Share the Gospel...Everywhere You Go!
- Thread starter Musicmaster
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We go 'everywhere' as the Body of Christ in our prayers, financial support of missions, our neighborhoods, work places etc...we are not 'lone rangers'.
That one item is a thing of interest to me. "Missions."
In Luke chapter 10, we see this one item in that instructions:
Luke 10:4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.
Now, we all know that missions have for many, many years now been a matter of drumming up support from various of the church and para church organizations. This is a well established paradigm. And yet, Jesus, when He sent out the seventy disciples, this is what He told them.
Now, it's interesting that we today somewhat follow the instructions and examples of the NT, but only so far as convenience. When it comes to missions, we have long since sold out to the human methodologies that have become so commonplace and blindly accepted, and that are steeped deeply into a lack of faith.
Now, someone is bound to argue that there's nothing wrong with allowing fellow believers to support missionaries of their choosing, yadda, yadda, yadda. This is not a matter of right or wrong, but rather having faith in the Lord's provision as demonstrated through His explicit instructions to His 70 disciples. It seems that those activities, such as missions, where faith is required, faith is not exercised. It's more expedient and satisfying to have a pocket full of cash, or an account to draw from, rather than to rely on the provisions of the Gospel and the people to whom the Gospel is being carried.
Others might say, "Well, that was all fine and dandy for those people in those times and those locations, but our missionaries go international, and so need that continued support..." On an on the excuses always go, justifying anything and everything on the basis of "This day and age..."
And those who have done missions overseas might say, "We DID exercise tremendous faith in those places, with our very lives in danger every moment..."
Again, yes, we have all the givens, but in the end, there's that one, lonely verse that stands among the most ignored and disregarded, all for the sake of expediency.
Where it's true those 70 disciples eventually ended up leaving Jesus and the 12, that experience cannot help but to develop within missionaries a level of faith and walk that showing up with cash backing simply cannot and will not ever match.
One really bitter missionary once told me that he would never go to a place without support already in place to get settled and provide for his needs, etc. That's the caliber of at least one that the historic system has fostered. He is the type who likely had a shingle by the front door, hours posted, just like a business, expecting the Gospel-hungry people to come to him.
All that to ask, "Where't the faith?" Never mind the beef, where's the faith and trust in Christ's provision...the One who owns cattle on a thousand hills that has never been rustled?
MM
"Are you taking anyone with you to heaven?" 2:07min
1 Corinthians 3:6-9 NKJV
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. [7] So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. [8] Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. [9]For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building.
1 Corinthians 3:6-9 NKJV
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. [7] So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. [8] Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. [9]For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building.
I don't understand a lot of church missions that just take and take.
Missions are meant to give. Paul stayed in a hired house and he was also a tentmaker so he wasn't constantly asking for funds to travel or anywhere to settle..he was always on the move. Even in prison, he used that place to spread the gospel amongst the prisoners.
Missions are meant to give. Paul stayed in a hired house and he was also a tentmaker so he wasn't constantly asking for funds to travel or anywhere to settle..he was always on the move. Even in prison, he used that place to spread the gospel amongst the prisoners.
Hello Musicmaster and Lanolin;
I red-lighted what you both posted. Many who desire to serve in missionary work were not, or are not educated, equipped nor understand the Biblical teaching of missions work. This is the failure of the missionary leaders and organizations that supposedly prepared and sent them.
These missionary wanna-be's that are sent within their country or overseas do not learn about the conditions where they are serving and ministering, they are not ready to sleep in fox holes or the dirt floor, WALKING on foot, accepting what food is offered and overall do not adapt to the people.
As MM shared, missionaries on the outside say, "we're going to serve the Lord and reach the lost," but deep inside it's the thrill of going to another country but with the convenience of a warm bed, air conditioned room, shower and viable transportation, most of it paid for.
When indigenous or natives that missionaries are sent to serve see that their guest missionaries truly adapt to their conditions then they are more receiving and open to the Gospel. But when missionaries do a day's work then retreat to the comforts of their living quarters it sends a wrong message.
These missionary wanna-be's treat missions work secondary and sightseeing and spending for souvenirs the priority. This is where the take and take come in as Lanolin posted. Then when they return they give a testimony how they served God.
MM, unfortunately this does exist but we can't dismiss those missionaries who received the proper training, raised their own funds and truly feel the calling from God to serve in this noble ministry.
A missionary in these times must remember that we already died unto Christ so as hard as it is to say this, when we go and serve Christ in another country there is the possibility we may not return. Of course we want to come back alive, therefore, we must pray and discern we are called in this ministry, to use and receive wisdom from the host country and our missionary leader of the country we are going to serve.
God bless you both and your families.
Well said, Bob. I sometimes remember to mention the caveats of the givens, but not always.
As with almost everything eles I discuss topically, my statements are not being applied in a blanket sense, unless I say such.
Thanks for your input.
MM
As with almost everything eles I discuss topically, my statements are not being applied in a blanket sense, unless I say such.
Thanks for your input.
MM
Here are some verses and passages to consider concerning this matter (in no particular order).
--Papa Smurf
p.s. - all of us are not capable and called of God to be full-time missionaries (or evangelists or pastors, etc.), but we can be an integral part of such ministries nevertheless (by supporting them in the many different ways that they need to be supported, and financial support is certainly among them).
