MISSIONS: A DUTY OR DELIGHT

Of course, having just recently returned from Ethiopia, my heart is full of joy for the nations. But I wonder if it is for all of you. How do you think about the nations? How do think about missions? My heart is not full because I love the travel, the food, or even the adventure. My heart is full because God is at work in every square inch of the planet He created. There is something about seeing His Church in hard places that fills me with joy and a laser-like focus on what really matters. Don’t get me wrong, there are great needs in godless places. We saw poverty, war crimes, and utter hopelessness. Yet we saw faithful church planters, evangelists and pastors who want the light of the Gospel to penetrate such darkness. Helping them is not the duty of the Western church, it is a privilege like no other! I’ll even go so far as to say – If you are not somehow connected to what God is doing in the nations, your joy is incomplete. Remember our C.S Lewis quote – “Don’t let your happiness depend on something you can lose”? You can lose your retirement (yep, the stock market is tanking right now), you can lose your job (unemployment will be on the rise), you can even lose your health (nobody can predict that), but when your joy is locked into the heart of God to declare salvation to the nations … Nobody can take that away! No sob story here, just a story of joy for you as you seek first the Kingdom of God today. Read Psalm 67 and catch the heart of God for the nations!