THE
CHIRSTIAN'S
MISSION
We've heard that each person in the Body has a unique and irreplaceable function.
We know from Ephesians 4 that this function is the building up of the Body, edification.
This must mean that we are to focus our efforts on believers.
What will reach believers? The Gospel of salvation? They've already heard and accepted that.
We have two main areas of work. 1-presenting evidence that God is real. 2-presenting evidence that the Bible is true. Those two things underpin all Christian life.
The evidence that the Bible is true is simply done, with much hard work. There has been much historical and archaeological evidence that shows events told of in the Bible to have actually happened.
In the area of prophecy, it can be shown that most of biblical prophecy, especially about the House of Israel, has been fulfilled. One 4000 year old prophecy has just come to pass in the last century. It's the prophecy given to Abraham. God told him that his descendents would control all the major trade entrances of the world. That has been accomplished by the lost House of Israel, Britain and the USA.
No human being could know that. It's one of the supernatural aspects of the Bible. There are three or four other supernatural things about the Bible. These are the numerical schemes that run through the Scripture. Numerical properties that could not be invented by the actual writers of the book. Indeed, they had no knowledge that what they were writing had those qualities.
Just the first half of Jesus' genealogy, written in the Book of Matthew, contains fifteen features of the number seven, which symbolizes spiritual completion. This involves the number of nouns, names, vowels, consonants, all the letters, words, and figures. Then there's the Bible Code, written about by Michael Drosnin. It has been well established as existing. The codifying of the text by this method is humanly impossible.
Once we have established the veracity of the Bible, we have also confirmed God's reality. It is from this place that we can confidently pursue His tasks, depending on Him for the needed help. One can't act on something not believed in. The actions of Christian life are too hard for the person who just talks about believing in God. If James was here, he'd say, "Look for their works."
The "work" of Christian life is the hardest of all the options. Many easier options can all be seen to contain self-interest, Protectionism. We commonly make decisions based on our comfort, safety, or financial security. It doesn't take long to discern whether a person is grounded in God or Self.
Some people will have trouble trying to reconcile Paul's writing in Ephesians four with Jesus' commission to his disciples, the one known as the Great Commission. There's only one explanation. Jesus was talking about two different groups of people. Jesus told Paul what was meant for believers in general. He told his disciples what he wanted them, specifically, to do. The Great Commission was given to only the disciples, not everyone.
Another proof of that is what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit's job. He said, "No one comes to God save the Father draw him(my paraphrase)." I'm not the Holy Spirit. It's not my place to "draw" someone to God. It's not my place to "lead someone to the Lord." I've been told to build up the Body of believers.
How do I reach other believers, if I'm not to do that on a personal level? We must do enough study of a subject to be able to communicate the idea to others. Then, we must find ways to communicate that idea in a way that the receiver has 100% control over the intake of the idea. A blog, a web site, a book, a radio/TV show, a newspaper ad for a meeting are all ways that allow the receiver to take as much or little as they decide.
Don't think that these ideas are something new. On the other hand, don't think that because the ideas aren't new that they will have no meaning for the receiver. It must be remembered that we are all individuals and have our own way of communicating an idea. This is where our uniqueness in the Body comes in.
That Old Truth will come out of your mouth differently than out of mine. And only ears that can hear your kind of mouth will respond. For this reason, we must remain aware that everyone to whom we present the Truth will not take it in. Only a very few can hear things the way you say them.
Therefore, without your particular voice those people will have to hear the Truth elsewhere. If God wants to draw that person, then of course, the person will find another mouth to listen to.
If one is to be True to God's calling, the only thing we can do is nothing. Yeah, right! Nothing. We must take out every little bit of our own agenda or reason for doing something, and completely, 100%, surrender to God. But that happens two ways, not just one. Without recognizing both, one may not move forward in one's Walk.
We first have to define some words. What does "surrender" mean in this case? And how do we get rid of our own agenda?
Simply put, surrender means doing something God's way. But the second part is indispensable. That part includes our making no decisions as to what we will do, as well as how to do it. It's not up to us to decide what we're going to do for God. Our task will be to edify the Body, but we must let God bring us the way that we'll do that work.
We must make real the idea that God is in charge of our lives and is working to bring about what He knows we need. There will always be tasks for us to work on while we wait for His leading us to new ones.
So surrender means doing only what God brings us, His way.
If you find yourself judging the task or the method by which to accomplish the task, then you haven't yet surrendered.
This idea relates to our salvation also. We are not to try and figure out how to be saved; what we have to do the make it in. We can't try and help God out and add our own acts; things that we decide are going to help get/keep us saved.
The Bible says we're saved by faithing, so we should be able to confirm the above by examining faithing. If faithing saves, then it must fall into those two ways of living.
Faithing is acting on a promise of God in the face of negative circumstances. It's depending on God to get us to our goal by taking care of those things that look like they will keep us from success.
That sounds like surrender to me. I have put aside all the thoughts about what can go wrong and moved ahead anyway. I'm not doing it my way; I'm doing it God's way.
Would you like a more detailed idea of "God's Way"? Just try the Ten Commandments and as much of the Mosaic Law as you know about. I call the Ten Commandments the "Rule Book of Life." Paul said it was our "school master."
Once you see what God has brought you, you can stack it up against the Ten Commandments to see how God wants it done.
The Law is God's Mirror of Perfection. It shows us God's Perfection. That allows us to measure our way against God's. If God didn't give us some standard to go by, we'd never get in. We'd be making it up as we went along, depending on Self, not God.
Paul talks about this when he tells us that he wouldn't know what sin was if there was no Law. You can't break a law that doesn't exist. And that the purpose of the Law was to convince us that we needed to add God's help to our own efforts to succeed. Once we saw the Perfect way, we'd know that we could never accomplish it alone.
If you are a Believer, you are to be sharing your God-stuff with other Believers in such a way that they have complete control over how to take what you've presented.
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