Speak Up,

For the past three months I’ve been dating a guy who has greatly encouraged me through example to really examine myself and all that I do. As he discusses his mistakes, achievements, goals, and future plans, I begin to look to myself—am I also trying to become better, or have I become complacent on a day-to-day basis? Am I also striving to be sanctified, or am I merely avoiding sin and ultimately being neutral? Am I diligently looking at my faults and seeking ways to improve them, or am I simply accepting the fact that “that’s the way I am”?

For years I’ve been developing into the young woman that I am now, and when I’m thirty I hope that I’ll be shaped into an even better one. But the only way I can expect to improve is to stop hoping people will accept the way I am—although many thankfully do—but rather, strive for righteousness and shed the habits of my old nature.

Though it could be tolerable for me to hide under a blanket when I’m frustrated or embarrassed, it simply is not good. So while I may apologize afterward for running away from my problems, it doesn’t excuse the fact that it’s a habit that must be broken. Instead, I must learn to face the issues at hand and deal with them.

Giving up in situations I deem hopeless and never trying again tends to be another fault. I become adamant in striking down people’s encouragement over certain situations, but this cannot go on forever. Regarding this, I ought to be hopeful, even when the situation grows dim. At times I even wonder why I wouldn’t want to hear encouragement when I’ve given up; I don’t know why I want to stay down.

There are plenty of other disciplines I’m learning and working on, and I’m sure there will be lots more revealed to me as my life unfolds. When these faults seem overwhelming to me, the one thing I ought never do is give up. Christ is sanctifying me and I know my faults are not greater than His power. Though it may be difficult, my old nature will not continue to have as great an influence on me as it has.

“And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again…Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” —2 Corinthians 5:15, 17-21

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I will listen to what God the Lord will say;
He promises peace to his people, His saints—
But let them not return to folly.
Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him,
That His glory may dwell in our land.

Love and faithfulness meet together;
Righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
And righteousness looks down form heaven.
The Lord will indeed give what is good,
And our land will yield its harvest.
Righteousness goes before Him
And prepares the way for His steps

Psalm 85: 8-13

Jesus: From Genesis to Revelation

The Bible, from cover to cover, answers the question,

“Unless The Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Psalm 127:1

Anything we do within our own power without relying on God’s power is a waste of time. Why would we ever try do anything FOR God if it is APART from Him?

Instead of forging our own way and asking God to bless it, let us seek out where He desires to bless us, submitting ourselves to follow Him wherever He may lead. He only works within His will and character, unable to work against or apart from Himself. May we consider this and align our lives with His name instead of hoping He will align Himself with us. He is the One who deserves all glory. Therefore, let our work not be done in vain but done in full reliance that The Lord is working out what we never could.

This morning as I was preparing to sit down and read from Ephesians I began to pray, trying to move myself into a right place to receive God’s word. “I want to get something out of Your word this morning. Open my eyes to see something new.” I meant well; how could it be wrong to desire God to reveal something new?

But then it hit me: I wasn’t even concerned about spending time with God Himself, I was more concerned with coming away with something. What if I approached friendships like that? I began to think how silly it would be for me to invite a friend to hang out and say to him or her, “Hey, I want to get something out of this. Otherwise it’ll feel useless and I might not want to hang out again.” How ridiculous! An yet that’s how I often approach God—if I don’t get something from reading His word I begin to think it’s not so necessary or important to spend time in it.

I considered how I approach my deep friendships. I know if Danielle calls me up to hang out and says, “We won’t do much, I have to clean my room. But I wanted to hang out.” I’m down in a heartbeat because I know just spending time with her is satisfying. Other times I call people up to do homework together and we barely talk over the span of two hours—but that’s always been fine with me because just choosing to be in the same room was nice.

So I didn’t withdraw my prayer—I always want God to reveal something to me and I want to be open and ready for it—but I did continue it: “God, even if nothing new jumps out at me, even if it just seems to look like I spent ten, twenty, thirty minutes reading the Bible without ‘anything to show for it’, I hope our time together will be sweet.”

And I can tell you, having read now, there wasn’t some moment of epiphany nor a moment of awe that brought me to my knees. I read and spent time with my Father. It was enough because He is enough—more than enough.

