Hello everyone, I was reading a book about the Missionary Call and the author mentioned how part of the missionary call is a burden for these three things. I really enjoyed what he had to say, so I figured that I would take a little time to write about them.
If your reading this, I am assuming that you know what the first of these three is, the “Great Commission”. This is the command of Jesus to go to the nations (ethne) and make disciples – it is recorded in every gospel and the book of Acts. (Matt 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:74, John20:21 and Acts 1:8). I think most people would say that in order to be a missionary you just need to have a burden to fulfill this call of our Lord to go into every people group and to make disciples among them teaching them to obey all that the Lord has commanded us. I think that is certaily a main piece, but I also believe that they must feel a burden to fulfill these two other area’s mentioned above.
Matt. 22:33-40 explains what the “Great Commandment” is.
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Not only are the law and the prophets summed up in these two commandments, we also see the start of the missionary calling in them as well. The author I was reading say’s “When you love the Lord, you long to glorify Him, and see the nations fall at His feet in worship. When you love your neighbor as yourself, you share the gospel with him and seek to meet his needs in every way you can, which includes seeing them fall at Jesus’ feet in thanksgiving for salvation.”
Lastly, we read of “The Great Compassion” in Mark 6:34 which says
34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
When our heart is united with the Lord’s heart, the great compassion will be part of our everyday life and actions. When each day that goes by is filled with burden of the nations being lost and without any hope, we then can say, “Here I am, send me”!
I believe that hearing the Lord’s call to missions will include a burden to fulfill the Great Commission, and a deep desire to obey the Great Commandment, and lastly for all things to be guided by the Great Compassion. I pray that these things will be able to guide us and direct us to exactly what the Lord has for us, in the places He desires us to be in. I am praying in my own life that these three things would be in the forefront of everything that I do, from how I spend my time and money, to how I relate with other people. Praise the Lord for the power of His Word, and His Holy Spirit to guide us into all Truth.
Blessings,
Carlos