He recalled lying on his living room carpet with Kathy and Kristen just a little while ago. They had talked smugly about their perfect life and how they had been so blessed. Now, he felt ashamed. Their life wasn't perfect; it was as shallow as a puddle of rain. Oh, they had been blessed, but what had they done about passing on the blessing? They were serving in their local church, but what were they doing about serving the nations? Saving the nations? Nothing. It was all selfishness, all about them. John was completely convicted. He closed his eyes and told the Lord he didn't want to lead a little life. He wanted to live a big life.
As he went back to this one line, this question that had so convicted him, a bigger question jumped into his mind. A challenge. Are you leading a little life in your own little world? Are you willing to lead a big life, a life with a big kingdom impact? Yes, he was."
~ "A Big Life" by Peter Hone
(John Heerema is the founder and Executive Director of Big Life Ministries. Used by permission.)
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So, are you leading a little life in your own little world? Are you willing to lead a big life, a life with a big kingdom impact?
1.) Become an informed intercessor.
Read up-to date books and magazines on what's happening in the world of missions today. Hang national and world maps in your home, office and church facility. Subscribe to missionary magazines, newsletters and prayer letters. Go on a vision tour to the mission field to see first hand the sacrifice and service of indigenous missionaries in Buddhist, Communist, Hindu and Muslim nations.
2.) Become a faithful prayer warrior.
Spend time alone remembering the needs of missionaries, sending organizations and the unreached peoples. As you read newspapers, watch television, and absorb other media, send out sentence prayers for people and places you learn about. Work with your Pastor, Sunday School leadership and other church organizations to see that prayer for missions is included as a regular part of all worship and group activities.
3.) Get involved personally.
Become a world follower of Christ. Help sponsor a missionary yourself. Work to get others to become sponsors. Prayerfully share the vision for the unreached peoples and national missionaries with your pastor, group or class leaders. Go to the mission field as a short term volunteer. Evangelize representatives of unreached peoples in your community. Help arrange for a missionary conference at your church, or a united annual festival of missions for your whole community. Volunteer to serve on the missions committee of your church.
4.) Go as a missionary yourself.
Is God calling you to go "to the uttermost parts"? Have you gotten down on your knees and prayed, "Lord, please use me to reach the lost- not my will, but yours"? There is something He would have you do. You can play a part in this great end-time drama. Don't let anything stand in the way of giving your best for the cause of Christ.
We are on the verge right now of the greatest explosion of evangelism in history. God is doing a miracle today in world missions. Finishing the task of world evangelization has never been more possible than right at this moment. If we were to let every 1,000 evangelical believers in the world today select and support one missionary couple from their midst and then send that couple to one of the hidden people groups, every tribe, tongue and culture would have 50 missionary couples among them.
Reaching the 500,000 villages of India could easily be done by qualified national missionaries if just one out of every 250 Christians in the affluent evangelized nations of the world would give $1 a day to help support them. And that's only if the missionary reached only one village in his or her entire career. Many Gospel For Asia missionaries will plant a church within a year or two of their graduation from Bible college. After that, they and the believers from that first church will work together to reach the next village over. Over time, the impact of $1 a day is multiplied over many villages.
(Used by permission from The Road to Reality by K.P. Yohannan.)
Would you sponsor a trained missionary that is sent to the lost places of the earth? If so, please visit Big Life or Gospel For Asia.
1 comment:
There are many ways to become involved with TSC Missions. You don't have to board a plane or dress wounds to be involved in missions. You can serve right ...
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