babel . genesis 11.1
yet in the midst of this profusion of sin, and out of the increased distance that was building between God and man, God called Abram. genesis 12.1-3 God made a covenant with abram, promising him that he would be the agent of God's redemption to all the earth. through abram God promised that 'all the peoples on earth will be blessed. genesis 12.3
27 God's call to abraham is repeated in genesis 17. 1-7, where God establishes the 'everlasting covenant' with abraham and his descendants. through abraham and his descendants, god again took the initiative to bring His blessing and redemption to all the earth.
The Law - God wanted to bring His message of blessing and redemption to all the earth through abraham's physical descendants, the people of israel. but their sinfulness requited the establishment of the Law.
even in the Law, which is usually considered to be a revelation specifically for the people of israel, God demonstrates His love for all who are not redeemed. at the outset of the Ten Commandments, god establishes that there is one God in all the earth: 'you shall have no other gods before Me. exodus 20.3 the people of israel were called to be witnesses of this one true God: 'israel wasn't great because of the number of people or the wars it won or the cities it built - israel was great because God called the nation to demonstrate His character and love to the nations around it. theus the righteousness of the Law was intended to set israel apart (see levitcus 20.22-26; deuteronomy 7.6-8, 14.2, 28.1) later God made it plain that israel's selection was to lead others to 'acknowledge the Lord (isaiah 19.21), but the initial call of the mission was that one nation would know Him.
28 in the Law. God also actively reminds the israelites to be concerned and compassionate toward the 'aliens and strangers' because they themselves had been aliens in egypt when God redeemed them (see exodus 22.21, leviticus 19. 33.4, deuteronomy 10. 17-9).
the Law, then, witnesses to the fact that the descendants of abraham -through whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed - were to be set apart. they were to live out the righteousness of the one true God whose glory they were to declare in the whle earth (see numbers 14.21, deuteronomy 28.10)
The Prophets - when the people of israel rebelled against God, He raised up prophets as 'missionaries, echoing the call of God'. the earlier prophets - like elijah and elisha - stood befor rebellious and pagan kings, exhorted them to worship the one true God and handed down God's judgment on those who chose to rebel. the later prophets spoke and wrote as God's voice, calling the people back into fellowship with Him. their purpose in restoring the people of israel to fellowship with God was so that the israelites could be God's witnesses in the world.
william Dyrness clarifies the prophets' purpose:
by the time we come to the prophets it is clear that the calling of israel as a nation is for the sake of the whole world...israel then is to be preserved (df. esther) so that she can meditate God's promises for His creation as a whole. they are to exhibit a people, institutions and a land which will reflect God's glory so that this can one day be communicated to the whole earth and to all peoples.
with God's redemptive purpose clearly in mind, the prophets spoke and wrote. isaiah spoke with the vision that
29 'the whole earth is full of His glory (isaiah 6.3) and predicted, like habakkuk in habakkuk 2.14, that the day would come when 'the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. isaiah 11.9 through isaiah, God promised the people of israel that they would be 'a covenant for the people and a light for the gentiles'. (isaiah 42.6; see also 60.3) in isaiah 52.10 we plainly see God's worldwide purpose: 'the Lord will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. (see also isaiah 45.22-23)
while isaiah is the most outspoken prophet regarding God's commission to the people of israel to be a 'light of revelation to the Gentiles', others like habakkuk and micah echo the same message. in micah 5.4-5, for example, we read, 'and they will live securely, for then His greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. and He will be their peace.
The Psalms - the writers of the psalms likewise reflect a worldwide understanding of God's purposes. when referring to God at work in the world, their overriding theme was that God's name should be declared in all the earth. for example, in psalm 33.8 we see that all the earth is urged to worship God; in psalm 67.1-2 God is asked to work in such a way that His power and His name would be known throughout the earth; in psalm 96.3 God's worshipers are exhorted to be witnesses to God's glory throughout the whole earth; and in psalm 145. 8-13 the psalmist testifies that God's people will themselves speak of God in such a way that 'all men may know of your mighty acts. (vs 12)
the declaration of God's name throughout the earth is ultimately summed up in psalm 2.8, which is a prophecy of God's work through Jesus Christ: 'Ask of Me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession'.
Missionaries. the Old Testament's 'universal motif'
30 is demonstrated not only through the Scriptures themselves, but also through the people presented in Scripture. Elisha's work, for example, demonstrated God's redemption to gentiles like the shunammite woman (II kings 4.8ff) and Naaman the Syrian (II kings 5) . esther served as God's missionary to her gentile captors and joseph was God's agent of redemption in egypt (genesis 50.20). the fact that god is a missionary God, however, is nowhere more evident in the old testament than in the lives of daniel and jonah, two 'witnesses' to pagan kingdoms.
as God's messenger, daniel's ministry brought him in touch with 4 pagan kings - Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Cyrus and Darius. daniel's witness was consistent and convicting, to the point that Nebuchadnezzar of babylon was seemingly converted. daniel 4.34-7 daniel himself saw the universal aspect of God's dominion in a vision where 'one like a son of man' was given 'authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. daniel 7.13-4 perhaps the greatest testimony to daniel's work as a missionary in a pagan land occurred after God's hand saved him from the lions. when King Darius saw what daniel's God had done, he ordered 'all the peoples, nations and men of every language throughout the land' t 'fear and reverence the God of Daniel' daniel 6.25-7 in these instances, God worked to bring His redemption to nonisraelites through one israelite who was being a 'light to the nations' as god intended.
another old testament messenger who served as a missionary, although not quite as willingly as daniel, was jonah. called to be a missionary to nineveh, jonah first ran from God's call. through the influence of a storm, three days in the belly of a great fish and direct confrontation with God, jonah became convinced that he should go to nineveh as a missionary, which was what god originally intended.