He is a great God and if we desire His blessings and instructions more than we desire Him, then we are robbing Him of his due glory. May our lives proclaim that He Himself is the greatest reward we could ever receive. He is a miraculous, huge, and powerful God, but He dwells in the quiet places.

“So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19

"I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy…So with you: now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy."

John 16:20, 22

"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as it’s own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."

John 15:19

In an age where having a different opinion from someone else is considered an offense, and following the Bible brings ridicule, being a follower of Christ is entirely against the flow of the world’s way. It’s not easy, especially when friends are the ones mocking.
But Christ offers hope in this. First, He denies any opportunity for believers to think they can be one with the world as they follow Him. Second, He reminds those who love Him that the world is not their home. It’s actually a hopeful thing when the world hates believers for their faith and dedication to obeying and following Jesus.

Wouldn’t it be much better to love and obey Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, while being hated by the world, rather than follow the ways of the world that lead to death?

Jesus the Savior of the world has died and raised from the dead—that is my ultimate hope! My Savior did not only die for me but conquered death that I might live for Him! Hallelujah, praise Him forever!

Wednesday night I drove out to Joshua Tree with fourteen friends and spent the night freezing in my sleeping bag, praying time would pass quickly and the sun would come up. After shivering and shaking for hours, I seemed to wake up from a daze to a warmer temperature and heard some of the guys talking just outside our tent. After getting dressed, I went out to find breakfast was being made and some of the guys were already climbing up the giant rocks.

When breakfast was finished, Austin pulled out his Bible, along with everyone else, and read from Luke 22, where Jesus was at the Passover with His disciples, telling them about the bread and the wine being His body and blood. After a short discussion, Jackson pulled out his guitar and started to sing worship. 

The coolest part is that Austin and Jackson are deaf. Austin spoke and signed at the same time, and it was so peaceful to watch him sign his prayer to God—I was getting to see someone talk with the Father in a different language, one that I could understand. And Jackson…man, Jackson is such a talented guy. He’s deaf, yet he plays the bass, drums, guitar, and piano. While playing guitar yesterday, he sang. I’ve never heard him sing before, but yesterday was so awe-inspiring. He was definitely not singing the way we normally expect people to sing—for obvious reasons—but just listening to him praise God with all that he had caused me to admire God. I can only imagine how wonderful Jackson’s praise was to the Lord. I was reveling in it and found myself praising God all the more because of how sincere and abandoned Jackson was worshiping God.

After breakfast, worship, and Bible study, we set out to go rock climbing. Holy macanolli, that was a thrill and I’m set on going to the Rec Center here to continue using the rock wall. I’ve never been rock climbing before, so my adrenaline was pumping as I climbed. I didn’t get too high due to getting myself stuck at one point, so I came down, feeling challenged to try harder next time. It’s something I’d like to pursue as a side hobby.

As I looked at the group of people I was with, I took joy in the fact that I knew we were pleasing to the Father. Here we were, fourteen college-age students, choosing to worship God, serving each other by making breakfast, cleaning dishes, encouraging each other in rock climbing, being uplifting in our conversation, and enjoying God’s creation. It was magnificent. So I thanked God for blessing me with a fantastic experience.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that we may not grow weary and lose heart.”—Hebrews 12:1-3

It is so easy to look at a situation and consider the downsides and the risks and the opportunities to fail and everything else that could go wrong, yet this is a verse spurring us on to keep moving, keep fighting against all that hinders us, and keep focusing on Christ.

In looking at the verses I’ve decided to memorize throughout my life, I notice there’s a tendency for me to choose the verses that spur me on in my faith. I honestly believe it could be due to such great opposition I experience personally or see secondhand; the world is so negative and without hope, but Christ offers and blesses those who believe in Him a hope that is solid and will not fail. So risks may run high, we may crash and fall, but our hope in Christ raises us up again.

"Give us aid against the enemy,
for human help is worthless.
With God we will gain the victory,
and He will trample down our enemies."

