Consider first the word “MISSION”. The term brings to mind
definitions such as “goal, vision, and purpose.” As Christians, what is
our goal and vision? What is the purpose for our lives? Our primary
calling is to know and love the Lord; but if that was all, God could
have taken us to heaven the moment we received Jesus Christ. Here on
earth, our mission should be to glorify God in and through our lives and
to help make Him known throughout the entire earth! We need to proclaim
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to obey His words to “go into all the
world...” We need to ask ourselves if we really believe the Bible is
the true and inspired Word of God. Do we honestly believe people must be
“saved” or “born-again”, and can we comprehend the reality of eternal
heaven...and hell? If we do, then this belief should totally and
radically impact our entire lives!
Just stop and think for a moment about how different our lives would
be if we were born among heathen people, in a land isolated from God and
filled with extreme poverty, sickness and disease. What would it be like
if you were born in an area where praying to an idol of stone or giving
homage to your dead ancestors was your only hope, and constant fear of
evil spirits consumed your life? Wouldn’t you want someone to share the
Gospel with you?
In North America, we are so blessed. Every day, we enjoy clean, hot
running water -- without a thought. Our typical meals include
ingredients from all around the world: fruit from California, olive oil
from Italy, coffee from Columbia (just try looking at your food labels
for a few days!); we eat better than the ancient kings! Most of us (with
only a few quick calls to a credit card company and a local travel
agency) could probably travel NEXT MONTH to any destination in the world
-- if we really wanted to. It's not that we're advocating debt. But
where are our priorities? Are houses and cars more important than
souls?
As Christians, we have been given the greatest “Good News” of all
time, and a job description to “get this news out!” And “where much
is given, much more is required” (Luke 12:48).
Some people think, Why should we go
overseas when we have so many needs right here in our own country?
Yes, we have needs, but did you know
that in North America we have over one million full-time Christian
workers (one full-time Christian leader for every 230 people), while
among many people, there is only one missionary for every 500,000
people! Ninety-six
percent of all Christian finances worldwide are spent in North America
-- on only five percent of the earth’s population. That means only four
percent of all Christian finances are used for the rest of the
world. Eighty-five
percent of all Bibles today are printed in English -- for only the nine
percent of the world who read English. Eighty percent of the world’s
population have never even owned a Bible, while Americans have an
average of four in every household. We hear the Gospel again and again, while nearly 2.7
billion people are still waiting for their first chance to hear! Even among missionaries, did
you know that only fifteen percent of all missionary finances are used
for work among these “unreached” people? Studies show that nearly eighty
percent of all North American missionaries are involved primarily in
social work -- not even in proclaiming the Gospel, winning lost souls,
or establishing churches. For heaven's sake (literally) what did Jesus called us to do?!
One missionary, Oswald J. Smith, responded with these now-famous
words, “Why should anyone hear the Gospel twice before everyone has
heard it once?”
Others argue, Why should you go
overseas and try to change someone else’s culture? Isn’t every culture
equally valid?
Changing someone’s culture is NOT the
purpose of world missions! As Christians, we bring the crosscultural,
life-changing message of Jesus Christ and his forgiveness for man’s
sins. We do not go to bring our western or American culture, but to
present the Gospel in a way that is culturally sensitive to whatever
people we may meet.
However, I will never forget an interview I had with a very strong
Christian teenager. He attended a public high school (yes, it is
possible to be a strong Christian in the public schools), and led a
lunchtime Bible “club” and worship time that grew to reach 250 of his
fellow classmates. This young man wanted to do a research project on
Christian missionary work and how missionaries do not try to change any
of the people’s culture that they are trying to reach.
Disagreeing with his conclusion, I asked him a question: “But don’t
you try to change the culture of the people you are trying to reach?
Just look at the typical ‘culture’ of the teens in your high school
before they come to Christ! Look at the way they dress! Listen to their
music, their foul language, and the way they address their teachers!
What about the videos they watch and the terrible movies they sneak
into? What about typical teenagers involved in premarital impurity, or
the girls who have already had abortions? Aren’t these things a part of
their culture?”
