Today's Christians spend more money on dog food than missions.
-Leonard Ravenhill
Think about that for a second.
Jesus gave us the command to go and make disciples from every nation and people’s group. This was our purpose; spread God’s name throughout the entire world to bring worship for His glory. This is our goal. Why do missions exist? Missions exist because worship doesn’t. And we are commissioned as followers of Jesus Christ to go forth and bring His kingdom come. And there are three kinds of people when it comes to missions:
Zealous goers.
Zealous senders.
Zealous disobedient.
I have a love/hate relationship with the “American” Church. And this isn’t to point the finger at anyone particular or church denomination, and more of a conviction within myself. But what happened to the Church that would go out of their way to love the world and give radically to see a passion for the supremacy of Christ spread? If people were to follow the way we give and the way we love, how would they look?
I recently went to a retreat with a group of individuals to deepen our reality of what it means to give sacrificially. We discussed financial budgets, salaries, savings, but not necessarily in the means to see how we can save more money or spend our money better, but to see how we can individually live a life of sacrificial giving. You see, the money that you have in your bank account, wallet, piggy bank, it’s not yours. It never was, never has been, and never will be. Everything we own is actually on loan, all because of God’s grace.
Let that simmer into your soul for a moment.
Let that melt into your mind.
Your iPhone, your clothes, your car, your toaster, your laptop, you and I are the owners of material things that are future occupants of yard sales, landfills, and dumps. You and I have to come to this reality that we weren’t called to own anything, but to steward well what God has given us for this vapor of time.
What does this mean when it comes to money? It means that God has given you the ability to make an income for yourself in order so that He can teach you how to steward well this income and reveal to you what it means to give generously. To give sacrificially is to demonstrate that our joy is not in how much we have, but how much God is. That we trust God as our happy, generous Shepherd, Father and King, and because of that we will not be afraid when we have less money for ourselves in supplying the needs of others and by doing so, we declare that since our treasure is in heaven, our hearts cry and go after God.
Therefore, let us find a deeper understanding on what it means to give sacrificially for God’s kingdom. I want to know the great contentment in Christ when it comes to financial income. Let my joy be found in Jesus and not my paycheck. Let any gain in financial support show that God is gracious. Let my financial sacrafices for others show that all I truly need is Him. Let my fingers be loose when it comes to the grasp of my possessions, and let my heart cling onto Christ, which is the ultimate Treasure.
We are called to make disciples, and that will take sacrifice. But we know that when missions exist, worship will be established, and our desire and goal is that God may be magnified by all people in all the nations in all things through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Will you join me in stepping into the call that Christ has for us: to give generously.
Will you come alongside with me for the pursuit to spread a passion for Jesus Christ among the nations?
Will you be a zealous sender and send me as a zealous goer?
Join me as I join God in what He is doing throughout the whole world; creating worship through missions.
To contribute to my World Race mission to fulfill the Great Commission, you can click on the link below:
Subscribe to my blog to get the latest updates on what God is doing in my life through the World Race.
For more info on the World Race go to:
http://theworldrace.org/
And to see what God is doing throughout the whole world, I highly recommend this resource:
The Joshua Project is a research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups with the least followers of Jesus Christ. Pray for these people groups and all those who do not know Christ. Please continue to keep the nations I will be ministering to in prayer as well.
May God be gloried in every city, every neighborhood, every slum, every village, in every nation.
Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
