I never thought I would say this but I have come to believe that a lack of missions is a lack of faith. Yep, I said it. Above I have quoted the verses often referred to as the Great Commission but notice I went back a couple verses. Verse 17 says, "but some doubted." That caught my attention as it seems to shed light on my own life. I have had hundreds of excuses for not getting involved. Some sounded like, "My mission field is here" , "I already serve in many capacities at church", "There are so many lost all around us so why go anywhere." But let me ask you. . . Qver the last month or year, how much time have you spent obeying this commandment. Has life and priorities gotten in the way? It does and Satan is counting on that. But let's not allow him this victory. God saved us not because of our work but to work. In these verses and many others, He assigned our task. Our relationship with Him is a master/servant relationship. While He loves us wildly, He also has a job for us to do.
WHY? Why give us this task? After all, He is God and could do it entirely alone. I believe the answer relies in LOVE and WORSHIP.
First to address love. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." 1 John 4:7 Love is so important that much of God's Word speaks of love. There are all sorts of love but one particular that I am completely amazed by. It is love for a complete stranger who you have never even set eyes upon. Someone so different from yourself but nonetheless loved completely. I have had two opportunities during my life to experience this kind of love. The first was for our daughter which we adopted from China. We loved her so much before we ever met her. The second, amazed me even more. Recently, I sat reading my Bible. I don't remember the passages and they were completely unrelated. But during that time, God poured love into my heart overwhelming love for the Haitian people. I sobbed because the love was so strong and I knew it was from the Lord. I have never been to Haiti and knew very little about them. None the less the love was real and has continued.
Then worship. . .As I said in a previous post, I am concerned about our worship. Are we truly worshiping God (High Priest, Lord of Lords, Redeemer, Living Water, King of Kings, Lion of Judah, etc)? Or are we worshiping what we hope to obtain from Him (blessing, prosperity, easy life, success, etc)? I think the prosperity of the USA often gets in the way of our worship. Compared to other countries, we have had life easy. I want to propose that when we are obedient to the Great Commission, our worship changes. It becomes less about us and more about Him.
GETTING STARTED & MAKING A DIFFERENCE. . . Personally, we are starting with small steps. We know an amazing couple (who by no coincidence) are raising support to be full-time Haitian missionaries. So we are giving financially. But we have also been convicted that you must go. So we are beginning to plan a mission trip to Haiti as well. This is not in our comfort zone but clearly God's hand is upon it.
Now I have to tell you a bit about the Runks.
They are just an ordinary family who have slowly been transformed into an ordinary family who are crazy in love with Christ and the Haitian people. To see a grown man cry as he tells you about the plight of this people group is overwhelming. But they have given it all over to Christ that He might use them as He sees fit. As a result, they have an opportunity to help carry to Gospel to one of the poorest and most lost countries in the world. The opportunity they have is immense. The size only God could provide. There is tremendous amounts of work to be done and already many resources are in place. But to see these people begin a 4am worship service which has 45 minutes of just prayer and then last for hours makes it all worth it!
Here is a video to tell you about the ministry they are a part of:
There is only one reason that we remain on this earth and not in His presence right now. There is work to be done. There are currently approximately 4.5 BILLION people who do not know Christ. Yes, 4.5 Billion! Have you gotten to a point where you wonder if you are doing enough? Have you found satisfaction in your job, home, family, etc? What is success? Is it a feeling or a certain level of success in __________ ? I believe that the only real success, the only real difference to be made is in sharing the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ (His death and Resurrection) with the world.
I pray that you will consider this as well. There are so many ways to support missions and get involved. . .what will you do? Please pray for God's direction. If you would like more information about the work in Haiti, then visit the Runks Website. They are looking for people to share the burden by coming to work or supporting the work financially. Most of all, they covet your prayers. They are completely dependent on God to provide their every need and safety. Please commit them to prayer daily.
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