I’m speaking to you as dear friends. Don’t be bluffed into silence or insincerity by the threats of religious bullies. True, they can kill you, but then what can they do? There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being.
Luke 12:4
Back in December we met a missionary host named Phil. He was a tall, slender, salt and pepper man who lived in Bolivia and he was serious about the gospel.
One of the first things he said to our team was this: “If you’re going to be a follower of Jesus, you should be so passionate about sharing the gospel that you’d be willing to go home in a body bag.”
….nice to meet you too, Mr. Phil.
I took his blunt words to heart but wrestled with them in trying to figure out what they meant in my own life.
Fast forward a couple months & half a world away to our ministry in Cambodia.
We staked our tents at a church in a very small village where Buddha is known as god and the name of Jesus wasn’t known at all.
Roosters & campfire smoke woke us up each morning at 6 & after spending time in prayer, our team would head out to various houses in the village to share with them about Christ’s love.
Each home we entered produced welcoming smiles & receptive hospitality but the burden of brokenness weighed heavy on me as we listened to so many speak of their desperate search for joy, peace, & happiness without success of finding any.
Ironically the person in the village who was most excited to have us was a man who claimed to be a witch doctor. We asked him if he knew who Jesus was & his answer was “no.”
It was then as we sat with him in his front yard that I looked down at my sandaled feet covered in thick dust from walking the dirt roads all day & thought “this must have been what the disciples feet looked like as they followed Jesus.”
It hit me. This is what it was all about. This is what following Jesus looks like. This is why I was carrying so much burden & heaviness with me after every home we entered. I broke so badly for these lost people because I wanted them to know & experience the real joy that comes from allowing Jesus to love them & devoting their lives to Him.
The vision of my feet became blurry as I started to cry because of my heaviness. Because of all the brokenness. Because there really are people in this world who have never heard of who Jesus is. Because I’ve claimed the name ‘Christian’ my entire life but never felt a passion like this before that wanted to burst out of me. Because before that moment, I had never been willing to be sent home in a body bag.
I understood what it meant to have my heart break for what breaks God’s heart.
Phil’s honest words flooded back into my mind: “…willing to go home in a body bag.”
I had finally arrived at that willingness for the first time in my life. It is surprisingly a freeing feeling, to be so drenched in love & desiring so badly to tell others about the constant pursuit of Jesus that you just don’t care about anything else. You feel honored to possibly die for the sake of the gospel. You don’t care what happens to you. You just want more dust to cover your feet.
“They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
The apostles left, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name of Jesus.
Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.”
Acts 5:40-42
