Do you believe that the Bible is true? Usually a pretty easy question for someone who calls themselves a Christian. Yes, of course, you believe the Bible. And there are a lot of really easy things to love about the Bible: forgiveness, grace, and a God who is Love. But there are also a lot of things about the Bible that aren't so easy to take in, for example, that everyone who doesn't believe will spend eternity in Hell. It's really hard to grasp, really hard to understand, and sometimes honestly even harder to believe. But if you believe that the Bible is true, and it is, there are A LOT of people going to Hell. Like, 6 billion in a very generous estimate. I promise I'm not trying to tell anyone that they are going to Hell, this is for those of us who call themselves Christians and are a part of the Church.
First off, I just want to explain what missions actually are. I used to think that it was probably a trip away for a week or so serving physical needs of a place that isn't as well off as me and hoping to somehow tell them about Jesus while I'm there. I also thought a missionary was someone who lived in another country helping the people that I decided to help for a week. This is wrong and this is not a mission. A missionary is a Christian and a Christian is a missionary, plain and simple. There is not a level of Christians that are missionaries and a level that's not. We're all missionaries. Why? Because we are told, not asked, by the God that we believe in, the God of the universe, to share His love with people to the ends of the Earth.
From the bottom of my heart with all the love I have, Christians have become so hateful. I hear so many people say I'm so proud of you and you're doing such great things when I leave to go on a mission trip. Please know that I am doing absolutely nothing great. I am only being obedient. I just spent my summer in a city where only 3% of the population is Christian. A city that was once known to be the city in America where Christianity started. So why did this happen? Because Christians today are hateful. And I don't mean that we are hateful in a way that is outward, which we are sometimes that too, but I mean because so many of us say that we aren't called to mission. We don't understand that God's greatest command behind loving Him is to love our neighbor and that means we are to tell them about what has changed our whole lives. If you saw someone running out in the road about to get hit by a bus and didn't yell or try to save them, you are hateful. In the same way, we see our neighbor running straight into an eternity away from God and we don't yell. We let them get hit by a bus because we simply feel like we aren't called.
The slogan for NAMB, the organization I worked for this summer, is "Pray, Give, Go." And a lot of Christians think these are options and you pick one or two and leave the other. But there is no option. You aren't called to pray and go, or to go and give. You are called to do all three. We are called to pray for those on a mission all over the world, give to those when we aren't going, and go literally whenever we have the opportunity. And you don't have to move to another country or even another state to go. You literally only have to open your heart to the fact that God is willing to use you to share an opportunity to give everlasting life. We can literally do this in our hometown, on our college campuses, and our favorite restaurant. And why do we not see that as the greatest privilege of all time?
If I have learned anything this summer, it is that it's past time for us to step it up. It is no longer acceptable to hope that people will simply walk into our church doors every Sunday, and it never was. As Christ went, so are we to go. Church, we are called. There is no question. I once heard someone say it's not if we're called to the Great Commission, it's when and where we're called. And it isn't hard because it was never up to us. We are only simply called to be available and God will use us according to His plan. And the world is looking for Him, they just don't know where to find Him. If we sat down to actually have a conversation and hear their stories, we would know that in every situation there is pain and they are looking for Jesus and just don't know His name.
So please Church, let us no longer say that we aren't called to missions. We are called, there is no question about it. Let us answer God's call to be obedient and that is the first step to seeing new people come to know Him. When we come to realize we are called, we will realize we have just accepted a call to be a part of eternity.
"... These men who have turned the world upside down, have now come here too." Acts 17:6