31 in nineveh, jonah preached and achieved great results. the whole city, under the leadership of the king and his nobles, repented. God had mercy and spared the city. there were hundreds - maybe thousands - of converts, yet jonah became depressed. (jonah 4) jonah explained his depression in a prayer of God, 'i knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and bounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. jonah 4.2 jonah knew the character of the god of the old testament; he knew that God would send him as an agent of redemption to save the people of nineveh (who were probably jonah's natural enemies). jonah knew God's character and knew that God wanted to show mercy to all peoples and nations. although jonah did not like God's plan to bring redemption to all peoples, he was compelled to be a messenger of God's redemption.
Summary. our God is a missionary God. He prepared His people israel, as children of abraham, to be a blessing to all nations. in the old testament, God's people made choices that kept them from fulfilling His perfect plan, but they could not stop His purposes from being plainly stated. God was in the business of redemption and He would accomplish His purposes through His Messiah. as william dyrness observes, 'the Old Testament prepares a universal message for what will become in the New Testament a universal mission.
The New Testament Witness
the Messiah has come. God's ways are perfect and despite the rebellion of the people of israel, He accomplished His purpose through abraham's seed. Jesus Christ, who is the promised messiah - the fulfillment of old testament prophecy - came out of the nation of israel so that the light of revelation could come to the gentiles, enabling all nations to
32 be blessed through abraham.
The Gospels. the message of the gospels, that Jesus came for the whole world, is plain, it is seen from the appearance of the wise men of the east in jesu' crib to Jesus' affinity for Samaritans, Gentiles, and other undesirables.
luke's gospel documents the Messiah's outreach to the centurion (luke 7.1-10) and others who were not acceptable to the religious leaders of the day. john shows Jesus interacting with a samaritan woman of ill repute (john 4) . matthew documents Jesus' compassion for a canaanite woman. (matthew 15.21-8) as does Mark in Mark 7.24-30.
beyond His personal example of involvement with non-jews, Jesus also told parables to let the religious leaders know that God's favor had fallen to others and not to them. Jesus defied the expectations of many regarding the messiah by summarizing His mission with the word, 'The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. luke 19.10
through His son, God demonstrates His sending heart; He reaches out to lost humanity by giving the only sacrifice that will satisfy the Law and restore a right relationship between man and God. Jesus Christ, God's divine son, is sent so that 'whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. john 3.16
in the gospels, the missionary God reveals Himself through His Son who is not only sent, but also sends His followers with a renewed commission to which the people of israel never obediently responded. the commission is clear - so clear that all four gospel writers recorded it in one for or another (and Luke recorded it again in acts 1.8):
matthew 28.19 - therefore go and make disciples of all the nations.
Mark 16.15 - go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
33 Luke 24.47 - repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations.
john 20.21 - as the Father has sent Me, I am sending you.
Acts world missions is at the center of this historical account of the start of the Church. Acts begins with a reiteration of Jesus' commission, only it refers to the POWER of the witness as well as the location of the witness. acts 1.8 identities the Holy spirit as the sending force behind the missionaries as they go out into their own community (Jerusalem), their region (all Judea), the region that was socially and ethnically different from their own (Samaria) , and the world beyond their knowledge (the ends of the earth).
in Acts we see that the mission of the Church was no longer in the hands of the divine Son. through the Holy spirit, it was entrusted to human beings who were sent into the world as witnesses - heralds of God's grace. since these witnesses had touched, experienced and felt His grace (I john 1.1), they could testify to it. Acts reveals the Church's proper response to the Great Commission. the christians undertook the fulfillment of the commission as a 'responsibility which was to be shouldered by every member.
yet the early christians were far from perfect. in Acts 8.1 we see that it took persecution to scatter the Church out of Jerusalem into the world, and Acts 10 shows that even the leaders of the Church were hesitant to open their doors to Gentiles. but as the Holy Spirit continued to work the gospel went out, documenting that God indeed was no respecter of persons 'but accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right. acts 10.35
The Epistles - some people argue against missions because of the apparent lack of missions-oriented references in the Epistles. such arguing, however, ignores one very significant
34 aspect of the letters' contexts; they are basically missionary letters written from a missionary (or missionaries) to young christians who were becoming established in the faith.
