I love flowers. In Canada, when I'd go to Costco, I'd always linger by the flowers and admire their colours and smells. I rarely bought them, although, because it seemed like such an extravagence. I wish I could say my husband regularly bought me flowers, but that would not be true...he is too frugal as well! Living here in Guatemala, although, flowers are cheap. You can buy a dozen long stemmed roses or gladiolas for about Q20 or just under $3. And that is expensive for here; I usually spend around Q10 or $1.50 for a full bouquet! Every Saturday Rocky and I walk to the market to buy our vegies and fruit and then, with whatever money we have left in our pockets, we pick up some flowers. I have had to do it in this order, however, or I would spend all I had on flowers and forget about the food. I sometimes get my priorities mixed up when I am knee deep in incredible tropical flowers for such amazing prices.
As I was pondering yesterday, I realized this is a little like my walk with the Lord. I sometimes get so immersed in what brings me pleasure, that I miss what is really important. Last year I read the book, Radical by David Platt. If you haven't read it yet, you should. This book impacted my thinking and my living in ways that I know please the Lord. Well, this week I started the second book, Radical Together by David Platt. Wow! Much of what he wrote about in the first book is echoed in the second, but this one is directed at the body of Christ - His Church. It is very powerful. Rocky and I read over the following passage yesterday and it struck us that we sure wouldn't want to read this from the pulpit Sunday morning, yet, at the very same moment, it is exactly what the church...what we...need to hear. So, we wanted to share this thought with you all.
And his [satan's] tactics are subtle; we could even say missional. Amid much talk in the church today about being missional, the Adversary may subtly be deceiving our minds about mission. We are exhorted to see ourselves as missionaries in our cities, and we are encouraged to engage our cultures with the gospel. These exhortations and encouragements are needed correctives for church mind-sets that have compartmentalized and limited mission. But, bibilically, our mission is not only about loving our city or invading our culture with the gospel. Our mission is also about leaving our cities to infiltrate every culture with the gospel. I am convinced that Satan, in a sense, is just fine with the missional churches in the West spending the overwhelming majority of our time, energy, and money on trying to reach people right around us. Satan may actually delight in this, for while we spend our lives on the people we see in front of us, more than six thousand people groups for generations have never even heard the gospel and remain in the dark.
But when we rise up as the church of Jesus Christ and give ourselves urgently, sacrificially, and radically to taking the gospel of the kingdom to all those people groups, we can expect to be met with the might of hell. ... It will not be easy. And it will cost.
Radical Together, page 87.
You see, it is easy for us to get so absorbed in our own church, its facility and programs. It's not like these things are bad; that is part of why it is so easy to lose ourselves here. Sadly, although, we can become misdirected and neglect the great commission; sacrificing the world for our own community. Scripture commands us to have both a local and global vision.
Matthew 28:19 says, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations... This is not a suggestion, it is a command. That is not to say that God is asking us all to move to another part of the world, but He is asking us all to play a part in spreading the gospel to all nations.
Matthew 24:14 says, This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Of the 11,000 identified people groups in the world, 6,000 remain unreached. So, what does that mean? Well according to Matthew 24, the end of this earth will not come until all have had the chance to hear. This is a challenge to us. Who is God going to use to do this work? You and me! The challenge then becomes, how are we going to live our lives to fulfill the great commission so that eveyone will have the opportunity to hear the gospel? How am I going to spend myself to this end?
It is a questions we all have to ask ourselves. It is one Rocky & I ask ourselves regularly. The answer is not always comfortable or easy, but it is always good!
Blessings, Karren & Rocky
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