I went on to explain to him, “Culture is life! When you share Christ
in your high school, of course you don’t want your friends to
stop being American teenagers -- that’s who they are! But you do
want Jesus Christ to totally transform the way they live and the way
they make their decisions!”
Societies that have developed isolated from the Gospel and God’s laws
are filled with sinful cultural elements. As Christians, our job is to
bring the light of Jesus to every precious culture. Through His Word and
His Holy Spirit, God will show people the changes they need to make to
redeem their cultures back to Him.
They continue to say, But why should
you go to those remote foreign tribes? Wouldn’t they be better off just
left as they are?
My answer to that question is a loud
“NO! NO! NO!” The heathen are never better off without Jesus Christ!
Often we are blinded to this fact by what my husband and I call the
“Hollywood version” of a “tropical native paradise.” So often, the media
portrays these remote tribes living in peaceful bliss and
harmony...until the “big, bad, missionary” comes on the scene. But this
paradise is only an illusion! By God’s grace, I have had the opportunity
to minister throughout North America, Latin America, the Caribbean,
Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, and Africa -- from remote villages to
crowded inner cities. Through these travels, I have never seen this
image of an “unreached” tropical paradise! At times, the land and
beaches are beautiful and people may be warm and friendly...yet, lives
without God’s hope of salvation are filled with misery.
I can remember walking through a squatter’s village in the
Philippines and seeing streams of human waste flowing openly down the
path. I was horrified to watch a group of Filipino children toss a
bucket of garbage into an already dirty river, jump in the middle of it,
and start throwing the garbage on each other. These poor children were
just playing, oblivious to the filth and potential for disease. Although
is was tropical, it was so far from God’s Garden of Eden.
In Costa Rica, I saw people crawl on their bare knees as a penance
for their sins. In Guatemala, I sadly watched as crowds of poor, devoted
people surrendered large sums of money just to carry a religious icon.
These people were desperate for forgiveness, but as I looked into their
faces, there was no joy, and no assurance of their salvation.
In a remote city called Mubende in Uganda, East Africa, my husband
and I ministered to a tribe of people who actually worshiped a large
tree. These Africans were aware of their sins, and even the need for
blood sacrifice, yet their religion gave them no hope. They blindly
offered animal sacrifices to this tree, and at times, even the human
sacrifice of their young children.
Other areas I have seen have been bound by fear or controlled by
witchcraft. Still others are filled with tribal hatred and warfare. Each
day I see mankind’s need for God even more. I am writing this from a
remote city in Tanzania, East Africa. Just this morning, Jon and I heard
some horrifying news. A group of radical Muslims bombed the crusade
grounds were we were scheduled to sing and preach and show the JESUS
film. In the process, they also bombed a school killing eight innocent,
precious children and wounding eighty others -- all in protest of
Christianity. I can not understand how anyone could do such a thing! How
my heart aches for these people who are so far from God’s plan!
In some places such as Rwanda, Bosnia, Ethiopia, and Iraq, government
systems have planned for the elimination or starvation of entire people
groups. In other areas, twisted religious beliefs (such as the Hindu
reverence for the cow and the rat) have actually caused self-inflicted
food shortages and hunger.
Poverty. Sickness. Disease. Hunger. War.
These are all symptoms of a world without Christ. Even in prosperous
and developed countries, cultures without Christ reek with the stench of
sin: greed, pride, school shootings, suicide, gambling additions,
pornography, prostitution, homosexuality and abortion. All over the
world, individuals without Christ are separated from God by a barrier of
sin and destined to spend eternity in hell...unless they are washed in
the precious blood of Jesus!
The Good News is that Jesus Christ came to destroy this barrier! He
gave His life on the cross so that all people could enjoy God’s eternal
life in heaven.
John 3:16 sums up the entire message of the Bible with words that we
all know by heart: “For God so loved the WORLD that He gave His only
begotten Son, that WHOEVER believes in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.”
This is the Gospel, and our mission as Christians is to share it with
others! We must share the blessings God has given to us! We must share
our time, our talents, our finances, and most of all, we must share our
faith!
from Ann's book, "Teaching with God's Heart
for the World"
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Ezekiel 3:18-19 says, “When
I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no
warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his
life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I
will require at your hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not
turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his
iniquity but you have delivered your soul.”