the Epistles were written from missionaries to mission-planted churches in order to address problems in the early Church (I corinthians, galatians) or to establish an understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ (romans, galatians). some epistles address the theology of the Church or church structure (ephesians, the pastoral epistles), while others console christians who face hardship (peter's letters). the supremacy of Christ (hebrews, personal issues (philemon), and encouragement (philippians) are among other topics dealt with in the new Testament missionary letters. however each epistle reiterates Scripture's message that God wants 'all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (I timothy 2.4; see also II peter 3.9)
Revelation. the mysterious last book of the Bible has challenged scholars and theologians for centuries. symbolism, imagery and hidden meanings make it difficult to interpret, but the image of the missionary God of Scripture is nevertheless plain. Revelation portrays God as the sovereign ruler of history. at the end of time, people from the ends of the earth will offer their worship to Him. 'after this i looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the lamb. they were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. and they cried out in a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb' . revelation 7.9-10
THE DOMINANT THEMES IN SCRIPTURE
1. There is salvation in no one else.
exodus 20.3; isaiah 42.8; 48.11; 43.11; 45.23;
36 john 14.6; acts 4.12; I timothy 2.5; philippians 2.10; isaiah 45.23
in his fine book, The Great Omission, dr. j. roberson mcquilkin attributes our failure to fulfill the Great commission to arrant doctrine regarding Jesus as our only salvation. the 'wider hope' theory - that there might be other ways to God outside of Jesus Christ - diminishes any incentive to spread the gospel. if sincerity saves, then people have no need for Jesus as long as they are sincere in whatever they believe if people can be saved through general, universal salvation - the belief that Christ's death saves people even if they do not know of or believe in Him - then there is no need to send missionaries, support missionaries or pray for them...
2. the basis of mission is to reveal the glory of God.
Isaiah 55.11; daniel 4.35; Job 38.4; isaiah 66: 1-2; luke 17.10; II corinthians 4.6
the great missionary to the North American Indians, David Brainerd, knew this glorious God of the Bible. his vision of God motivated his vision for missions: 'brainerd prays for his friends and his enemies. but this act of prayer rises out of a higher vision. God must be known and not simply by name. God's name was well-known, even in the wilds of New Jersey. God must be known as GOD! to brainerd that was the great thing, even Christ's kingdom serves that end. let God be known! to know God is the great essential. and to make Him known was Brainerd's task.
3. God wants to use us.
jeremiah 29.11, I corinthians 15.10, I peter 2.4-10
BUILDING BLOCK #2 CURRENT EVENTS
41 building a world vision through current events requires some special skills.
First, we need spiritual glasses; we need to start seeing the world the way God sees it. in matthew 9.36, we read that Jesus had compassion on the crowds of people because they were ' harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ...which let to His command to His disciples to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out workers. matthew 9.38
42 Second, we need 'bifocal vision' in order to increase our world vision through our knowledge of current events. ..(this is) the ability to see and care for both the world in our immediate vicinity and the bigger picture - the world we do not touch directly...matthew 28.19; acts 1.8
...Third, we must be open to seeing our own sinfulness and selfishness if we are to increase our world vision through current events.
... Fourth, we need to remember how God works through world events if we are to build our world vision through them.
...through the ages, God has mightily used current events to direct the Church. even the persecution mentioned in Acts 8.1 was a God-ordained tool to help the Church fulfill the commission of Acts 1.8
43 ..in His providence, God has allowed the church in china to undergo hostile attack, but under sustained attack, the Church in china has not just survived, it has actually flourished. from 1 million believers in 1951, when the ...missionaries made reluctant exodus, the number of christians in china today may have reached a staggering 50 million. (note; 1985)
an article in National Geographic (december 1986) on the tsetse fly of Africa records another of God's sovereign acts in the spread of the gospel. in the article, the author observes that Islam's advancement into Africa was stopped because of the fly's effect on the Muslims and their horses and camels. (the tsetse fly carries sleeping sickness.) so through a disease-inflicting fly, god preserved the people of central and southern Africa for one of the greatest revivals the Church has ever known - a revival that continues to this day.
...read the news and magazines...
46... RESPOND!
...in PRAYER.. consistent intercession for one particular geographic location or one people...lofting of 'prayer arrows' in response to needs we hear about
...Lord have mercy!!!
the one time 'prayer arrow' serves to remind us of who is in charge.
second, we must keep from growing calloused.
47 ..willing to open ourselves up to God's Spirit and ask Him to help us know how to respond to what we learn about. none of us has the emotional or spiritual capacity to respond to every need we hear bout, but we must not compensate for that inability by taking on an apathetic, 'who cares?' attitude...
..when we hear a story - especially one about conflict between people, ideologies or countries - the reporter inevitably takes sides. as christians, we must not take sides when we approach the Lord in prayer...if we forget that, our world view will be hampered by our biases.
.. third, we must seek a manageable impact...
