Missions Devotions Week 5 Day 1

Transcription

1 Missions Devotions Week 5 Day 1 Called By God By Oswald Chambers I heard the voice of the Lord, saying Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? Then I said, Here and I, send me! - Isaiah 6:8 God did not direct His call to Isaiah - Isaiah overheard God saying,...who will go for Us?. The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. Many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 22:14). That is, few prove that they are the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and have had their spiritual condition changed and their ears opened. Then they hear the voice of the Lord continually asking,...who will go for Us?. However, God doesn t single out someone and say, Now, you go. He did not force His will on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of God, and he overheard the call. His response, performed in complete freedom, could only be to say, Here am I, send me!. Remove the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible pressure from the outside. the quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His Follow Me was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard - the voice of the Lord. In perfect freedom we too will say, Here am I, send me!.

2 Missions Devotions Week 5 Day 2 Every Christian is Either a Missonary or an Imposter by Charles H. Spurgeon If Jesus is precious to you, you will not be able to keep your good news to yourself. You will be whispering it into your child s ear. You will be telling it to your husband. You will be earnestly imparting it to your friend. Without the charms of eloquence you will be more than eloquent: your heart will speak, and your eyes will flash as you talk of His sweet love. Every Christian here is either a missionary or an imposter. Recollect that. Recollect that. You either try to spread the Kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love Him at all. It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus and a totally silent tongue about Him. Of course I do not mean by that, that those who use the pen are silent: they are not. And those who help others to use the tongue, or spread that which others have written, are doing their part well: but the man who says I believe in Jesus, but does not think enough of Jesus ever to tell another about Him, by mouth, or pen, or tract, is an imposter. You are either doing good, or you are not good yourself. If thou knowest Christ, thou art as one that has found honey. Thou wilt call others to taste of it. Thou art like the lepers who found the food which the Syrians had cast away: thou wilt go to Samaria and tell the hungry crowd that thou hast found Jesus, and art anxious that they should find Him too. Be wise in your generation, and speak of Him in fitting ways and at fitting times, and so in every place proclaim the fact that Jesus is most precious to your soul.

3 Missions Devotions Week 5 Day 3 Hearing the Call by In Touch Ministries God has issued some dramatic calls to service. Moses heard His voice from a burning bush (Exodus 3). Isaiah saw a vision of heaven s throne room (Isaiah 6). However, a spectacle is the exception rather than the rule. For most who follow the Lord to the mission field, His call is a persistent tug on the heart. It is a whisper in their spirit asking, How will they know God unless someone tells them? (Romans 10:14).It s better if the Lord doesn t have to use drama to get our attention. Consider stubborn Saul who needed a serious talking to and temporary blindness to get him on the mission field (Acts 26:13-18). I know I d rather hear the Lord s still small voice! People can try to ignore the heart tug., block the ever-present question with activity, or satisfy it by giving money rather than themselves. Some outright say no. But the call persists. God s will is set and His plan is steadfast. Though we may run, we can t escape His call to obey (Jonah 1:1; 3:1).The road to obedience will certainly be marked with challenges. But difficulty is part of any life - at home or abroad, in mission work or a traditional job. Thankfully, the rewards of serving are greater than any hardship. Remember that Jesus promised Peter a hundred-fold return on his investment in the kingdom (Mark 10:28-30). Carrying the gospel is a great opportunity to serve God. What better wat to thank Him for saving us and writing our name in the Book of Life, than to share that experience with others. If the Lord s still small voice is calling you, say yes and see what amazing, lifechanging work He can do through you.

4 Mission Devotions Week 5 Day 4 Missionary Weapons By Oswald Chambers We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us - it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion? Yet you won t rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God s training ground. If you are not doing the task that is closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crisis always reveal a person s true character. A private relationship of worshipping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness. The time will come, as Nathaniel experienced in John 1:48, that a private fig-tree life will no longer be possible. Everything will be out in the open, and you will find yourself to be of no value there if you have not been worshipping in everyday occassions in your own home. If your worship is right in your private relationship with God, then when He sets you free, you will be ready. It is the unseen life, which only God saw, that yoou have become perfectly fit. And when the strain of the crisis comes, you can be relied upon by God. Are you saying, But I can t be expected to live a sanctified life in my present circumstances; I have no time for prayer or Bible study right now; besides, my opportunity for battle hasn t come yet, but when it does, of course I will be ready? No, you will not. If you have not been worshipping in everyday occassions, when you get involved in God s work, you will not only be useless yourself but also a hindrance to those around you. God s training ground, where the missionary weapons are found, is the hidden, personal, worshipping life of the saint.

5 Missions Devotion Week 5 Day 5 God is a Missionary God By Missional Christianity Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - Matthew 28:19 One of Jesus final commands to His disciples, and to us as His followers, is to go into the world and make disciples. It s called the Great Commission. To be missionaries to our world and our cutlure that spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Theologians call this the Missio Dei, or the Mission of God. It s God s mission to spread His glory by using the Church to teach and train all people to love anf follow Jesus. In the Great Commission Jesus calls us to be a part of that mission. That s where we get the phrase, Live Missionally - it means to live in sync with - or better said - to live out the Mission of God. Have you ever thought about the fact that God is a missionary God? He is. The great thing about Jesus call for us to go out and make disciples and spread the Gospel is that He did it Himself! He leads by example! God is a sending God, with a desire to see all of humanity and creation reconciled, redeemed, and healed. He sent Jesus for this purpose. The greatest display of the mission of God is in John 3:16, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.today, spend some time thinking about the fact that God is a missionary God who came into your world to reach you with His love through Jesus Christ. His desire is to see you (and all people) reconciled, redeemed, and healed.