Psalm 60:11-12

• Over 200 million Christians in 60 countries currently suffer persecution.
• Globally, about one in ten Christians suffers persecution.
• Every 24 hours, another 480 believers are martyred for their faith in Christ.
• In the last 20 years, the number of career missionaries (who have committed 4+ years to working overseas) sent out by US mission agencies has declined by over 45%—from 65,000 down to 35,000.
• Over 87% of all cross-cultural foreign missionaries minister among nominal Christian peoples—those who have already heard the Gospel.
• For ever one million unreached Muslims, there is only one missionary.

Learning these pieces of information compels me to do three things: praise God that the Gospel is being spread—that people are willing to put their lives at stake for the sake of Jesus’ name being proclaimed; pray for those who are being persecuted—those who have been imprisoned, kidnapped, beaten, slandered, and martyred; and finally, to be intentional in taking the steps necessary to bring the Gospel to those who have not heard it.

It’s not a guilt trip, it’s not a matter of checking off an item on the “Christian To Do List”, it’s not pity for the poor that compels me. It is a love for God, recognizing He deserves to be praised more than we could possibly imagine, and He has done the single, most amazing and awe-inspiring act by sending Jesus to take our place on the cross and raising Him from the dead. He has provided for us, by grace, a way to intimately know Him. My heart leaps for joy when I think about what He has done because I never could have redeemed myself.

I am compelled, then, to share what Jesus has done with those who have not heard. The Holy Spirit works powerfully in those who believe in Jesus’ name, making them bold to share the Gospel and preach Jesus Christ. The Lord has done what I never could, and that is beautiful. But He not only did it for me, but for all. 

So I do not want to knock on door that have already been knocked on. I want to build new foundations, reaching those who have not been reached.

My God, You are good. I could not hide You.

Short-term mission trips: Sanctified vacations?

One of the biggest elephants in the evangelical, missiological, soul-winning room is the lingering question of just how much good short-term mission trips1 are and whether or not they merely amount to sanctified vacations taken at the expense of others.

Now, to be fair, I’m not claiming that either the missionaries or those who fund them are intentionally nefarious. On the contrary; I believe that for the most part, those who go on short term mission trips and those who support them financially have honest evangelistic intentions. I am simply wondering whether we’ve fostered this “super spiritual” mindset around something we call “the mission field” and, as a result, neglect to ask the burdensome and unpopular questions of stewardship and effectiveness.

How did we get here?

Before we continue, however, I think it would be helpful to stop and examine the origins and history of the short-term mission trips.

Modern technology has recently made travel possible in ways that have not been heard of before. Where it used to take a month or more to cross seas, let alone oceans, now only takes a matter of hours. Where it took a significant investment of funds, logistics, and time, we are now endowed with the ability to decide to travel half way around the world on a whim provided you have your passport and appropriate shots.

While rapid travel is excellent for taking vacations in exciting new foreign locales, it was only widely incorporated into the evangelical arsenal within the last 100 years. By many accounts, YWAM pioneered this phenomenon less than 50 years ago.

A closer look at the problem

For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. -Paul in 1 Cor 16:11

Discipleship requires more than a passing visit. Sure, it’s great to visit with people and make new connections, but when we talk about missions we need to step back and examine what our goals are in order to evaluate how we are going about them.

With that in mind, let’s look at “the great commission” which is often used as a foundation for missionary endeavors.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.Matthew 28:19-20

This text is often exegeted to make “Go” the focus of this passage so that the imperative is for us to go out into “the mission field” and proselytize new converts. However, a more accurate exegesis would be “as you are going” since, in the Greek, the emphasis is on the making of disciples as you are going (i.e. wherever you go).

Unfortunately, if we place the emphasis on the going we end up thinking that we are lessened as followers of Christ if we don’t physically go on “mission trips”. This often leads to a false sense of super spirituality among those who do go whom we, in turn, call “missionaries”.

I need to point out here that not all missionaries have this tendency and that I am not claiming that those who do go are wholly unnecessary, on the contrary, we are each called to different work. I am merely pointing out that every follower of Christ is both called to be a missionary and is, in fact, “on a mission” wherever they are and that wherever our mission field is, we are called to make disciples2.

So whats wrong with short term mission trips?

