Mission Work: Difficult but rewarding

A few weeks back, we came from Oriental Mindoro for Living Waters Asia's yearly mission trip called the Gospel Buzz. Every trip we've had in the past post it's unique kind of challenges. In the past, we had to face a wet climate, a hostile community and the dangers posted by rebel groups. You can be sure about it, even before we embark on a particular trip, we already expect these kinds of challenges. For this year's trip, we knew that the challenge we will have to face, together with the common challenges, is the difficulty of climbing a mountain to reach a local tribe. Now take it from me. It's one thing to know the challenge but it's a totally different thing to really experience the actual challenge.

We hiked for about two hours and forty-five minutes to reach the Mangyan tribe, crossing a river and hiking several difficult mountains. Now when I say difficult, I mean difficult. The mountains we trekked had very varied grounds. There were steep sections, muddy sections and rocky sections with very sharp rocks which makes the hike more difficult. I remember myself praying several times during the hike, asking God to help me not to quit as it will be a bad example for people who were with me that looked at me as their leader. But as much as I wanted to keep the hardships I was experiencing to myself the point came when I just sighed, "I can't do it anymore!" with many hearing me. But I praise the Lord because I eventually got to our destination.

I developed a deeper acknowledgment of missionaries who go to mountain communities to share the Gospel to people there. Climbing mountains is just one of the many challenges they face. Living in a place where the usual comforts of city life is absent is I believe, a bigger challenge. Add to that the difficulty of adjusting to the culture and language of a particular place. They willingly go through these just so they can heed God's call for them to go to the regions beyond for the cause of the Gospel.

And many Christians in urbanized places continue to ignore their duty of declaring the Gospel despite the "ideal" conditions they are in. This is sad.

I believe that more money should go to supporting missions. If a church does not have a mission fund to support missions then that church should stop existing. God's call is that we deliver the Gospel unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). Not all of us can go there. But there are those who are going there or are already there. The only way you can obey the call in Acts 1:8 is if we support missions, and when I say "support", I mean generously!

Why are missionaries in difficult places able to continue with their God-given work? I believe the experience of the presence of God in their lives as a result of their obedience is the answer. Intimacy with God is so satisfying for them! And how can one be intimate with God? If you embrace His will in your life. Missionaries clearly have embraced God's will in their lives. Who would want to be away from the comforts of urban life and the joy of family in exchange for the difficult life of missions? Only a deep contentment in God can make a person do that. And again you can only feel God's presence in your life if you will embrace His will. God's presence is where His will is. I remember Moses in the 33rd chapter of Exodus when he said to God that although they will be brought to a land flowing with milk and honey, if God's presence will not be there, then it would be better not to be in that place. Don't you want to be where His presence is?

Mission life is difficult, I can never overemphasize that fact. But it's fulfilling because it is God that you're with (See the promise at the end of Matt. 28:19-20). It's rewarding! Because God Himself and His presence is the reward. You want to prove what I'm saying? Then go to missions.

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A problem of Old Testament proportion

Is the problem of preachers watering down the real message from the Scriptures (in some cases, polluting the message)

a new thing?

Not really. This problem goes way back to the Old Testament times. We can read is Jeremiah 23:21-22 that God said, "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings." Looks familiar , right?

According to these verses, what gives us a clue that there's a problem? People who have heard the supposed men from God preach never arrived to a decision to repent from their sins. Time and again, we read from the New Testament that people who responded to the Gospel message resulted to a change in their lifestyle, one that forsakes sin. The words are very clear... "they should have turned them from their evil way". How many people in our churches were clearly described by Jeremiah 23:22? A lot! Our churches nowadays are filled with false converts who attend church services on a regular basis, declares themselves as "Christians", but clearly lack the changed life that the Bible talks of in terms of true believers. They are people who profess of faith but show NO outward evidence of its existence. This is exactly what James talked about in the second chapter of his book when he discussed the problem of faith being dead because the proof of good works is absent.

The Bible is so clear when it said "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Cor 5:17)."