..we may not be able to affect conflicts that we hear about regarding libya, but there might be a muslim student in our community whom we can invite to our home. we may not be able to stop world hunger, but we can invite to our home. we may not be able to stop world hunger, but we can fast for a day and send the money we would have spent on food to a hunger relief agency. isaiah 58.7 ..relationship of fasting to the relief of the poor
48 ..World Vision, a hunger-relief organization, publishes a poster that reflects our need for a manageable impact. in one corner, there is a picture of a mass of people with the question, 'how do you help one billion hungry people? in the lower corner, there is a picture of a wide-eyed child holding his empty food bowl with the answer, 'ONE AT A TIME.
we increase our world vision by learning about what is happening in the world around us. we put our vision into practice by acting in response to what we have learned.
..one of the greatest challenges facing the Church in the days ahead is how to respond to urbanization. the world's population, especially in the developing world, is dramatically increasing - a fact we might not be aware of here in the united states.
david bryant briefly outlines the impact of urbanization in the Third World:
in 1983, 4.7 billion people inhabited the earth. by 1990, that number will rise to 5.3 billion; by the middle of the next century, we will have 9 billion inhabitants. most of that growth will take place in the less developed world. today, 10 out of every 11 babies born are born in the Third Word. with most of the unreached currently in Africa and Asia, what will it mean to have 75% of our planet's population residing there within two decades?
bryant asks a good question, especially since most of this growth will be in cities. he goes on to say, 'it's a fact that
49 where the cities go, the nations go and so goes the world. so, unless christians successfully confront the major urban problems of our day, we will soon face unfathomable difficulties in preaching the gospel and we will be up against cultural and moral forces undreamed of today.
...statistics from..Barrett's research: (note: i just take one of about 5-6 of the largest cities in the world
MEXICO CITY
*1986 -18.4 million
*(in 1987, 400 million Third World country dwellers steamed into cities.)
*by 1999 - (this city) will be the world's most polluted city, with 6 million cars and a population growth rate of 1.1 million people per year.
*by 2000 - 27.6 million
*by 2050 - 41.5 million
* by 2050 there will be 80 cities that Barrett calls 'urban super giants' - cities with more than 10 million people
* by 2400, the world is predicted to be 95% urbanized.
50 ..an example of how to respond to world events in a vision-building endeavor:
-choose one city as your focus
pray for that city
learn all you can about it
start a file on it
collect any articles you read about that city
-contact a christian ministry working in that city..and become ..familiar with that mission..
-in no direct work..try to find out which mission agencies broadcast christian radio programs into the city.
-pray for and seek out an opportunity to meet someone, perhaps an international student, form that city
-find out the names of political leaders in that country and city and pray for them by name
- seek to understand more about urbanization and why it is happening..read articles about the trend
- if you can contact a christian church/ministry there, find out about one individual for whom you can pray (note - and seek to gain (regular) contact with them
- consider financial involvement in ministry in the area
-encourage others in your christian fellowship to pray with you for that city
-pray, plan and save so that you might be able to visit that city...
(note: - LEARN THE LANGUAGE, LEARN A TRADE (paul was a tent maker) AND MOVE THERE!)
when we confront current events and the awesome magnitude of the world, we run the risk of shrinking away and
51 retreating to our safe little, manageable worlds. but building a world vision means that we learn to think small in response to the big picture we learn bout. we can do our part, even if it seems insignificant, because we know that God's perspective includes His concern for every sparrow that falls to the ground. matthew 10.29
malcolm muggeridge expressed the christian perspective succinctly. he says,' christianity is not a statistical view of life. that there should be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over all the hosts of the just, is an anti-statistical proposition.
God sees our responses to the world, no matter how small they may seem. He will work through our compassionate responses to the world around us to change it. when we keep this thought in mind, our world visions will grow!
BUILDING BLOCK #3 - PRAYER
53 if we look to Scripture, we find that God wants 'all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth'. I timothy 2.4; II peter 3.9 we also find that the Lord Jesus' return to earth is contingent on the fulfillment of the Great Commission: 'and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come. matthew 24.14 yet when we look at the world around us we wonder, O LORD, HOW SHALL THESE THINGS BE? we feel overwhelmed, over burdened, sometimes even hopeless.
discovering God's perspective of love and redemption from His Holy Word and becoming informed about the reality of our world's deep needs should drive us to our knees in prayer. ...'God is calling us to stand in the gap (ezekiel 22.30) primarily as a people of prayer.
Jesus emphasized the importance of prayer as He taught His disciples. when Jesus saw the multitudes in need, for instance, He did not tell His disciples to go out and meet all of those needs. instead, He told them to CALL ON the Lord of the harvest to send out workers (note: SEND ME, LORD!) INTO THE HARVEST. matthew 9.36-8
54 Prayer reminds us of who is in charge. psalm 46.10
..Malcolm Muggeridge describes God as being 'the friend of silence'. He is the friend of silence because He speaks when we are quiet. when we are quiet, the Lord delivers us from our presumptuous thinking and reminds us that He is the one Sovereign Lord of the earth. ...psalm 46.10...'cease striving' so we can see world evangelization in its proper perspective: 'the Almighty God is in charge; HE will accomplish His purposes.
according to the unknown author of the prayer classic, The Kneeling Christian, the Devil 'makes us believe that we can do more by our won efforts than by our prayer'. according to that author, the Devil wants to make us think this because,
there is nothing that the devil dreads so much as prayer, his great concern is to keep us from praying. he loves to see us 'up to our eyes' in work - provided we do not pray. he does not fear because we are eager and earnest Bible students - provided we are little in prayer. someone has wisely said, 'Satan laughs at our toiling, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.