So what’s wrong with taking a week out of your busy week and traveling overseas to make disciples? Well, nothing per se, but the problem comes in with how these short term mission trips are both seen; as an imperative of the great commission and a spiritual measuring stick, as well as how they are carried out; in many cases, without much thought to stewardship or logistics.

We’ve already seen how the great commission does not imply a need to go to foreign lands in order to be obedient to Christ’s command to make disciples, but because this is the prevalent view, we often see a person’s willingness to go as well as their having been as badges of honor to show others how spiritual we are.  This is, of course, wholly unbiblical, but when teachers of the Word give the impression that “go” is the emphasis of the great commission, how can we blame them?

Have we really counted the cost?

Because of this misunderstanding of the great commission and what it truly means to make disciples of those around us, we tend to overlook questions of stewardship and logistics. In fact, since we think the imperative is to go we tend to start to think that any cost is acceptable and questions of logistics are a mere nuisance.

How much does a round-trip plane ticket usually cost to travel overseas? $1,000, $2,000? More? Once you count the cost of food, lodging, transportation, etc. you can often approach figures well over $3,000 just to send a single person overseas. Is this really the best way to reach the lost?

What about the logistics? Have we thought about the continued training of the people we minister to? How much good are we doing if we merely succeed in piquing a person’s interest and do not arrange for the perpetual spiritual nourishment that comes from sound teaching and training? Worse yet; How much more of a child of hell do we make those whom we merely seek to have “make a decision” just so that we can add another notch in our spiritual belt?

I am not advocating that we abandon our brothers and sisters in need who live across the ocean, but the biggest question here is one of efficiency and what would be the best way to accomplish what we seek.

What is it we really want to accomplish?

So now we come to the elephant, the sticky question of why we go on short term mission trips that cost inordinate amounts of money and whose impact for the kingdom is often left unquestioned.

Why do we go? Why do we really go? If our real aim is to make disciples as we are commanded to, then we will gladly step back and examine the questions raised above (and many will come to the conclusion that short-term, long-distance mission trips are simply not a good idea) but I believe the main reason most Christians go is to satisfy a desire for an emotional experience which they equate with “being close to God”. And therein lies the heart of our dilemma.

In the end, what’s the difference?

When we take vacations, we are expecting experiential reward. We don’t expect to leave a lasting impact on the lands we travel to, and we expect to receive a euphoric high from our experiences. Sadly, most testimonies I hear from short-term missionaries are wholly self-centered (though they are couched in  a plethora of “Jesus speak”) with the focus being on the person as opposed to the message and often with little thought as to the lasting impact and cost vs. benefit to the congregation that helped send them.

In closing, I’m sure some short-term trips are worthwhile, that is certainly a matter for individual mission councils. I simply wish the Body of Christ would stop pretending that short-term mission trips are commanded or are anything like what we read about in the New Testament and start putting serious thought into the resources we are spending and the attitudes we are fostering and promoting.

It’s great to say we are “missional people”, but that becomes a completely nonsensical term if we fail to step back and carefully and Biblically define it.

I’m deciding to post this and humbly respond to it.

I agree with the article to a certain degree—short-term mission terms are not extremely effective, especially when not much is done to sustain the work long-term once the person or the team leaves the region they visited for three weeks or so.

My problem with this article is the fact that it lacks a call to action—instead of addressing a problem and looking for a solution, it merely is complaining. To say short-term missions are more detrimental or lacking in their efficacy to spread the Gospel and justice among the nations, yet provide no answers is a half-thought out idea.

I’d like to think I’ve got a pretty good head on my shoulders, but reading this and seeing the truth in it almost causes me to think, “Yeah, we should stop doing short-term missions. They’re wasting our time and resources, and they aren’t effective. How dare we try to puff ourselves up for taking a three-week vacation and claiming we carried out God’s command to make disciples?” This is a problem. Instead we must begin thinking, “Okay, if this isn’t effective ministry for the most part, then what is? How can I obey Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations?” Not to mention, if there are some short-term missions that are effective, let us look to them and be strategic.

