Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It - 5/2/06

Luke 5:31, "Jesus answered them, 'It is not the healthy people who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to invite good people but sinners to change their hearts and lives.'"

Jesus offended many religious leaders by hanging out with people who weren't concerned with looking or acting holy. His is the Son of the Most High God, but you would have seen Him more often in the house of a sinner than the temple - the house of His Father.

It makes perfect sense, that He would spend His time teaching those who have never heard of God's love and how to live holy lives, rather than spending it with those who already knew of it. These are the sick who needed a doctor; their hearts were poisoned with the lies of this world and needed a heart transplant from the Great Physician.

When Jesus rose from the grave and went to heaven to prepare a place for us, this task of caring for the "sick" passed on to us. The Bible says that we are the body of Christ; we are His hands and His feet and must follow His example. We must walk as He walked and work as He worked. This is our mission.

We go on mission trips to oher places and countries, and that is good. But every morning, we wake up in the mission field right here. We are surrounded by sick people who have never heard the good news of God's love and grace. Or, they've heard an incredibly distorted version of it and are avoiding God based on that misguided understanding.

Ideally, we would wake up each morning and prepare for the day as we would if we were on a mission trip - praying, devoting time to God, fellowship, singing, and drawing strength from the source of strength for a day full of affecting the people in our lives.

We can't rely on pamphlets and books and blogs to teach people about God's love. Why weren't any of the books of the Bible written by Jesus himself? I think because there would have been only one book. Granted, the best one I'm sure. But rather than writing, He spent His time working with people. He touched lives every day so they would write about His love and glory from their individual points of view. Then those people went out and touched lives, and those people touched lives; crossing borders and rivers and languages and oceans, spreading like a fire across the globe until millions learned the truth of God. Every kind of person has believed "...from every tribe and every nation, every language."

Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron, so people can improve each other." Believers in Christ are sharpened iron - sharp enough to cut through every lie about God and sharpen other people's faith.

So, you know your mission; you have your assignment - you're living it. Now, you must do as Christ would have done if He lived your life, because you are living for Him and not yourself.