55 why does satan have such a great fear of prayer? because prayer puts us in touch with the Almighty god, the only One powerful enough to change the world. tom wells explains the priority of prayer in relationship to world evangelization. he says.
prayer is our first work in the harvest. and the reason is not hard to find. it is this: the harvest has a 'Lord. He oversees the harvest. someone supplies the workers. someone controls the progress. and that 'Someone' id God. our first business is not to look at the size of the harvest. our first business is to pray to our God.
yes! our first business is to pray to God, but prayer is hard work. praying to the Lord of the harvest implies that we trust Him with the results of the harvest. in other words, the harvest may not be exactly the way we had envisioned it.
praying to the Lord of the harvest also implies that we believe our prayers will make a difference. yet many of us ( and i am the foremost sinner of all) act as if we do not really believe in prayer. we say we believe in the power of prayer, but our actions deny that fact. the lack of priority attention we give to prayer, the fact that we rely far too much on our own power rather than on god's and the frenetic activity that many of us maintain reveal one truth: we have a hard time believing in the power of prayer. as a result, we face a spiritual power failure in our efforts to fulfill the Great Commission. we remember the command to go and make disciples, but forget that all authority belongs to Jesus....
..McQuilkin summarizes our failure to believe in the power of prayer with a potent challenge: 'is there any wonder that the church has experienced a massive
56 power failure so that darkness envelops the world for which we are to be lights? the connection with our power source is so tenuous, so sporadic, that we are powerless because our prayer is peripheral, a tepid formality, while God is calling us to mighty intercessory warfare.
we need to pray because prayer puts us in touch with God; it leads us to the Lord of the harvest. prayer makes us see that the harvest is His and that we are simply His laborers. if we will be still and realize who He is, we will plug into the source of power that we need to be His witnesses. PRAYER CHANGES US. Richard Foster writes. 'to pray is to change. prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. when we go to the Lord of the harvest in prayer., He changes us so that we see other people and ourselves through His priorities.
57 yes. prayer changes us. this is the testimony of those God has used in missions. hudson taylor was changed as he prayed and God used him mightily in china and in the history of missions. taylor learned through the great man of faith, george muller, to rely on God alone through constant prayer. he said, 'God chose me because i was weak enough. God does not do His great works by large committees. He rains someone to be quiet enough and little enough and then He uses HIM.
prayer forced adoniram judson, missionary to burma, to greater depths of spirituality. through jeanne marie guyon's writings, he (like taylor) was influenced to be quiet before God, leaving the results of his ministry in God's hands.
prayer changes us because it is, in effect, a surrendering of ourselves to God. prayer is a conscious recognition that we are not in control, and that there is one to whom we look for His will because He is infinitely wiser. in prayer we yield our wills to God's will.
such yielding is not easy. we like to be in control. we struggle to allow Jesus to be our Lord. we identify with the striving and challenge of letting go that michael griffiths describes:
'take my lif' - he said,
but in the busy days ahead
forgot and took it back again.
if 'take my life' your prayer should be,
then make it plain, and as a living sacrifice,
once on the altar,
keep it there.
58 prayer changes us because it unites us with God's will. it puts us at cross-purposes with the world. theologian david wells likens prayer to rebellion: 'what, then, is the nature of petitionary prayer? it is, in essence, rebellion against that world in its fallenness, the absolute and undying refusal to accept as normal what is pervasively abnormal. it is, in this negative aspect, the refusal of every agenda,every scheme, every interpretation that is at odds with the norm as originally established by God.
to pray is to change because prayer is God's method of change as He works in the spirit. to pray is to change because through prayer we surrender our will to God. to pray is to change because prayer reshapes our thinking about the world. to pray is in a sense to rebel against the corruption of sin in our world and to seek to accomplish God's purposes.
if we desire to have a growing world vision,we must faithfully pray to God.
..nehemiah. while the people of israel were in exile, N had a vision of God demonstrating His faithfulness to His people before their pagan captors. God placed a vision on N's heart to rebuild the wall around the city of jerusalem. in Neh. 1.4-5, N mourns, fasts and prays before god. he starts his prayer with the words, 'O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey His commands.
59 N knew who was in charge. he knew his vision was in vain without God's greatness on his side. he continues his prayer, reminding god of His past promises..confessing his sins and the sins of his people, and asking God to act so that He would be recognized - even in a pagan land.
God's answer to N's prayer of faith is recorded in Neh. 6.16: when all our enemies heard about this (the completion of the wall) all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self confidence, because they realized that this world had been done with the help of our God.
May God give us such success through prayer!
Hudson Taylor....as taylor studied china and the needs of each province, he faced a map and an open Bible. 'prayer was the only way by which his burdened heart could obtain any relief...