(As a side note, I have been on two short-term missions in the past two years. I do not say this to bring praise and favor upon myself, but rather to say I have seen effective short-term missions and know about the ineffective; teams sent to Ukraine and Russia and certain parts of Africa that work in Christian orphanages to hold babies and care for them for three weeks is not strategic. It is good to love the children, but after three weeks the teams leave. How does that effectively display Christ’s love or the Gospel message or make disciples? On the other hand, I went to India last summer, where our team of nine came alongside some long-term missionaries to encourage them and provide some extra hands and feet for three weeks. We prayed all around the city and began building relationships with some of the locals. When we left, because we knew we would not be able to meet with them, we passed on information to the fieldworkers so they could get connected and continue discipling our new friends. This is effective; we did not change someone’s life in three weeks, but we did help out the missionaries who would be there much longer. Prayer also was multiplied by our coming and and laboring in prayer over the city.)

And this brings me to say: if short-term missions are not effective, then surely long-term missions are. If I can live in California for twenty-one years and allow Christ to work in me to bring forth His kingdom, then it is possible for me to live elsewhere, where the Gospel has not been preached, and see Christ’s power there. 

I must boldly remind fellow Christians that we are not called to complacency, but rather we are called to continually be sanctified and make disciples. Though, as the author points out, the imperative verb in Matthew 28:19-20 is “make”—make disciples—there are two keys things to recognize: the imperative implies the words previous are also commanded. Therefore, we are still commanded to go. Still, just because we are to “make disciples as we are going”, this does not mean we are off the hook—the verse clearly states we are to make disciples “of all nations”. If every Christian decided it was not necessary to bring the Gospel to other nations, how could we claim to carry out Jesus’ command?

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” Romans 10:14

We must not forget the other Great Commission statements from Jesus either:

“And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’” Mark 16:15

Here, the imperative verb is on the word preach, but once again, it includes what was written before it as a command: go.

“Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.’” Luke 24:45-47

How can we claim obedience to Christ if His name is not proclaimed to all nations?

“Jesus therefore said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’” John 20:21

Here, the main verb is send, and the meaning literally means “to thrust”.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Acts 1:8

Now, I absolutely must finish with this: Christ calls us to proclaim the Gospel to every nation—every ethne, that is, people group—and it is impossible for us to do this unless people go to those nations. It is true short-term missions do not have much of a lasting impact, but that should only spur us to go longer than three weeks to “check off” obedience to Christ, as if He has given us a quick to-do list. It is possible to be globally-minded while staying state-side, and I would not disagree that some are called to stay. But the evidence is more towards going than it is for staying, so I would beg you to consider asking God if you are to stay, rather than if you are to go. 

My urgency is not in getting people to move for the sake of being elsewhere. No, my urgency is in spreading the Gospel to those who have not yet heard it. How I could keep such a great Savior to myself is a great shame. But it is not guilt that spurs me on, nor do I hope guilt to consume you, fellow Christians, for guilt is not sustaining. Though it should uproot us to know that so many are dying without ever hearing the name of Jesus, our passion and duty to spread His name should be a manifestation of our love for God—to obey Him because we love Him, and to love the people He created because we love Him, and to be willing to step outside of our comfort zone to proclaim His name among all nations because we love Him.

“Not every Christian is called to be a missionary. But every follower of Christ is called to be a world Christian. A world Christian is someone who is so gripped by the glory of God and of the glory of His global purpose that he chooses to align himself with God’s mission to fill the earth with the knowledge of His glory as the waters cover the sea. Everything a world Christian does, he does with a view to the hallowing of God’s name and the coming of God’s kingdom among all the peoples of the earth.”—Tom Stellar

(Source: reasontostand.org)

"When I look at Your heavens, the works of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him?"

Psalm 8:3-4

God speaks the greatest words and I’m left wondering why I would ever in my life choose not to read the Bible, where He has solidly spoken. His love is so, so deep.

"Does your faith almost fail you? Fear not, it is neither your graces nor feelings on which you are to live: you must live simply by faith on Christ."

Charles H. Spurgeon 

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” John 4:23

True worship to God is based on who He is, not who we are. It is based on what He has done, not what we have done. It is based on His glory, not our shame. It is based on His grace, not our sin. Having a rooted and unchanging reason to worship God allows us to worship Him in any circumstance. Truth is Truth, it does not change, it is not relevant. 

(Source: youmakemewannabebrave)