Let's go back to our main text (Jeremiah 23:21-22) and now examine what brought the pitiful result. The clue is in black and white and is as clear as day. The supposed prophets did not preach from the Word ("...if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words..."). The result (men not turning from their evil ways) will be expected if the message we preach does not come from God's Word. Well you can argue by saying, "Well I still spoke from the Bible. I just lightened the treatment." I will never back down from saying that the message is still not from the Scriptures if you say that you change just a little the real emotion of God when it comes to sin. If God hates sin, then we should declare just that to people. We should not make any effort of making sin a non-issue just so we can avoid offending people by showing them how wretched they are in front of God. The message of the Gospel is this... we're sinful people who are bound for Hell but God, instead of pouring His wrath on us, gave His only son, Jesus, so He would be the one to suffer for the sins we so enjoyably committed, and that the only response He is asking from us is repentance and faith.

I once heard someone say that the reason why the Gospel message is being repackaged (e.g. "God has a wonderful plan for you", "God loves you as you are") is to make the message relevant to our time which gives importance to concepts like tolerance, non-offense and political correctness. I totally disagree with this. The Gospel that shouts "repentance and faith" should not be changed even a bit for the purpose of making it relevant to the present. People in our time MUST instead make a decision to make the Gospel relevant to their lives even if it runs against what our times hold on as its most cherished "values" or else, its Hell for them.

People in the past have made the mistake already of changing the message from the Bible. It did not bring the results promised by God. We preachers of the present time must not make the same mistake or else, we might, one of these days, hear God declare to mankind about us, "...I have not spoken to them..."

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Grace misunderstood

Grace is defined as an "unmerited favor." This is the same kind of grace that God bestowed on us when we, the "unlovable" because of our sins, became recipients of the benefits of His truly remarkable show of love. Grace is what agape love is... loving unconditionally. We cannot ever love like God for it takes a character like God's to be able to love a wretched humanity as ours.

But sadly, this grace has been misunderstood a lot of times. There are people who have become very comfortable with sin, having no fear anymore of the eternal consequence of their preoccupation with it because they think that God's grace will still bring them to Heaven. You will hear them say something like this when shown that they are bound for Hell because of their sins, "I thought the Bible said something about God paying for the sins of the world?" I guess we've sung "Amazing Grace" too much in funerals that's why they came to the conclusion that God's grace saves everyone, even those who are unrepentant of their sins.

The unbelievers are not the only ones that have misunderstood the nature of God's grace. There are also some Christians in the group. These Christians believe that we, as recipients of God's grace, should also exercise grace to others. Well, I agree with that. But what I don't agree with is how they wrongly exercise grace. There are Christians that believe that they are using grace correctly when they just shut up when a person misbehaves or commits a sin, not making the effort to show to that person what wrong he/she has done. They believe that grace applied means just letting the person continue on with what they're doing (even if it's wrong), hoping that his inaction for the inappropriate action will make the person see his love and later decide not to do the act anymore.

I don't think that is correct. If what they believe is correct and that my stand is wrong, then we've totally disregarded the verse that said "...open rebuke is better than secret love... (Prov. 27:5)" and verses that give importance to correction. Many have failed to understand that God's grace is NOT a consenting grace.

We must understand that in God giving us grace, it never meant that He closed His eyes to our sins. The reason why He gave grace was because He saw our sins. The reason why there is the much-loved John 3:16 was because we are destined to perish for our sins. The reason why God had to demonstrate His love toward us was because of our sins. Now, the Father is able to give us grace because His Son, Jesus, paid for our sins. He did not just give grace without any payment for the sins we have committed. Actually, He demanded payment. If He just forgave without someone making the payment for the penalty of sin, then He will be an evil God for He tolerated sin. Forgiveness is now possible because a payment has been made through the shed blood of Jesus.

Now understand this, in order for us to receive that grace, there is a decision required from us. We have to decide to repent of our sins and to put our total trust on Jesus for our salvation. It is wrong to think that because Jesus has already suffered on the cross, God's grace is already for us. The only time we can receive that grace is when we humble ourselves in front of God in repentance and faith. Remember, "God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5)." Only in a humble recognition of our sinfulness can God give us grace. It was only after Zaccheus declared that he will restore fourfold whatever he has cheated on people that Jesus said, "Today salvation has come into this home." It was only after the sinful woman's decision to forsake the world in favor of Jesus as shown in her act of breaking a bottle of expensive perfume on Jesus' feet that Jesus declared, "Her sins which are many are now forgiven." God's grace is only to the humble.