..Jim Elliot.
60 after reading, digesting and recording, jim set himself to praying. he had lists of people to pray for, a list for each day of the week and if time alone in his rrom was limited, he prayed as he walked up to breakfast on campus, or as he stood in line in the dining hall.
...the people's republic of China...
in the late 40s and early 50s, hundreds of missionaries were ousted from china. yet carl lawrence notes that the great awakening happening in china today has come because 'those who left china on their knees never got up. they left physically but never spiritually.
'they were not defeated; they simply continued to do battle in one of the toughest arenas of all: intercessory
61 prayer. they were often maligned for not realizing that this was a different world we live in and there is nothing you can do for china. few were (or have been ) recognized for their contribution to the building of His kingdom. they nevertheless continued hour by hour, day by day and year by year, remembering by name those they left behind in the villages and communities that spread across china. their work was far beyond any job description which man might design.
they prayed and god answered. their perseverance in prayer has paid off. their faithfulness in world changing praying has contributed to God's great work in china, a work that only he knows in full.
Learning To Pray For A World Vision
prayer is agreat challenge to all of us because it does not come naturally, it is a spiritual discipline or exercise that turns our attention toward God.
when we are exhorted to pray and hear examples of those who prayed faithfully, we can easily overreact. we may have been living a prayerless life, yet may attempt to imitate the great saints we have heard of by praying for 4 hours a day or all night long. but more often than not, a sudden burst of such zealous prayer will discourage us. when we are spiritually out of condition, a 4 hour, intercessory prayer session is like trying to run a marathon without any training or while being 35 pounds overweight. we need to start praying where we are, in accordance with our present spiritual condition.
with this need to pray according to our spiritual condition in mind, we are free to hear the teaching that prayer is measured, 'not by time, but by intensity. we need to learn
to think of prayer in terms like 'passionate' or 'fervent' (note: 'supplication' means 'begging') rather than in terms of duration. if duration becomes our measure, we may lose our desire to pray.
we can enhance our prayer for missions if we remember to apply the following principles.
1. start with worship. like nehemiah, we must recognize that in prayer we come to the lord of Heaven and earth.
2. confess our sins. god's purpose is to change us and confession opens us to hear his voice.
3. start small. if we pray for no one in missions work now, adding just one person to our prayer list is progress.
4. pray specifically. we should choose a people group, a missionary or a country for which we can pray rather than offering generic, 'bless the missionaries', prayers.
5. become a 'prayer champion' for someone in another land or culture. one of my missionary friends..has defined threee categgories of people who pray;
a PRAY-ER..one who prays for him sporadically
a PRAYER WARRIOR..someone who prays for him regularly (weekly, daily)
a PRAYER CHAMPION ..one who not only prays for him every day, but who requests prayer for him in any..prayer gathering - who continually champions the cause of prayer...
..7. if you are praying for a missionary, read his or her newsletters and research the place where that missionary serves so you can pray intelligently.
63 as Bishop Houghton says in the hymn, 'Racing a task unfinished, that drives us to our knees, a need tha, undiminished, rebukes our slothful ease. we, who rejoice to know Thee, renew befor Thy throne the solemn pledge we owe Thee - to go and make Thee known.
we must pray in order to face the unfinished task of world evangelism. we must pray if we desire to build a personal world vision. the need, the opportunity and the Lord all drive us to our knees. and as we pray we will see the powerful ways in which god works, even ways that we do not know or understand.
through our prayers, God allows us to be part of His changing the world....
BUILDING BLOCK # 4 - READING
67 ..Carey's zeal was ignited by reading Captain Cook's Voyages. God used accounts of the explorer's efforts in the South pacific to stir Carey to see the scriptures and the world in a new light.
..if we write to publishers that specialize in missions books, like the William Carey Library or MARC (the Missions advanced Research and Communication center), we may find that the deluge of missions works available overwhelms us.
so where do we start? generally, it is good to read broadly at the beginning. look over the available resources you know about..and choose a sampling from the various categories listed below...
1. missions histories
2. biographies
3. current issues in missions...ie. Apartheid: Crisis in Black and White; A Christian View of Russia by David Ziomek..Time, Newsweek...
4. cross cultural understanding...ie. Christianity Confronts Culture; The Making of a Missionary
5. general missions resources
as we do this we
1. are inspired
2. learn from the mistakes of others
3. grow in our vision of God
4. see the people God uses
5. grow in our ability to influence others for world evangelization
6. will pray for our missionaries more effectively
7. will see how God brings good out of adversity
BUILDING BLOCK #5 - FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE
when we read Jesus' command in matthew 28.19 in english, we lose some of the full impact of the phrase we translate as, 'all the nations'. in english, this phrase sounds international and intriguing, but in reality, Jesus' command strikes at ONE OF OUR MOST BASIC FLAWS - what sociologists call ETHNOCENTRICITY
Jesus commanded His disciples to go to all the ethne, meaning all ethnic groups. this is a challenging command because we are instinctively ethnocentric. we think that our particular ethnic group is better, superior or more desireable than another. in our sinfulness, we think of our ethne as central. in contrast, our lord commands us to go beyond our own group to all the ethne - to the ends of the earth.