Here is an excerpt from the Parable of the Talents, and a bit of commentary on this short excerpt below it.
25:28, 29 If this man had earned one talent with his talent, he would have received the same commendation as the others. Instead, all he had to show for his life was a hole in the ground! His talent was taken and given to the man with ten talents. This follows a fixed law in the spiritual realm: “To everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.” Those who desire to be used for God’s glory are given the means. The more they do, the more they are enabled to do for Him. Conversely, we lose what we don’t use. Atrophy is the reward of indolence.
The mention of the bankers in verse 27 suggests that if we cannot use our possessions for the Lord, we should turn them over to others who can. The bankers in this case may be missionaries, Bible societies, Christian publishing houses, gospel radio programs, etc. In a world like ours, there is no excuse for leaving money idle. Pierson helpfully recommends:
25:30 The unprofitable servant was cast out—excluded from the kingdom. He shared the anguished fate of the wicked. It was not his failure to invest the talent that condemned him; rather his lack of good works showed that he lacked saving faith. ~MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (A. Farstad, Ed.; pp. 1298–1299). Thomas Nelson.
Here is the entire passage known as The Parable of the Talents if anyone would care to read it: Matthew 25:14-30.
1 Corinthians 9
3 My defense to those who examine me is this:
4 Do we not have a right to eat and drink?
5 Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
6 Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?
7 Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock?
8 I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things?
9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING.” God is not concerned about oxen, is He?
10 Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops.
11 If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?
12 If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.
13 Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar?
14 So also ~the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.~
2 Corinthians 11
7 Did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge?
8 I robbed other churches by taking wages from them to serve you;
9 and when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so.
Philippians 4
15 You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone;
16 for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs.
17 Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.
18 But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
--Papa Smurf
p.s. - all of us are not capable and called of God to be full-time missionaries (or evangelists or pastors, etc.), but we can be an integral part of such ministries nevertheless (by supporting them in the many different ways that they need to be supported, and financial support is certainly among them).
Here is an excerpt from the Parable of the Talents, and a bit of commentary on this short excerpt below it.
Matthew 25
24 The one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.
25 And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’
26 But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed.
27 Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.
28 Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’
29 For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.
30 Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
25:28, 29 If this man had earned one talent with his talent, he would have received the same commendation as the others. Instead, all he had to show for his life was a hole in the ground! His talent was taken and given to the man with ten talents. This follows a fixed law in the spiritual realm: “To everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.” Those who desire to be used for God’s glory are given the means. The more they do, the more they are enabled to do for Him. Conversely, we lose what we don’t use. Atrophy is the reward of indolence.
The mention of the bankers in verse 27 suggests that if we cannot use our possessions for the Lord, we should turn them over to others who can. The bankers in this case may be missionaries, Bible societies, Christian publishing houses, gospel radio programs, etc. In a world like ours, there is no excuse for leaving money idle. Pierson helpfully recommends:
Timid souls, unfitted for bold and independent service in behalf of the kingdom, may link their incapacity to the capacity and sagacity of others who will make their gifts and possessions of use to the Master and His Church.… The steward has money, or it may be other gifts, that can be made of use, but he lacks faith and foresight, practical energy and wisdom. The Lord’s “exchangers” can show him how to get gain for the Master.… The Church partly exists that the strength of one member may help the weakness of another, and that by cooperation of all, the power of the least and weakest may be increased.
25:30 The unprofitable servant was cast out—excluded from the kingdom. He shared the anguished fate of the wicked. It was not his failure to invest the talent that condemned him; rather his lack of good works showed that he lacked saving faith. ~MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (A. Farstad, Ed.; pp. 1298–1299). Thomas Nelson.
Here is the entire passage known as The Parable of the Talents if anyone would care to read it: Matthew 25:14-30.
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Amen!
Yes sir.
One of the great lessons that I was taught was to "MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN SOMEONES LIFE".
Look at YOU. I made YOU a friend!
You're different alright
.Amen!You're different alright
The question, then is what was sent from some of the churches. and for how long? Was it money, clothing, shoes, food...or gold and silver?
Another question to ponder is why did Paul need those things, or did he really need them at all, given that worked with his own hands?
Yet another question is, what did he do with what was sent? Was it all donated to the local needy, and thus showing to them even greater and more powerful ethics in the Gospel?
People today ram into the scriptures all manner of assumptions without stepping back and thinking through questions such as this, all of which address the utter silence for answers. Most never stop to think about what Paul actually needed, or didn't need in relation to the silence in what was actually sent to him. TV charlatans emphatically preach along the lines of what would make Paul out to be a man who had a mansion built for himself, and chariots with gold plated wheels, such as what televangelists enjoy.
Than you, PS. That was some really good quotes that do indeed elicit questions and to ponder the possibilities in Paul's favor rather than what would go against him, mainly because he was a man who cared deeply about how others perceived him, therefore his reasoning as to why he never asked anything of the believers in Corinth. It was absolutely his intent to ensure that nobody had any accusation for enrichment and plush accommodations he afforded for himself at their expense.
Good stuff, brother.
MM
I really need to proof read my posts more often. Post 14 above has some silly fat-fingering.