And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. . . ." After the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God (Mark 16:15, 19).
THEME
MISSIONS
"Is it true Dr. Grenfell that you are a missionary?" a woman asked Wilfred Grenfell, a medical missionary to Labrador. Grenfell replied, "Is it true, madam, that you are not?" With his question, Grenfell made sure the woman understood God's top assignment.
With "mission impossible" completed, Jesus left this earth, but not before giving an assignment to His agents. He had a job for them to do, but it was no secret mission. He spoke publicly about the task and never called His people private agents.
He told them to clearly report what they had seen and heard to everyone everywhere. This should have been no surprise to His Jewish operatives; God told Israel in the Old Testament to tell the surrounding nations of His mighty acts.
Judas, the double agent, defected early, but over five-hundred agency personnel got Christ's memo about a new mission. Peter, one of His top men, openly carried out his duties. Not fearing political intrigue, he even briefed a soldier named Cornelius about the mission (Acts 10:38-43).
Some have distorted the Director's words with secret codes and clandestine acts, but those who read the original document have no trouble understanding the mission. The only problem is the short supply of agents.
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DEC 09
ACTS 1:1-9
He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15).
While speaking to the Radio Bible Class staff at a chapel service, John De Vries of Bibles For India told what might have happened when Jesus entered heaven immediately following His ascension.
The angels, rejoicing that Christ's mission on earth had been completed, gathered to welcome Him home. They were eager to know who would have the privilege of proclaiming to the world the good news that Christ had been born, had lived, had died, and had risen from the dead to provide salvation from sin. In fact, the angels were hoping they themselves would be given the honor. So they were greatly disappointed and amazed when Jesus looked down to earth and pointed to the tiny group of followers He had just left behind. "Those are the ones I want to be My witnesses," Jesus announced. "I have given to them the commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel. They have experienced the thrill and reality of redemption from sin; they are to be My messengers!"
The torch of the gospel, handed to those early followers of Christ, has been passed down through the generations until today it is in our hands. The responsibility of proclaiming that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners is ours to fulfill.
Angels might long for the privilege of telling the world about Christ, but they have not experienced the joy of forgiveness and the hope of glory. That's why the task has been entrusted to us.
--R.W.D.
Our only real excuse for living in this world is to be witnesses for Jesus Christ. --Sweeting
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DEC 10
MARK 5:1-20
"Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you" (Mark 5:19).
Many Christians, enthusiastic about foreign missions, answer the call to service. By going to foreign countries, praying faithfully, or giving financial support they help reach the lost in faraway lands. Yet some who have a great burden for people in spiritual darkness across the sea seem oblivious to the same need in their neighbors across the street.
A young woman, excited about her salvation, wanted to share the gospel with others, so she asked her pastor where she might go to serve most effectively. He told her to come back the next day and he would have an answer ready for her. When she returned to his office at the specified time, the pastor handed her a folded slip of paper. "I'm suggesting someone who needs you right now more than anyone else in all the world," he said. The young woman quickly left the pastor's study, eager to read where her mission field might be. When she opened the note, she saw that the pastor had written two words: "Your father." She had been so enthusiastic about reaching the lost in distant lands that she had neglected someone close to home. Convicted of her negligence, she acted on the pastor's advice. She visited her dad regularly, ministered to his physical needs, showered her love upon him, and witnessed to him.
Serving the Lord on some remote mission field is challenging, and the tremendous sacrifices and hardships are praiseworthy. But, like charity, missions must always begin at home.
--R.W.D.
There is no "home" or "foreign" in God's missionary vocabulary.
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DEC 11
1 CORINTHIANS 2:12-16
These things we also speak, . . . in words which . . . the Holy Spirit teaches (1 Corinthians 2:13).
Aphasia is a loss of the ability to speak, a condition that results when the message from the brain cannot get to the tongue because of an injury or illness.
A similar spiritual malady affects many Christians. They know Jesus Christ, but they never speak of Him. They are familiar with God's plan of salvation, but they never tell it to others. They do not demonstrate the impelling force of the early Christians who said, "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20). This faulty connection between knowledge and testimony must be corrected. Often fear causes the breakdown, or sometimes sin blocks our freedom to speak about Christ. Only as believers rely on the power of the Holy Spirit and forsake their sin can they consistently share Christ with others.
Just before His ascension, the risen Christ assured His disciples of power to transmit His message to the world (Acts 1:8). That power is the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit. Every believer has this source. But if we quench or grieve the Holy Spirit, our witness in words will be either ineffective or nonexistent.
We must keep the message of the gospel flowing to those around us who need to hear it. We can't let spiritual aphasia silence our witness.
--P.R.V.
If we have God's Word in our minds, He can put the right words in our mouths.
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DEC 12
2 CORINTHIANS 6:1-10
For the love of Christ constrains us (2 Corinthians 5:14).
