September 4, 2000

TOGETHER:
The Bible compels us to
take up the missions challenge
___When I was a Royal Ambassador, we were asked to find 50 missionary verses in the Bible. I had forgotten about that until last week, when our Mission Sending Study Committee asked the question: "What Scripture verses undergird your mission strategy?"
___Matthew 28:18-20 is known as the Great Commission and is foundational to all Christian mission enterprise: "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you

CHARLES WADE Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

always, to the very end of the age."
___But there are other profound texts that help us to mobilize our efforts as well.
___"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). This verse helps us see the local and the global dimension of missions.
___"Again Jesus said ..., 'As the Father has sent me, I am sending you'" (John 20:21). The Christian faith has always been a missionary faith. God made his journey to a far country on our behalf in his Son. Now we go in the same spirit to tell the world of the love of God.
___"And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'" (Romans 10:15). People need to hear the gospel earnestly, passionately, powerfully preached. To be on mission is to have been sent.
___God had a great ambition for the chosen people: "I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 49:6b). God called his people not only to privilege but to responsibility. They were to be a blessing as they had been blessed.
___To whom should the message of God's great hope and redemption go?
___ To everyone in all the earth. "The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life" (Revelation 22:17).
___ To the poor. Jesus said: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor" (Luke 4:18). Surely he was remembering the words of the prophets and the psalmist: "Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked" (Psalm 82:3-4).
___ To those who have never heard. "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation" (Romans 15:20).
___ To those chained to you in difficult circumstances. "What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ" (Philippians 1:12-13).
___Who needs to know whom you can tell? Who is serving God in a mission task for whom you can pray? As our Texas Baptist churches prepare their hearts for the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions, ask God to help you discover the mission thing you can do.
___We are loved.
___

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