Serving Jesus is like making a 60-yard touchdown run. (Yes, God plays football.) And the ball's in our hands. Let's get out of our holy huddles (especially those of you who have the "perfect" church) and run a play or two for Jesus. Yes, you will get scraped up (or beat up -- ask Paul!) along the way. But it's pretty hard to deny the need that is out there.Now that is a convicting word. We can so easily get caught up in "doing church right" that we lose sight of why there is a church in the first place or what we are called to do. That mission can be summed up in one word: GO.That can be GO to Ecuador or Ethiopia or Haiti or that can be GO across town or across the street. We are so caught up in the big displays, the dramatic movements that we lose the sense in which God works in the very small, the mundane, the ordinary to change lives. I have a GO opportunity tonight and I am grateful for it. The rest of the week has lots of little GO opportunities, I just pray for the humility to recognize them and the wisdom to look up from my blog now and then to see the mission field I write about so often.
By the way, there's no sense in playing unless you expect results. Don't limit your playing field to the stained glass aquarium (or to your living room). Jesus is building His church worldwide, and He wants to use you. That's why you're here in the first place. Serve Jesus and there will be pain. Live for yourself and there will be pain. There will be pain either way. So why not get your pain working for you rather than against you? Let's unleash foot soldiers for Jesus. Don't need to go across the world to do this either. Know how to bake a pie and take it to a neighbor? Welcome to the mission field!
As an aside, I am trying to break free of the American church culture that I think impedes missions in the world and get perspective on the rich and varied world of Christianity but one place I remain an unashamed and unapologetic American bigot is in football. I am quite convinced that God has a special place in His kingdom for football and not the kind with the little round ball you kick around but rather the kind played as God intended, giant men crashing into one another and conquering the field one yard at a time. Such a glorious game clearly that the mark of the Creator upon it!
1 comment:
Arthur,
Dave is so right!
On the other hand, I believe that one failure of evangelical churches is that they have their eyes lifted so high toward the horizon,"Samaria and the ends of the earth",satisfying their missions conscience, that they cannot even get a glimpse of their "Jerusalem and Judea".
Post a Comment