I have witnessed in my long years of experience in ministry that Christ's mission and mandate have been diluted and customized. They have been made to appear like one of the activities that promise satisfaction, edification and promote "feel-good" factor. I still wonder where Churches and Christians have learnt that the mandate of Christ is a choice we can adopt, reject or substitute. I invite you to follow me in this line of thought.
We are all so familiar with the Great
Commission and I am sure we have heard it from different platforms where people
have asked us to pray for the souls, support a missionary or a missionary
family financially or support mission work. There ends our contribution.
But is that all? Let's analyze the scriptures to get the
right understanding of Christ's mandate; the Great Commission and
the Great Commandment.
In order to understand our mission on
earth, we need to first understand Christ's mission completely. The ultimate
purpose of Christ coming to this earth is “to seek and save the lost” (Luke
19:10), and to give eternal life to those who believe in Him (John 3:15; 6:47;
3:36). I do not wish to skip and go forward without stating the mission
statement of Jesus which is written in Luke 4:18-19 “to preach the good
news to the poor, He has sent me, to proclaim release to the captives, and
recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year
of the Lord’s favor.”. The mission statement for Jesus was the
integration of Great Commission to preach the Gospel and Great Commandment
to demonstrate the love by meeting the need of the poor and vulnerable. If
this was the purpose and mission of Jesus our Savior, how close are we
following the mission Christ was doing?
Many have learnt to stay comfortable
in the Churches engaging in Church activities, praying for the souls, giving
tithes and offerings and go back, doing nothing about the Great
Commission. Anytime our spirituality and our Church comprises of a set of
do’s and don’ts, filled solely with activities and schedules, then God has
a problem. He graciously disrupts the whole thing as a wake up
call and reminds us all of His mission and His mandate. I love the way
Catherine Booth, the gentle co-founder of the Salvation Army, regarding church
buildings said, "A barracks is meant to be a place where real soldiers
were to be fed and equipped for war, not a place to settle down in or as a
comfortable snuggery in which to enjoy ourselves. I hope that if ever they, our
soldiers, do settle down God will burn their barracks over their heads!”
I urge you to read my
article written on 28th December-2018 on this topic God's Audit- Get prepared! to get a better understanding of what I am trying
to reiterate - In Malachi 1:10 it says, “I wish one of you would shut the temple
doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fire on my altar! I am not
pleased with you,” says the Lord of armies and I will accept no offering from
your hand.”. If we fail to understand the purpose and mission of God,
we will be heading to a greater danger.
Let me remind you that God appointed
twelve disciples to be with Him, to send them out to preach (Mark 3:14). He
also chose the seventy-two only to send. I would like to explore this with you
in my upcoming article.
No comments:
Post a Comment