"I'm Not Called"

While we have been down at Project, as some of you may know, we have been challenged to share our faith with other people. One of our three themes of the summer is "engaging the lost", and we are trying to practice that. I don't know if I mentioned before or not, but we are reading a book, Radical, by David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills, in Birmingham. While reading a section of a chapter, I was hit with some of the words that Platt said. It revolves around foreign missions, and I felt like I should post it. It's a bit lengthy, so bear with me, but I recommend reading all of it.

The section title is "I'm Not Called".

"I wonder if we have in some ways intentionally and in other ways unknowingly erected lines of defense against the global purpose God has for our lives. It's not uncommon to hear Christians say, 'Well not everyone is called to foreign missions,' or more specifically, 'I am not called to foreign missions.' When we say this, we are usually referring to foreign missions as an optional program in the church for a faithful few who apparently are called to that. In this mind-set, missions is a compartmentalized program of the church and select folks are good at missions and passionate about missions. Meanwhile, the rest of us are willing to watch the missions slide shows when the missionaries come home, but in the end God has just not called most of us to do this missions thing.

"But where in the Bible is missions ever identified as an optional program in the church? We...were all created by God, saved from our sins, and blessed by God to make his glory known in all the world. Indeed, Jesus himself has not merely called us to go to all nations; he has created us and commanded us to go to all nations. We have taken this command, though, and reduced it to a calling--something that only a few people receive.

"I find it interesting that we don' do this with other words from Jesus. We take Jesus' command in Matthew 28 to make disciples of all nations, and we say, 'That means other people." But we look at Jesus' command in Matthew 11:28, 'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,' and we say, 'Now, that means me.' We take Jesus' promise in Acts 1:8 that the Spirit will lead us to the ends of the earth and we say, 'That means some people.' Bur we take Jesus' promise in John 10:10 that we will have abundant life and we say, 'That means me.'

"In the process we have unnecessarily (and unbiblically) drawn a line of distinction, assigning the obligations of Christianity to a few while keeping the privileges of Christianity for us all. In this way we choose to send off other people to carry out the global purpose of Christianity while the rest of us sit back because we're 'just not called to do that'.

"Now, we know that each of us has different gifts, different skills, different passions, and different callings from God. God has gifted you and me in different ways. This was undoubtedly the case with the disciples. Peter and Paul had different callings. James and John had different callings. However, each follower of Christ in the New Testament, regardless of his or her calling, was intended to take up the mantle of proclaiming the gospel to the ends of the earth. That's the reason why he gave each of them his Spirit and why he gave them all the same plan: make disciples of all nations.

"Isn't it the same today? When I sit down for lunch with Steve, a businessman in our faith family, it's obvious that we have different callings in our lives. He's an accountant; I'm a pastor. He is gifted with numbers. But we both understand that God has called us and gifted us for a global purpose. So Steve is constantly asking, 'How can I lead my life, my family, and my accounting firm for God's glory in Birmingham and around the world?' He is leading co-workers to Christ; he is mobilizing accountants to serve the poor; and his life is personally impacting individuals and churches in Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe with the gospel.

"Steve and others like him have decided that they are not going to take the command of Christ to make disciples of all nations and label it a calling for a few. They are not going to sit on the sidelines while a supposed special class of Christians accomplishes the global purpose of God. They are convinced that God has created them to make his glory known in all nations, and they are committing their lives to accomplishing that purpose.

"In Romans 1:14-15 Paul talks about being a debtor to the nations. He literally says, 'I am in debt to Jews and Gentiles.' The language is profound. Paul is saying that he owes a debt to every lost person on the face of the planet. Because he is owned by Christ, he owes Christ to the world.

"Every saved person this side of heaven owes the gospel to every lost person this side of hell. We owe Christ to the world--to the least person and to the greatest person, to the richest person and to the poorest person, to the best person and to the worst person. We are in debt to the nations. Encompassed with this debt, though, in our contemporary approach to missions, we have subtly taken ourselves out from under the weight of a lost and dying world, wrung our hands in pious concern, and said, 'I'm sorry. I'm just not called to do that.'

