What do you think of when you hear the word Missions?
For most of us it brings up visions of a person or group of people taking ten days off of work and heading to a region of the earth foreign to them. People from the United States heading to Africa or South America and lending a helping hand to a children's home or providing medical care that normally is not available.
But is that all there is to missions?
In Matthew 28 we get our commission to share the gospel.
16-17 Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.
18-20 Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."
From this one verse I get that our mission is not only to those areas like Africa and South America but it could be as close as the person in the apartment or house next to you.
What I want to do with this post is to provide some ideas for where you could find people who are foreign to you and to the gospel of Jesus.
Here are a few places that you could find people who are in need of the gospel:
Nursing homes, bars, night clubs, children homes, jails, prisons, hospitals, shopping centers, your next door neighbor, coffee houses, the waitress at your favorite restaurant, your child's coach or teacher or the employee break room at work.
You see the mission field is not limited to some distant land it is as close as a few steps from where you are right now as you read this.
Right now you might be saying well I am not one of the ones called to share the gospel and it might be true that you are not called to travel into the inner city, under the bridges where the homeless live, or to some foreign land. But to really answer that question let's look at one more scripture.
I am not going to list the entire scripture here but I will focus on what I feel is the most important words. Matthew 25: 31-46
37-40"Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'
Friends our mission field is any place that people are hungry both physically and spiritually. It is where people are suffering, sick, in prison or in need. Your neighbor may be in need just as badly as the person in Africa. The co-worker who feel he or she needs to drink their blues away is as needy as the one in South America who is steeped in strange religious practices.
God may not have called you to be a missionary to some foreign country but He has called you to be a missionary to those foreign to Him.
Now how exactly does someone who is not trained to be a missionary be a missionary? Simple share your life with someone else. After all your life is something you know better than anyone else. As you get to know your neighbor share with them where you have been in your life and where you are now and where you believe God is taking you. Share with them the Good News that God has done in your life. Then give them hope that He wants to do the same in their life.
Finally, be patient as God works in their life. Although Salvation is granted instantly, life long habits are not always instantly changed. Most of the time God uses the process of developing a relationship with the person in the changing of life controlling habits.
I hope that by now you see that God has called you to missions. More likely it is to be a Home Missionary not a Foreign Missionary. In my view both are equally important to increasing the Kingdom of God.
God is calling all followers of Jesus to take the Gospel into ALL of the world.
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