I am sure that some who read my last blog may have been left wondering what is driving me to be on this trip? What would have compelled me to leave my comfy bed, my home cooked meals, my family, and my church in exchange for what amounts to an inflatable pool floaty as a bed, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, 60 other crazy missionaries, and a church that meets outside of a hut because the roof is falling off of the hut that they usually used? Why would I abandon the comforts of America to live amongst the poverty of the world? Why “give up” a year of your life?
The answer to this is because Jesus said so. He didn’t say this specifically to me. Not in a dream nor a vision. Not through an altar call at my church to surrender my life to missions nor through his audible voice saying, “Go.” No. He told me to “Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-19)
This may seem to you like a very generic response and you are absolutely right. This is the most generic answer that I could give you as to why I am here, yet it is the only response that could answer the question. The only other way that I could put it in more simple terms is “because God said so”. I know that this is not enough of an explanation to most Americans and even for some Christians. I know this to be true because that wasn’t a good enough answer for me a few years ago. Back then I believed that this was a call to a select group of people who had enough skill, will power, bravery, biblical knowledge, or the right personality to be a missionary and preach the Word of God to the nations.
However, I am writing this to tell you that if you are a child of God then this call is for you. If you enjoy the blessings of being called an “heir of God, and a fellow heir with Christ” then this is a call that is directed toward you. It is the universal call of a disciple of Christ. Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:15,18-20:
“And [Christ] died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised… All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
Because you and I have been made new through the death and resurrection of Christ we are now as Paul puts it, ambassadors of Christ. Do you see what he does here? He gives us all the prerequisite that we could possibly need: the reconciliation of Jesus in our hearts. In other words if you are saved then you have everything that you need to qualify you for this calling. You do not need to go to seminary or a bible school, you do not need to love to travel, you do not need to have a specific personality. The only thing you need is the reconciliation of Christ on your heart, and through that the Holy Spirit now dwells in you. In Acts 1:8 Jesus says to his disciples: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Those whom Jesus called to be his disciples, he anoints with the Holy Spirit and he sends them out to tell of his salvation to the ends of the earth.
This is our calling. To make disciples of all nations, to be ambassadors of Christ, and to be his witness to the entire world. If you truly are a child of God then this is the greatest thing that he could call you to! The very man who has saved our souls from our sinful nature has told us to use our own salvation for the salvation of the rest of the world! There could be no greater calling than this for a Christian!
And this is why I go. For while I was still sinning, Christ died for me. He not only saved me from my sin, He invited me to help him do the same for the rest of the world! To go to the 4.5 billion people in the world who do not profess Christianity and to the 1 billion+ of them who have never even heard the Gospel of Christ and who without it will go to hell for the rest of eternity. This is why I go! Because there are more than 20 thousand children who will die today because of starvation or preventable disease. Not this year, not this month, not this week. Today. Each and every day. This is the reason that I will forfeit my bed, my home cooked meals, my family, and every other comfort that I’ve grown up with. To go to the people who have never had these things and more importantly to the people who without the gospel would be going to hell as I was before Christ entered my life.
Will this sacrifice bring me contentment? Will this sacrifice bring me comfort? Nope! It will bring me a life full of heartache, sorrow, a sore back, and even persecution. But if someone where to ask me, “Will it be worth it?” Then my answer would not be my own but of one of the most persecuted men in the history of the Christian faith who ended his life as a beheaded martyr yet went to his death with the joy of Christ. In my favorite passage from the Bible he says this:
“The Spirit himself bears whiteness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided that we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy comparing to the glory that will be revealed to us.”
Romans 8:16-18
So if you are still wondering why I willingly leave the comforts of this world then I will put it this way. I would die in order to share the love of Christ with someone in this world because the love of Christ is so great that to even compare it with the price and pain of death would be offensive to its extreme greatness.
I write this not to make myself look good in your eyes or to shame any Christians who have ignored this calling. I write this to encourage you. You who have never heard this call laid specifically on your heart and those of you who have done a great job of suppressing this calling alike. Take up this cross that Jesus himself has called you to do. If you are a son of God then you reconcile others to Christ around the world. You are called if you are a Christian. I beg of you on behalf of the 4.5 billion souls around the world who do not profess Christianity and will go to hell without Christ, in which America only makes of 1% of that number. Go. Your Father has called you to the business of reconciling the world to Himself through Christ Jesus. He has called you.
“For those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
Romans 8:30