"The result is tragic. A majority of individuals supposedly saved from eternal damnation by the gospel are now witting back and making excuses for not sharing that gospel with the rest of the world.

"But what if we don't need to sit back and wait for a call to foreign missions? What if the very reason we have breath is because we have been saved for a global mission? And what if anything less than passionate involvement in global mission is actually selling God short by frustrating the very purpose for which he created us?"




As I write this, reading through it for the second time, I realize how hard this message is. I'm going to have to wrestle with it because everything that Platt says is true. We have been created and commanded to live a life of missions. Yes, we all have been given different skills and passions, but we cannot simply sit back anymore and let only a few people do it. Penn Jillette, a magician/comedian and well pronounced atheist told of a moment in his life where a man came up to him and shared the Gospel with him. He claimed that this man was incredibly sincere, and though he did not believe what he had to say, he questioned all other Christians by saying, "If you truly believe in your religion--if you believe that your way is the way to save people from eternal damnation in hell--how much do you have to hate someone to not share your faith with them?"

-Matt

Oil.

McDonald's decided to give me a day off today. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to completely enjoy my day of bliss because I spent four hours in a library taking an online psychology course. Just for those of you who were wondering, summer long mission trips and school don't mix very well -- especially if the place that you are staying at has no internet. However, I am learning to manage my time, which is a blessing, I'm sure.

When I got back to the Sandman (our condo/hotel if I failed to mention the name before) someone told me that the oil had finally arrived onto the shore. As I walked out onto the beach, I was overcome with the most eerie feeling. The beach was completely dead. There were no birds, no screaming kids, no volleyball -- the wind was not even blowing. Moving towards the water, I realized that there were no wakes, either. I have never seen the ocean so flat. It felt like I was standing in front of the biggest lake I could imagine. Eventually, I saw the Akers family and walked down the shore with them. Disgusting blackness was lining where the tide had recently receded. Some were in small patches, and others took up a fairly large amount of space. We could even see the filth floating in the water.

It's a bit of a sad feeling to think that the beach will no longer be beautiful and white, but I know that there will be people out daily cleaning in an attempt to keep it as it was. Anyway, that's all I have for you. Just a tiny update on Project.

-Matt

He Washed It White as Snow

"The real human predicament, as Scripture reveals, is that inexplicable, irrationally, we all keep living our lives against what's good for us. In what can only be called the mystery of iniquity, human beings from nearly the beginning have so often chosen to live against God, against each other, and against God's world. We live even against ourselves. An addict, for example, partakes of a substance or practice that he knows might kill him. For a time he does so freely. He has a choice. He freely starts a 'conversion unto death,' and for reasons he can't fully explain, he doesn't stop until he crashes. He starts out with a choice. He ends up with a habit. And the habit slowly converts to a kind of slavery that can be broken only by God" - Cornelius Plantinga

Our speaker tonight, Matt Francisco, spoke on the seriousness of sin. He told us how sin is self-chosen slavery. We know that we are sinning, but we cannot explain why we keep on doing it. We know that because of our sin we simply fail to enjoy God, but we cannot seem to stop ourselves from continually falling into it. Matt said, "Satan is smarter than us, stronger than us, ans more subtle than we can ever imagine. He is not going to steal our hearts away from the Lord towards the sin of unbelief through murder if he can do the same by getting us to say bitter things about a person. He will not lead us into straying away from God through adultery if he can get us to lust in our hearts."

I am a slave--not because any man, woman, or any other being has put me here, in this position, but because I have chosen to not side with Christ. I have chosen to not enjoy God completely because I thought I wanted to satisfy myself with the things of this world.
"For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the father but is from the world." (1 John 2:14)
I now want to be in love with the Father in a way that I never would have imagined. I want to throw away everything that I have--just so I can love Him more. I will no longer choose to commit idolatrous treason against Him for things of this world. I will not longer choose to side with our Enemy. I will no longer choose to be a slave.

