The Great Commission
All of my adult life Christmas has involved missions. Since I have been a member of Southern Baptist Churches, we have always taken up our Lottie Moon Offering for our international missionaries at Christmas. We have prayed for them and had missionaries come to our churches and speak at Christmas. It is very appropriate emphasis for Christmas. Most people think about giving and receiving gifts, but we should also think about giving the greatest gift of all.
Christmas is celebrating Jesus leaving Heaven to come to earth. He was the first Christian missionary in that sense. He came to tell us the Good News that anyone who trusted Him as Lord and Savior would be adopted into His family and have their sins forgiven. Since He left home to come to us, we should leave home to go tell others. Some are called to go far from home and share the Gospel. They deserve our complete support.
This year we are having hard times. We may have to cut back the number of Southern Baptist missionaries overseas. That would be a tragedy. We must do what we can to keep that from happening. I have challenged our church family to give at least as much as they pay for their most expensive Christmas present. Then, I even threw out the extra challenge to give as much as they pay for all of their presents. I think that is very reasonable considering that there are billions who have not heard about Jesus, and they will end up in Hell if we don't take drastic steps to reach them. Also, it is the celebration of Jesus' birthday. It is about Him, not us. He was all about bringing salvation to the world, so we should be about that, too.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Hosea 1-4 and Revelation 1.
Christmas is celebrating Jesus leaving Heaven to come to earth. He was the first Christian missionary in that sense. He came to tell us the Good News that anyone who trusted Him as Lord and Savior would be adopted into His family and have their sins forgiven. Since He left home to come to us, we should leave home to go tell others. Some are called to go far from home and share the Gospel. They deserve our complete support.
This year we are having hard times. We may have to cut back the number of Southern Baptist missionaries overseas. That would be a tragedy. We must do what we can to keep that from happening. I have challenged our church family to give at least as much as they pay for their most expensive Christmas present. Then, I even threw out the extra challenge to give as much as they pay for all of their presents. I think that is very reasonable considering that there are billions who have not heard about Jesus, and they will end up in Hell if we don't take drastic steps to reach them. Also, it is the celebration of Jesus' birthday. It is about Him, not us. He was all about bringing salvation to the world, so we should be about that, too.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Hosea 1-4 and Revelation 1.