These verses stress the vital importance of our obligation to share
with the heathen about Christ. So often, we are distracted by good
activities -- even in the church. The following vision, received by Amy
Carmichael, compares these activities to making “daisy chains.” As you
read this, may you allow the Lord to challenge your heart. May we "see"
the waterfall of souls who so desperately need Him.
Thy Brother's Blood
-- By Amy
Carmichael, Missionary to India
The tom-toms thumped straight on all night,
and the darkness shuddered ‘round me like a living, feeling thing. I
could not go to sleep, so I lay awake and looked; and I saw, as it
seemed, this:
That I stood on a grassy precipice, and at my feet at crevice broke
down into infinite space. I looked, but saw no bottom; only cloud
shapes, black and furiously coiled, and great shadow-shrouded hollows,
and unfathomable depths. Back I drew, dizzy at the depth.
Then I saw forms of people moving in single file along the grass.
They were making for the edge. There was a woman with a baby in her arms
and another little child holding onto her dress. She was on the very
verge. Then I saw that she was blind. She lifted her foot for the next
step...it trod air. She was over, and the children over with her. Oh,
they cry as they went over! Then I saw more streams of people flowing
from all quarters. All were blind, stone blind; and all made straight
for the crevice’s edge. They were shrieks as they suddenly knew in
themselves that they were falling, and a tossing up of helpless arms,
catching, clutching at empty air. But some went over quietly and fell
without a sound.
Then I wondered with a wonder that was simple agony, why no one
stopped them at the edge. I could not, I was glued to the ground. And I
could not call; though I strained and tried, only a whisper would come.
Then I saw that along the edge there were guards set at intervals.
But the intervals were too great; there were wide, unguarded gaps
between. And over these gaps the people fell in their blindness, quite
unwarned; and the green grass seemed blood-red to me, and gulf yawned
like the mouth of hell.
Then I saw, like a little picture of peace, a group of people under
some trees with their backs turned towards the gulf. They were making
daisy chains. Sometimes when a piercing shriek cut the quiet air and
reached them, it disturbed them and they thought it a rather vulgar
noise. And if one of their number started up and wanted to go and do
something to help, then all the others would pull that one down. “Why
should you get all excited about it? You must wait for a definite call
to go! You haven’t finished your daisy chain yet. It would be really
selfish,” they said, “to leave us to finish the work alone.”
There was another group. It was made up of people whose great desire
was to get more guards out; but they found that very few wanted to go,
and sometimes there were no guards set for miles and miles of the edge.
One girl stood alone in her place, waving the people back; but her
mother and other relations called, and reminded her that her furlough
was due; she must not break the rules. And being tired and needing a
change, she had to go and rest for a while; but no one was sent to guard
her gap, and over and over the people fell, like a waterfall of souls.
Once a child caught at a tuft of grass that grew at the very brink of
the gulf; it clung convulsively, and it called -- but nobody seemed to
hear. Then the roots of the grass gave way, and with a cry the child
went over, the two little hands still holding right to the torn-off
bunch of grass. And the girl who longed to be back in her gap thought
she heard the little one cry, and she sprang up and wanted to go; at
which they reproved her, reminding her that no one is necessary
anywhere; they gap would be well taken care of, they knew. And then they
sang a hymn.
Then through the hymn came another sound like the pain of a million
broken hearts wrung out in one full drop, one sob. And a horror of great
darkness was upon me, for I knew what it was; the cry of the blood.
Then thundered a voice, the voice of the Lord. And he said, “What
hast though done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from
the ground.”
The ton-toms still beat heavily, and darkness still shuddered and
shivered about me. I heard the yells of the devil-dancers and weird,
wild shrieks of the devil-possessed just outside the gate.
What does it matter, after all? It has gone on for years; it will go
on for years. Why make such a fuss about it? -- God forgive us! God
arouse us! Shame us out of our callousness! Shame us out of our sin!
