On Mission With God
Earlier this year I went to an International Mission Board conference in Orlando with a good friend. While we were there we heard a lot of good speakers and learned a lot about missions. One of the speakers was Ed Stetzer who is at Lifeway now. He is a wise person who has had a lot of experience in doing God's will by starting churches and teaching God's Word. He had one insight that I had not heard, but I can't shake.
Ed Stetzer gave an interpretation of the Great Commission that is hard to refute. He told those of us at the conference that the plain meaning of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 is that as we go through life we are commanded to make disciples of all people groups. This does not just mean our own people group. In fact, it implies strongly that the meaning of Jesus is that in order to do His will, we must engage people in different people groups from our own, or we are not fulfilling the Great Commission. Think about that for a minute.
If that is true, which I believe it is, how many of us have obeyed the command of Jesus? Only those who have taken the time to engage someone in another ethnic group, language group, or other sub-culture group would be able to say yes. Therefore, we need to consider what we are doing to spend time with people who are different from us, not just by going to other countries, which is very good, but by going down the street. There are many people groups all around us who have their own culture, religion, or ethnic background that need Jesus, and Jesus has made it clear that we are to be the ones to engage them in His love and by His power, so that they can come to know Him as Lord and Savior. I pray that we will all take this to heart and arrange our lives to fulfill the Great Commission.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Romans 2-4.
Ed Stetzer gave an interpretation of the Great Commission that is hard to refute. He told those of us at the conference that the plain meaning of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 is that as we go through life we are commanded to make disciples of all people groups. This does not just mean our own people group. In fact, it implies strongly that the meaning of Jesus is that in order to do His will, we must engage people in different people groups from our own, or we are not fulfilling the Great Commission. Think about that for a minute.
If that is true, which I believe it is, how many of us have obeyed the command of Jesus? Only those who have taken the time to engage someone in another ethnic group, language group, or other sub-culture group would be able to say yes. Therefore, we need to consider what we are doing to spend time with people who are different from us, not just by going to other countries, which is very good, but by going down the street. There are many people groups all around us who have their own culture, religion, or ethnic background that need Jesus, and Jesus has made it clear that we are to be the ones to engage them in His love and by His power, so that they can come to know Him as Lord and Savior. I pray that we will all take this to heart and arrange our lives to fulfill the Great Commission.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Romans 2-4.