When Hudson Taylor directed the China Inland Mission, he often interviewed candidates for the mission field. On one occasion, he met with a group of applicants to determine their motives for service. "And why do you wish to go as a foreign missionary?" he asked one. "I want to go because Christ has commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," the candidate replied. Another said, "I want to go because millions are perishing without Christ." Others gave different answers. Then Hudson Taylor said, "All of these motives, however good, will fail you in times of testings, trials, tribulations, and possible death. There is but one motive that will sustain you in trial and testing; namely, the love of Christ."
A missionary in Africa, when asked if he really liked what he was doing, responded, "Do I like this work? No. My wife and I do not like dirt. We have reasonably refined sensibilities. We do not like crawling into vile huts through goat refuse. . . . But is a man to do nothing for Christ he does not like? God pity him, if not. Liking or disliking has nothing to do with it. We have orders to 'Go,' and we go. Love constrains us."
We may not be serving the Lord under dangerous or unpleasant conditions, but the work He has called us to do has its own unique difficulties. In times of trials and testing, only the love of Christ can strengthen us to go on.
--R.W.D.
Serving Christ under law is a duty; under love it's a delight.
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DEC 13
LUKE 14:15-24
"Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in" (Luke 14:23).
"Many churches today remind me of a laboring crew trying to gather a harvest while they sit in the toolshed. They go to the toolshed every Sunday and they study bigger and better methods of agriculture, sharpen their hoes, grease their tractors, and then get up and go home. Then they come back that night, study bigger and better methods of agriculture, sharpen their hoes, grease their tractors, and get up and go home. They do this week in and week out, year in and year out, and nobody ever goes out into the fields to gather in the harvest" (Paul W. Powell, THE COMPLETE DISCIPLE).
The final command of Christ to His disciples was to tell everyone about His saving power. Just before He ascended to heaven, He said to His followers, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). Today, that great commission is still the responsibility of believers. But many church members, even though they have much Bible knowledge and have been Christians for years, never enter the harvest field.
I must confess my own guilt in this regard. I promote missions. I support missionary endeavors regularly. Some of my best friends are missionaries. But I haven't been out in the realm of the lost as I should be. It's time for all of us to confess our shortcomings and to get into the fields.
--D.C.E.
There is only one thing we can't do for missions--get rid of our responsibility.
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DEC 14
ACTS 1:1-8
"You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem . . . and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
Writing in OUTREACH, a publication of the Oriental Missionary Society, Richard D. Wood raised a thought-provoking question about our motives in supporting missions. He said tourists often came back from Haiti and said, "God broke my heart for missions in Haiti." But he wondered whether these people were moved more by the physical poverty of the Haitians than by their spiritual poverty. Was the lack of physical bread uppermost in the tourists' minds rather than the Haitians' need for the Bread of Life--the Word and Son of God? Mr. Wood recognized that God often has to wake us up, and showing us people's extreme physical need may be His way of doing so. But he wondered if those same people, if strolling through an average middle- or upper-class suburb in America, would cry, "God broke my heart in the suburbs." Would the sight of well-manicured lawns, expensive houses, and well-dressed people evoke that kind of response? Wood then pointed out that the gospel is for the suburbanite as well as the slumdweller. The character of God and the spiritual need of humanity--not our feelings and thoughts--provide the right motive for missions.
Everyone has sinned; and all, regardless of poverty or affluence, need the gospel. So each of us must reach out with the message of God's redeeming grace to men and women everywhere--in the jungles, but also in the suburbs.
--R.W.D.
Everyone outside of Christ is a mission field; everyone in Christ should be a missionary.
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DEC 15
MATTHEW 9:32-38
But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them (Matthew 9:36).
We who live in countries where the gospel is freely preached find it difficult to imagine the tremendous spiritual need in areas where people have never heard the gospel. When we think of the millions who do not know Christ, we need to be filled with compassion and moved to action, as our Savior was in Matthew 9.
While on furlough from missionary service in Africa, Robert Moffat (1795-1883) spoke in England about his work. A young medical student in the audience had hoped to serve on the mission field in China, but that land was closed. He listened as Moffat described a frequent sight in Africa. "There is a vast plain to the north, where I have sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been."
"The smoke of a thousand villages." Those words painted a vivid picture and gripped the heart of the young student. This was the challenge he was looking for in his desire to reach the unreached. Filled with a new vision, the young man went to Moffat and asked, "Would I do for Africa?" That student was David Livingstone.
Christ said, "Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest" (John 4:35). He still needs workers today. With Moffat and Livingstone, we can envision "the smoke of a thousand villages." Then we must ask God to show us what we can do to share the gospel with those who have never heard.
--R.W.D.
We can reach out to a world in need with the Word it needs!