84 A Few easy, Cross-Cultural Exercises
one way to expand our world vision through cross-cultural experiences might be to eat dinner at an international restaurant or at least eat an international meal at home...
...the next time you eat at a chinese restaurant, why not use the chopsticks instead of the fork?
85 ...we went into boston to enlarge our visions.
the missionary who went with us had come from the suburbs, just like us, so he knew the stereotypes that filled our heads as we saw row houses, vacant lots and the people of the city. knowing the false impressions we had in mind, the missionary gave us the first assignment of our mission.
he gave us paper and pens and told us we had two hours to walk about the city. he instructed us to list all the things we observed in the city that weree different from our living situation and encouraged us to focus on aspects of the city that were better than where we lived in the suburbs.
at first, the students (and leaders, too) thought, This won't take long! to our surprise, we observed many positive things about the city. students came back with long lists of observations like:
'in the city, people sit on their steps and talk to their neighbors; where I live, people are too busy to talk to their neighbors (if they even know their neighbors!)
in the city, many people speak two or even more languages; I can only speak english.
in the city, people don't have to worry about mowing their lawns.
86 'in the city, the stores are much closer; you can live pretty happily without a car.
in the neighborhood we went to, the neighbors all seemed to know each other. they told us that they protected each other. there was a sense of security and 'family' in their neighborhood, unlike mine.
'it wasn't like i pictured. i expected to see hookers and drug pushers all over the place. i am sure that they were there, but most of the people i met seemed pretty average, just like me.
a visit to a new ethnic group or an area that is culturally different from what we are accustomed to can effectively change us. such an experience helps us to dispel our stereotypes and leads us to a more accurate understanding of others.
a third simple, but effective, way to get firsthand, cross-cultural experience is to be involved with internationals who live in our communities. there are thousands of refugees in our country to whom we can reach out with Christ's love in an effort to understand them, their culture and their needs. in addition to refugees, literally thousands of international students live and study in our country reaching out to the 'world that has come to us' can help us broaden our world perspective.
87 the final simple way to gain cross-cultural experience and understanding is to join in worship with christians from other ethnic groups or cultures.
88 More Sacrificial Cross-Cultural Experiences
some families have chosen to invite a foreign student to live with them. this is costly in terms of time (and sometimes money), but the rewards are great. in such a situation, cultural understanding has greater opportunity to increase because the daily affairs of life make cultural differences much more evident.
..another way to gain ..is to house immigrants as they settle in this country. ...opportunities...are endless.
89 a third, more involved way to gain cross cultural experience, is to learn another language, especially if we can learn it from someone from another country learning a language and learning about a culture go hand in hand, enabling us to understand more about the world in which we live.
the most intense and fulfilling way to gain a deeper knowledge of another culture is to travel to another country. although it might be costly, travel is the best way to immerse oneself in another land. persona and cultural biases are often destroyed through firsthand experience....
90 We Must Be Willing To Identify Our Own Biases
one of the greatest dangers of prejudice is that those affected by it do not realize that they are; they simply think that their viewpoints are correct. however, if we are going to grow through experiences in other cultures, we must be willing to recognize our narrow-sightedness.
....we all have our own cultural understanding about the way things ought to be...but until we begin to understand that things can be different without being right or wrong, our cross-cultural learning will be hampered...
E. stanley Jones, the great missionarty to India, lamented thsifailure to separate Western culture from the gospel in his comment regarding Gandhi's rejection of christianity:
91 'racialism has many sins to bear, but perhaps its worst sin was the obscuring of Christ in an hour when one of the greatest souls born of a woman was making his decision.
to avoid such 'obscuring', we must be sure to present Christ, rather than our culture, to the people we seek to touch.
WE MUST BECOME WORLD CHRISTIANS...
as followers of Jesus Christ, however, we should be characterized by graciousness toward all people.
as those who consider humility to be a high virtue, christians should act humbly when visiting another church or neighborhood - no matter how differenct it is from what we are accustomed to.
We Must Ask Questions and Listen.
when i prepare to go into another culture, I write out a list of questions that i hope to ask of fellow christians and anyone else with whom I can strike up a conversation.
'He has never held a starving child, I explained and in that statement my wife and I realized that our vision, priorities and even personal standards of what was 'acceptable' had been changed because of our firsthand experience in another culture.
it is frightening to have our steriotypes broken down and our worlds enlarged. such growth causes us to leave the security of our narrower definitions. yet God wants us to grow; indeed, if wee are unwilling to grow, we will die. Mary Slessor, missionary to West Africa, stated, 'courage is the conquering of fear by faith.