This is also how we must exercise grace to others as Christians. We must point to others (using the Bible as much as we can) what they are doing wrongly. This, I believe, is part of giving grace. You love a person enough to show him his wrongdoing so that he will not continue doing it and amass for himself more consequences. Now if the person is humble enough to acknowledge that, yes, he is wrong, and he shows a willingness to surrender to God with this in his life, you again give him grace by being patient in waiting for God to complete His transforming work in him. But then, of course, in pointing to others what wrong they have done, we must be sure that we ourselves are not guilty of the same for the Scriptures have commanded us not to point to the mote of others if we likewise have mote in our eyes (Matt. 7:1-5).

God's grace is truly amazing! He saved wretched people like us. As recipient of that great love let us now exalt His grace by not using it wrongly and making it appear as if it's a consenting grace. Let's not cheapen it. The price for God's grace is Jesus' life. God's grace, although offered to everyone, can only be enjoyed by those who are humble enough to acknowledge that he is so undeserving of it. Humility was the key to Jesus' sacrifice for us. He left the splendor of Heaven and humbled himself, even to death at the cross. We must respond to his act of love in the same manner... with humility.

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When Christians understand the blessing of salvation

Many Christians nowadays do not act their spiritual state (makes you doubt if they’re really Christians). They act as if having eternal life is not that a big deal and that it’s God’s duty to save them. Gratitude is very much absent. The reason to this is the watering down of the Gospel message. Sin is trivialized and God is portrayed as simply loving, ignoring His holiness and justice.

But if a Christian has fully realized how undeserving he was for God’s mercy and forgiveness, things will take a 180-degree turn. He will feel so indebted towards God and will have a natural need to show God his deep gratitude for what He has given him. Truly, this person has never imagined ever what he will find himself doing for his Savior. In a way, he is left surprised with how different he has become ever since he made the decision to repent of his sins and place his trust on Jesus for his salvation.

First thing you will notice is a craving to know more of God and for time in prayer to Him. You will suddenly see him spending a regular time reading the Bible, attending church for the message that will be delivered there, conversing with other Christians about the things of God which in the past would be the last thing he will ever think of doing. A quiet time in prayer also becomes an important part of his day for he has found how essential it is to always give God his trust for whatever thing he engages himself in.

As a result of his study of the Word and time spent in prayer on a regular basis, you will see him giving importance to living a holy life. As what a song said, “Everything is different now. He’s not the same anymore. The wrong places he used to go, are now the places that he avoids. The old crowd he used to hang around he understands will only pull him down. He’s not the same anymore. His life has been changed!” His desire is to conform to his Savior. He obeys what the Scriptures said, “Be ye holy for I am holy (1 Pet. 1:16).” His taste has changed drastically, from enjoying pig’s food to only what’s pure.

But the most exciting result of understanding the blessing of salvation is the desire to share what they have received to others. They understand how precious the gift is and so, they want others to also have it. They know how tragic the experience will be for others if they will not know of the Savior. And so, they swallow their pride and fear and deliver the message to anyone that needs it.

I’ve seen this result several times in Christians. In our ministry, we were witnesses to how a college girl, a month after her conversion, committed herself to active participation in our regular street evangelism session. In our church, a new convert father right away organized an event in his home so that he can invite his friends and relatives so that they can hear the preaching of the Gospel. This same guy also joins our church’s street evangelism sessions where we give out Gospel tracts. One couple I personally know, for their 15^th wedding anniversary, instead of organizing a get-together with family and friends, chose to give out tracts in a crowded mall. What a way to honor God in their marriage!

To sum up the effect of understanding what a big blessing salvation is, I can’t find a better word for “selflessness”. Yes, someone who is overflowing with gratitude to God for his unmerited favor becomes selfless. It is natural for him to forget himself in God’s favor. He understands very well that the price for his forgiveness was God’s own life-blood. Oh, he knows how truly amazing God’s grace to him was! He does not look at God as unfair for his demand that he be a partaker of His sufferings and for him to take up his own cross and follow Him. He sees it a privilege to die for Him!

The experience is captured in a story of a young Englishman miner in the 1800s who, after a successful search for gold in California, made a stop at New Orleans where he witnessed slaves being sold. Below is the full story:

The Englishman was surprised with the auction that was taking place for the slave trade had been outlawed already for years at England. As he drew close to the crowd, he saw that the next to be auctioned was a beautiful young black girl who was made to walk around so everyone could see her. The miner heard vile jokes and comments that spoke of evil intentions from those around him. When the bidding began, bids quickly surpassed what most slave owners would pay. As bids went higher and higher, two men apparently really wanted her. They were outbidding each other while laughing at the jokes and comments of evil intentions each of them made. The miner stood silent and angry all throughout these. Then one made a bid too high for the other to outbid. The poor girl looked down. The auctioneer called out, “Going once! Going twice!”