-Matt

"For the wages of Sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23

Summer at the Beach. Summer With God.

Wow, what a great feeling to be back on this thing, blogging away my thoughts, feelings, and actions so that everyone of you fine people can enjoy. Or not enjoy. I hope for the former, rather than the latter, but I'm sure if you didn't like it, then you would have stopped reading by the second sentence. I'll be attempting to update this blog at least once a week, but I hope I can do it more often that that because I feel that I'll have a whole heck of a lot to share. However, the condo that we're staying at has no internet connection, which, in turn, causes a problem with blogging.

For those who may be completely out of the loop, I'm in Ft. Walton Beach with roughly 225 college students from different campuses participating in a 9 week long ministry/mission called Summer Beach Project. Basically, each colleges Campus Outreach leaders brought a group of kids down here to do this. A typical week consists of about 40 hours of work at whatever job we can find, Bible studies, sermons, intense small groups, and spreading God's Word to our co-workers and even strangers on the beach. (And we have some time to have fun, as well.)

I arrived Tuesday, got unpacked, met my room leader/ discipleship leader (or D-group leader) and roommates, and we had orientation on top of that. We were told the basic rules of Project and its theme(s), which is "Multiplying Christ-like Leaders Who: 1. Commune with God 2. Deal with Sin 3. Engage the Lost."

Wednesday we, as a whole, spent the day searching for jobs around the Ft. Walton/Destin/San Destin area. I lucked out because the day before one of my friends offered me a job at a McDonald's. Yes, I am flipping burgers and scooping fries all summer long. With that said, though, others were not as fortunate. People have still not found jobs as of today, and they need the money so they can pay the rent for our condo. Roughly 2/3 of Project have jobs now, but the others are in some serious need of prayer.

Friday night, the CO leaders set up a game of Beach Olympics, which was made up of a relay race, a tug-of-war, a sumo wrestler pit, and a series of events which were ripped off of American Gladiator. However, as we walked out onto the beach, we all stared in awe as an ominous storm hovered over the water. We managed to finish the relay, but floods immediately started coming down on us, and to say that thunder and lightning filled the sky would be an understatement. After about ten minutes of the most intense rain I've ever seen, though, it completely subsided. What hit me the hardest about this massive storm was how incredible God's power is. Just the sheer force of the winds and sound of the thunder and the lightning that streaked across the sky was so impressive, I was not scared, I was in awe of our Creator and how beautiful He is.

I'm so amazed at what this Beach Project has in store, not only for me, but for the other students here, as well. In just four days, I have seen a change in my life. Given, it's starting out subtly, but I'm in love with what is happening, and I want more of it. Our sermon tonight was on the Bible itself. The speaker tonight, Rob Shaw, told of how the Bible was the foundation of the rest of our lives. He said that he had heard a description of the Bible as the unfolding drama of redemption from Genesis to Revelation. The thing that stuck with me most about the message, though, was an analogy that he gave about God's Word. He told us that it's like dining with Jesus. That may not sound like much, but he reminded us that the special aspect about dining out is that it's a pause in one's day to enjoy time with the one who we're with. Quiet time will no longer be something that I do because I feel I need to do it. I know that when I read His Word, I'm taking a moment to get to know God more and spend time with him.

If you made it this far into this post then I'm going to thank you for going through my week with me. I can't promise that every post won't be this long, but I'll try to keep it shorter and sweeter. While I have you here I want to ask you to pray for this Project. Pray for the students to grow closer to God, for their lives to be touched. Pray for the ones without jobs to get hired. Pray for spiritual leaders to come out of this. Most importantly, pray for an effective spread of the Gospel to the residents/visitors in the area.

Anyway, I'll try to keep you updated with everything going on here. Thanks for sticking with me.

-Matt

"There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and it can never be filled by any created thing. It can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ." - Blaise Pascal