Amy Carmichael, Thy Brother’s Blood Crieth:
(India: The Dohnavur Fellowship).
Obtained from an article from
Bethany Fellowship, Inc.
Minneapolis, MN.
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A Passion For Souls
(A Hymn by
Herbert G. Tovey, 1888)
Give me a passion for souls, dear Lord,
A
passion to save the lost;
O that Thy love were by all adored,
And
welcomed at any cost.
Jesus, I long, I long to be winning
Men who are lost, and
constantly sinning;
O may this hour become of beginning
The story
of pardon to tell...
How shall this passion for souls be mine?
Lord, make Thou the
answer clear;
Help me to throw out the old life-line
To those who
are struggling near.
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When You Don't Feel "Stirred" For Souls
by Ann Dunagan
Recently, the Lord renewed my passion for souls,
and challenged me afresh on the urgency of reaching the lost.
Jon & I were watching our little ones swim in our pond (which is
more like a giant-mud-hole) and were talking with our 14-year-old son,
Joshua, about an upcoming Vacation Bible School. Joshua had been asked
to preach with me, and he was trying to decide if he wanted to or
not...and if so, what he should share.
Right at that moment, our 4-year-old daughter, Caela, stepped out too
deep... and (without making a sound) began to go under. Jon yelled,
“Josh! Get Caela!” Immediately – with clothes, shoes, and all – Joshua
leaped into the water, swam over to Caela, and quickly pulled her out.
Once we saw she was fine, Jon turned to Joshua and said, “There
is your sermon!”
All day long, I had been thinking and praying about my message too.
Specifically, I was trying to figure out how to minister to both the
children and adults who would be present (including some visiting
parents who had possibly never been in church). It was going to be the
final night of a week-long V.B.S., and I was supposed to share the final
“stirring message” about the importance of “getting out there and
winning the lost...” However, at the moment, I was not even feeling very
“stirred” myself.
Of course, I had a heart for missions and evangelism. It’s what we
do. It’s our life. But, honestly, I was more concerned with figuring out
how to delicately preach a "strong" missions message ...without
offending the unchurched parents.
The next day, when Joshua and I arrived early at the church for
pre-service prayer, we heard some shocking news. Just the night before,
four children who had been attending the Vacation Bible School had
tragically lost their dad. The young father had been suddenly killed in
a work accident. They were one of those "unchurched" families.
Only two days earlier, one of the boys had received Jesus. Only one
day earlier, (when learning how kids can be mighty prayer warriors) this
same little boy had filled out a prayer request card: “Please pray for my Mommy and Daddy to know
Jesus.”
Who would have known how serious that little prayer would be?
Who would have known that in less than 24 hours that Daddy’s life
would be over, and he’d be face to face with eternity...in either heaven
or hell?
As we prayed for the family, tears streamed down my cheeks. I was
challenged afresh about the urgency of the gospel. How could I not be
“stirred” about reaching the lost? How could I have been more concerned
about “offending” unsaved parents, than caring for their souls?
That night, Joshua & I both preached to a church-full of children
(and adults) about the importance of reaching the lost...even when we
don’t feel like it. Just like Joshua simply “jumped in” to rescue Caela,
WE need to rescue the lost. And when our Heavenly Father says “Go!” we
need to instantly obey! Josh told the kids, “When Dad shouted at me to
get my little sister, I didn’t have to ‘pray about it’ to see if it was
God’s will or not...I just had to jump in and get her!”
Many times over the years, specific life-and-death situations (both
here in America and overseas) have challenged us to renew our passion
for missions and the lost. Right at this moment –whether we realize it
or not– precious people are dying without Jesus Christ. Our Father sees
them. If He calls for us to reach out and help with a rescue, may we be
ones who instantly leap to obey!
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Our Mailing Address:
Harvest Ministry
P.O. Box
727
Hood River, Oregon 97031
Harvest Ministry
For many Christians in
North America, "MISSIONS" is merely a dreaded obligation or at best, a
necessary responsibility. For hundreds of years, the church has always
“supported the missionaries,” and so the traditional continues...yet
often without God’s heart and passion, or even a compelling purpose to
win lost souls to Christ.