Just before the final call, the miner yelled out a price that was exactly twice the previous bid. An amount that exceeded the worth of any man. The crowd laughed thinking that the bid was a joke. The auctioneer motioned to the miner to show him his money. The miner opened his bag of gold. The auctioneer shook his head in disbelief and waved the girl to him.

When the girl was eye-to-eye with the miner, she spat straight to his face and said, “I hate you!’ The miner, without a word, wiped his face, paid the auctioneer, took the girl by the hand and walked away the still laughing crowd.

He seemed to be looking for something when they walked up one street and down another. Finally, he stopped in front of some sort of a store. The girl waited outside as the dirty faced miner walked inside and talked to an elderly man. The girl couldn’t make out what they were talking about. At one point, the voice got louder and she heard the store clerk say, “But it’s the law! It’s the law!” Peering in, she saw the miner pull out his bag of gold and pour what was left of it on the table. With what seemed a look of disgust, the clerk picked up the gold and went inside a back room. He came out with a piece of paper which the miner signed.

When the miner came out of the store, he stretched out his hand to the girl and said, “Here are your manu-mission papers. You are free.” The girl did not look up. He tried again. “Here. These are the papers that say you are free. Take them.” “I hate you!” the girl said, refusing to look up. “Why do you make fun of me?” “No, listen,” he pleaded. “These are your freedom papers. You are a free person.” The girl looked at the papers, then looked at him, and looked at the papers once again. “You just bought me… and now you’re setting me free?”

“That’s why I bought you. I bought you to set you free.”

The beautiful young girl fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face. “You bought me so you can set me free!” she said over and over.

Clutching the miner’s heavy boots, the girl looked up at the miner and said, “All I want to do is to serve you- because you bought me to set me free!”

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Shielding our children from the atheistic belief

It is no secret that atheists (people that do not believe in the existence of God) have grown in number in the recent years. More and more atheists are becoming very brave in declaring in public their unfounded belief just so they can convince others to likewise deny God’s existence. What seem to be “harmless” movies for children (e.g., Land Before Time), unknown to their parents, so masterfully disguise a strong suggestion to children that “probably, there is no God that made this world.” Centers for learning have included subjects and courses that clearly attempt to convince young minds that the Bible’s Creation account is just a product of creative thinking.

This is so dangerous, especially to our children! Our desire is that we be able to lead our children to Christ. All of you who are faithful in sharing the Gospel know that this is already so difficult, even if the person you are witnessing to believes in God’s existence. If our children grow up not believing that God does exist, the work will be doubled… you have to first convince them that their belief is wrong before you can start showing their state before a just and holy God and their need for His forgiveness. And so, how do we shield our children from the atheist belief?

The work should start at our homes. Is God a prominent figure in our homes? He should because if not, unknowingly, we are helping our children grow to be atheists. Our children should see us recognizing God as the source of everything that we have. Be sure that you show them that you entrust the whole day to God at the start of the day. Be sure that you give God a prayer of “thanks” before every meal. Be sure that your children see you praising God for His guidance throughout the day before you retire to your bed.

It is also obvious that we should screen what our children watch in the television and what they read in children’s books. To be safe, just give them books that talk of stories from the Bible. There are a lot of those in bookstores. There is also an array of animated movies of Bible stories available in Christian bookstores and online (go to Christianmovies.com). Of course, don’t forget to bring them to church every Sunday and have them attend Sunday school classes.

Very crucial to the goal of shielding our children from the atheistic view is our choice of the school they go to. Most schools in the Philippines do not really screen if their science books suggest that evolution is a fact. Because of this, I strongly suggest that you enroll your children in Christian schools. But still, don’t be too sure that your child is already safe just because you’ve enrolled them in a Christian school. Make a request to see the books (especially the science text books) your child will be using just in case the school overlooked atheistic suggestions in their books.