BUILDING BLOC SIX - FELLOWSHIP
...our world vision is further built when we, in christian fellowship groups, encourage each other to think beyond ourselves. the reason for exhortation is clearly expressed in hebrews 3.13 - so we do not become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. God christian fellowship helps keep us from becoming hardened. when we 'consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds (10.24)
our attitudes will be softened. we can learn, through the gentle rebuke of fellow chirsitns, that the world does not revolve around our problems. through others we can learn that there are bigger needs than our own.
in christian fellowship, we exhort one another, 'as iron sharpens iron. proverbs 27.17 the sparks may fly, there may be a healthy clashing of our wills, but the end result is greater sharpness in our walk with the Lord...
96 ..missions and worrld vision should be a focus of our fellowship becuse this is perhaps the most basic reason why we come together. a.R. Hay expresses the relationship of fellowship and missions this way:
'we present the Church from the missionary point of view. the missionary point of view is the only true one. the lord founded the Church as a missionary organization. such was its original structure. it was not an ecclesiastical organization with missionary endeavor as a department of its work. missionaries were its leaders.its primary purpose aw missionary and all its members engaged in the propagation of the Gospel.
Fellowship Groups God Has used In Missions
..Acts 4.1-31; 13.1-3..
97 modern missions provides many illustrations of missions-committed fellowships...in the early 1700s the Moravian Movement, under he leadership of Count Nicolas Von Zinzendorf, began to take the Great Commission to heart as a united fellowship: the all-consuming objective was to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth, a passion that was clearly evident in their proportion of missionaries to lay people. the ratio was 160, a noteworthy attainment in comparison to the ratio of 1:5000 in protestantism as a whole.
98 in 1886, dwight l. moody and 251 students met at the Mount Hermon Conference. after a month of studying Scripture and exhorting one another concerning God's love for the world, 100 of the group committed themselves to world missions service. the Student Volunteer movement, which was born at that meeting, sent out thousands of missionaries over the next 30 years. they went out under the slogan, 'the evangelization of the world in this generation!
from the Cambridge 7 (from which C.T.Studd emerged) to the Moravians, from the christians of acts to the Wheaton college class of 1949 (which produced jim elliot, david howard and others. ) the testimony is clear; building a world vision is a cooperative effort. a world-oriented fellowship group can build up individual members and give the group a healthy, outward focus. the testimony of the Navigators and Campus Crusade echo the words of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, 'christian student work will die without missions.
Building World Vision in Fellowship Groups
theologian Emil Brunner is credited with saying, 'the church exists by mission as a fire exists by burning. another way to say this is: without missions, our church or fellowship is missing the reason for its existence.
99 1. incorproate the building blocks described in this book.
2. pray about missions together.
3. adopt a giving project together.
4. work together
100 fellowship should be a common sharing of life together, which could include working on a missions project...researching a missionary's work...going out together to share Christ's love with the people right around us.
5. adopt a project together.
6. send someone out...' the local church must take the initiative as the sending authority for missionaries.
BUILDING BLOCK #7 - GIVING
107 10,000 persons died today because of inadequate food. one billion people are mentally retarded or physically deformed because of a poor diet. the problem, we know, is that the world's resources are not evenly distributed. North Americans live on an affluent island amid a sea of starving humanity.
108 Jesus tells us that our hearts and treasure are directly linked; 'for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. matthew 6.21
1. GOD WANTS US TO BE GENEROUS. II corinthians 9. 6-7 ...'God loves a cheerful giver.
109 2. GOD MEASURE OUR RESPONSIBLE STEWARDSHIP BY OUR RESPONSE TO THE POOR AND NEEDY. genesis 1.26-31
110 psalm 112.1-9; proverbs 31.10ff (vss 14, 16,18,,20); amos 2.6-8; matthew 25. 31-46; luke 16.19-31; I timothy 6.17-9
3. GOD WANTS US TO KEEP THE KINGDOM OF GOD AS OUR TOP PRIORITY. matthew 6.21, 33; proverbs 30. 7-9; matthew 19.16-26
117 Oswald J. Smith challenges us to give to missions through these 4 observations:
1. if i refuse to ive anything to missions this year, i prctically cast a ballot in favor of the recall of every missionary.
2. if i give less than heretofore, i favor the reduction of the missionary forces proportionate to my reduced contribution.
3. if i give the same as formerly, i favor holding the ground already won; but i oppose any forward movement...
4. if i increase my offering beyond former years, then i favor an advance movement in the conquest of new territory for Christ.
BUILDING BLOCK #8 - MEETING MISSIONARIES
123 How...
1. start receiving a missionary newsletter.
2. write personal letters
3. how about a phone call?
4. be faithful in prayer...'I have been praying for you EVERY DAY.
5. invite missionaries into our home.
6. visit missionaries at their field of work.
128 Deepening..relationships..
1. ask them questions related to daily living.
2. do not generalize about missions or missionaries. (some..are quite overworked and others are - well -lazy. some mission fields are full of revival and spiritual awakening; others are the 'hard soil' where there seem to be few, if any, spiritual results.
3. ask about financial needs.
4. ask for specific prayer requests about their personal lives and families.
5. do not forget to ask about the missionary's spiritual life.
jim harding, a veteran of more than 15 years of missions work met with me personally during one furlough. i asked him if there was anything we could do to improve our caring for him and his family.
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