Bible Quiz Each week this blog will begin with two questions. The answers are at the end of the blog. Have fun!!
According To the Bible (True or False)
1. The Queen of Sheba and Solomon had a love affair.
2. One of the important lessons of Noah and the Ark is God’s love for animals, thus making it a nice, pleasant children’s story.
Dear Prayer Warriors,
Our visas have arrived from Cameroon, and we have printed our one month countdown list and will begin to check off items starting July 1st. Because of the quickly approaching trip, I wanted to share with you the Threefold Cord of Missions. My purpose in sharing this is to lift the needless guilt many feel in terms of their personally going (or more specifically not going) on a foreign mission trip while at the same time opening your eyes to a the alternative ways of being involved in foreign missions apart from actually physically traveling there.
As in the days of Paul, today is an age of short-term missions. In saying this, I am not at all suggesting or promoting the replacement of long-term missionaries, just pointing out that the periods when God opens the door to laymen to serve on a short-term basis are truly unique to history and should not be taken lightly. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, it is with some sense of foreboding that I witness this unique opportunity being filled by teenagers and college coeds. All too often, if adults do go they generally chaperone, or build structures, or meet physical needs, or help with children’s programs. The vast majority of short-term teaching and evangelism on the mission filed is being carried out by our youth. This modern Protestant “Children’s Crusade” flies in the face of both church history and biblical doctrine. God has always looked to mature adult men to be the foot soldiers in the body of Christ and this truth has not changed in the 21st century. I cannot think of one example in the book of Acts of the church sending out children, teenagers or young single men and women to do the hard and difficult work of foreign missions. This is not to say that they do not accomplish much for the work of the gospel; it is simply to point out that both biblically and historically, the church has not sent out children when there were men to do the work.
I do not want to in any way belittle or offend those youth who go or their parents who send them out. They have accomplished much for the kingdom of God. All four of my own children went to the mission field, both as high school students and as college students. We supported them unconditionally and rejoiced in their sensitivity to God. We did not, however, view their call as a “sacrifice” which then freed us from going ourselves. During a conference, I had a parent come up to me quite irate because his teenage boy had gone to the mission field, and he felt that I was not honoring the sacrifices he and his son had made to make this possible. I of course asked his forgiveness and assured him that this was not the case. Then I asked him if he had ever been to the mission field teaching the Word of God and engaged in personal evangelism. His reply was a defiant “No.” I then assured him with equal firmness that although it is important for children to be available to the call of God, it is more important that parents lead the way by personal example. But isn’t this true in all endeavors?
It is important that our children memorize Scripture, but isn’t it more important that they see us as parents memorizing and reviewing our verses? It is important that our children read their Bible story at night, but isn’t it more important that they see us keeping our daily Bible reading program so as to read through the Bible every year? It is important that our children invite their friends to church, but isn’t it more important that they see us engaged in personal evangelism and in our church’s visitation program? It is important that our children be burdened for the world, but isn’t it more important that this burden springs from observing their mom and dad share at church their experiences of teaching God’s Word and proclaiming the gospel on foreign fields?
Dr. Ray Tallman my Missions Professor at Moody Bible Institute pointed out to me that there were four factors at work which made short term missions possible in Paul’s day:
1. The Roman roads and shipping lanes 2. The Roman coinage and prosperity of the period 3. Roman citizenship 4. The Roman language - Latin (and the prevalence of Greek)
Not for over 1,700 years have all four of these factors converged again, yet as we enter the 21st Century, we see them once again in place:
1. International air travel 2. The unimaginable prosperity of America and the US Dollar 3. US citizenship 4. The English language
We live in a unique age when mature Christian men in churches throughout America can serve teaching and preaching the Word of God in the harvest fields of the world. A grown man can get on an airplane today, land within a matter of hours (or at the most a day) in virtually any country of the world, and that very same day be ministering the gospel and teaching the Bible. We must not be found wanting, and we must not relegate this to women and children while we busy ourselves with our toys. The period of short-term missions quickly passed in the early church, and there is no guarantee that it will remain long in our age. There are those who considered going to Belarus – now Belarus is closed. There are those who considered going to Kenya – will Kenya be open next year? Only God knows.
Yet not all are called to go as a lifestyle. God still calls men and women to a career of laboring in the harvest fields of the world. What about those who are not called to be “missionaries.” Are they left behind in this great work of God? No, no, and a thousand times no! God in His goodness has so ordered missions that no one person can “do it all.” God has made provision for all to be involved. The question then is not “Should I be involved in missions?” but rather “How is God calling me to be involved in missions?” Truly, in the New Covenant, “every man is a missionary;” it simply depends upon how, not if.
Mark Lewis, a good friend of mine and former missionary to Africa, often quotes William Carey, the father of modern missions who said that “if you will hold the rope, I will go down to the pit of Hell and bring them out.” This quote is taken from the minutes of his mission board, just days before he departed to await the sailing of the ship that would take him to India (William Carey by S. Pearce Carey, Pg 108). Ecclesiastes 4:12 reminds us “and if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.” This rope which the church holds during this age of modern missions is made up of Three Strands: - Those who Pray, - Those who Give, and - Those who Go.
In my next blog, I will develop these strands in their totality
By His mercy, II Corinthians 4:1 Rev. John S. Mahon Grace Community Int. - preparing to depart for Cameroon
1. False - 2 Chronicles 9:1 – 12. This scenario has been made popular through a number of Hollywood movies and Television depictions of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon. Nothing is further from the truth. There is no indication from the Biblical record of anything more than a purely official state visit in terms of the representatives of these two nations, Israel and Sheba.
2. False - Rather than being the popular depiction of God’s love for cuddly animals, the revelation of the flood is an accurate portrayal of God’s judgment upon the earth. True, God did preserve animals in the ark but equally true is the judgment of all flesh (Genesis 7:21-23). The transformation of the this terrible and fierce revelation of the horrible penalty of sin and God’s willingness to execute this penalty upon “all flesh” into a cute story of a floating zoo is inexcusable. Parents, the Christian publishing industry and Sunday Schools across the world stand guilty in their attempts to mute the truth of this revelation. This straying from the historical reality of Biblical revelation no doubt springs from either (1) an embarrassment over the Ark itself, (2) an unwillingness to accept the judgment of God upon the earth in such a violent and complete manner, or (3) misguided desire on the part of parents to shield their children from the truth concerning sin, death and judgment.
Older
Top