I praise the Lord very much because Living Waters Asia has an affiliation with Children For Christ Ministry (CFCM). They are a group that goes to public schools here in the Bulacan area distributing Christian literatures for children and conduct short classes that talk about God. I believe that this group has such a big role in leading these children to Christ. Maybe not all of the children respond right away to the call for them to get right with God from the classes CFCM conducts and the literature they give out. But the mere fact that they have introduced God’s existence early in these children lives makes it easier for some Christian in the future to preach the Gospel to them. (If you want to support CFCM, email them at CFCM@livingwaters-asia.com)

Satan is really busy in deceiving as many people as he can for he knows pretty well that his time is almost up. He is merciless as he wants even our children to be with him in Hell someday. Let us not allow it. Let’s be sure that God is as real as possible to our children so that when we show them that they are not fit to be with Him in Heaven someday because of their sins, they will readily respond to the Gospel with true repentance and faith on Jesus Christ.

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QUANTITY does not mean QUALITY

After a person gets saved, maturity in the Christian walk should be his next natural desire. This is where a regular time reading the Bible will come in really handy. The church should be the main body encouraging Christians to have seriousness in Bible-reading. It should help them in understanding what the Scriptures is saying if it wants them to turn out to be “quality Christians”. And so, it is essential that the Church creates programs that will lead to this.

Once I was asked if it is also important that the Church focuses on achieving quantity along the efforts of developing quality Christians. My answer is simple. If what you mean about quantity is the need for Christians to go out and share the Gospel so that souls will be added to the Church, my answer is definitely “Yes”. But if what you’re talking about is, plain and simple, adding people to the roster that we will declare as members of our congregation that were talked into joining the weekly worship services even through non-biblical means, my answer is a big “NO”.

First of all, we should be reminded of a basic truth from the Gospel--- no one can be saved by church membership. And so, why will we engage in creating quantity in the church through gimmicks if the people we manage to bring in to our local churches will still end up in Hell when they die? This has been a sad scene in our present time… people being nurtured in mega churches and they don’t have the slightest clue that they will still be residents of Hell someday! These churches rarely talk about sin and God’s distastes of it but instead, talk at length about things that tickle the ears of people (2 Tim. 4:3-4), even if the talk is more pop-psychology than Scriptural. There are members of these churches that still go to places that they shouldn’t go to, look at things that their eyes should be close to, do things that are so unlikely of biblical-Christians, etc. Their pastors don’t tell them that these are wrong because of fear of offending them which may lead to their exodus from their congregation. The goal is to make people stay as long as they can in the church, and not anymore helping them see their true standing before a just and holy God so that they will repent and put their trust on Jesus for their salvation.

Another thing we must remember is that if we do things our way and not God’s way, He is not pleased with whatever results we bring. Jesus never embraced gimmicks when he was here. He always operated along the principle of “Law to the proud and Grace to the humble.” It is only after a person realizes his failure to reach God’s standard of what is “good” that Jesus gave grace. The disciples and Paul followed Jesus’ footsteps and so God was for sure pleased with them. Jesus knew that gimmicks do not turn in converts, but the preaching of sin, righteousness and judgment. And so, if Jesus did not do it that way, why should we?

I told the person that asked me the question that we must always focus on quality, and never on quantity. The reason? Because if quality is achieved, quantity will naturally come. Why? Because a Christian that has been nurtured well (has quality in his Christian walk) knows that it is his duty to tell others of the true gospel. He does it Jesus’ way and so the Holy Spirit works in his evangelism efforts, resulting to souls being added to God’s family. One reason why churches engage in gimmicks is because the members of theses churches lack the quality needed to push themselves to share the Gospel to people. But find me a church that truly (in the biblical sense) cares for the growth of its members and I can guarantee you that it’s a soul-winning church and therefore, is growing in number.

We should be reminded that the first step in developing quality Christians is to preach a biblical Gospel message, one that clearly shows the need for a person to repent of his sins before he comes to Christ for help. Repentance is an understanding that sin has strained our relationship with God and so we make a conscious decision to forsake it which will result to a change in lifestyle, from a sinful one to a God-honoring life. Using the Law makes a person understand the importance of repentance as well as makes it a natural response to the sacrifice of Jesus at the cross. The Law makes sin abound but helps makes Grace abound more (Rom. 5:20).

It will definitely be a big source of joy to someday see our churches filled with true worshippers up to the rafters. But let’s not confuse the increase of people in our churches as a sign of God moving in our gimmicks. Let’s achieve quantity God’s way. Let’s achieve quantity by first developing quality in people who have already been called to the family of God.