The Great Commission, Redux

I remember the times of my student years, when we need to pray and fast intensively for the matric season for the harvest and the uni camp was basically a time for us to prepare ourselves for the season. As in any other ventures in God's Kingdom, it is the same. When we go into our exam hall, we need to prepare beforehand. When we start sharing in cg or when we start teaching others, we need to prepare. And we need to get our stuff ready, and not wait till the last minute to get them ready. I truly thank God that I have prepared myself sufficiently for this transitional period. It wasn't the 'best' that I hoped for but I prepared myself spiritually and mentally for this transition. It will be good, as this is where God wants me to serve in.

Looking at the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manesseh, calling them to go into the Promised Land with the rest of Israel can be a great sacrifice. Especially when we just got settled down and suddenly God asks us to come out of our comfort zone, it is something of big proportion to our own personal self. Yet I sometimes wonder if we are ready to come out of our comfort zone and be ready to sacrifice for the Kingdom of God. Sometimes, it's promising, seeing how brothers and sisters from all over the world going to places they had never thought they would go and began missionary works there. Sometimes, there are people who are willing to quit their work and go into areas God called them into despite the uncertainty.Yet sometimes, I see brothers and sisters insisting that they want to concentrate on their worldly work and refuse to move out of their comfort zone to do what God would have wanted them to do.

Sacrifice. It is a big word. I have been thinking a lot about this word and the other word called missions. I attended the Called For Mission workshop during the uni camp and responded to the challenge from Ps Ben to go for church planting in Kuching. I think I want to be serious about it and think about how I can go about doing this, with much prayer. Julian said it well, missions should be part of our Christian growth and Christian experience. I was quite motivated by this. Thinking about how brothers and sisters in Malaysia are having so much burden and going all over the places to plant and pioneer churches, hearing how our South America team has been doing their best for God in the mission field, I seriously want to give it a serious thought and start preparing myself for it. It's not about the Great Commission, but about why Jesus came in the first place. Ps Ben told us that there are quite a number of people group which have not been reached by the gospel yet. There are areas in the world where the gospel will never reach unless through deliberate effort. Come to think about it, I bought into the Hope vision, so why not do it?

But are we ready to sacrifice our comfort in our home and go and make disciples of all nations? This is a serious question that I thought we have to seriously consider. And we have to seriously pray about. There was one pastor who spoke at our mission conference few years back. She said that time God told her that she had responded too many times, it's time to really go. I think a lot of us have responded far too many times for missions, it's time we truly pray and do something about it.

So we need to pray. First, maybe I think I have to pray for God to enlarge my heart so that I can have the burden to make the sacrifice to go for mission. Heart preparation. It's important.

Huanyan's post spoke to me. Maybe it's because it echoes with what is also in my heart too. But... it's also a reminder to me, because I forgot about the heart behind it.

Like, for example, preparations. I was having supper with Shunrong, and we talked about children's church camp. So I asked him what are his objectives for the camp. And he shared. I shared mine too.

But it made me think. I realised that I was focused so much on what to do during the church camp, that I had forgotten to prepare my heart.

And also during DMM, we were discussing how to prepare our CG for the church camp. It was something that I'm very glad we're doing. Because, if I remember correctly, last year, I think we neglected to prepare ourselves.

It's not easy, especially since we working adults are focused on our work. But it does take discipline... and I figure I can always sacrifice some Facebook time to ask God to prepare and consecrate my heart. Shouldn't be a bad trade-off...

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But let's bring it down to an even more basic level: Sunday service. Why stick to preparing our hearts only during special events like church camps? I was talking with Andrew over breakfast a few weeks back. He said one thing that he did to prepare himself for service - he sings praise songs to God.

It's not what he did. It's the heart behind what he did. Preparation.

Do I begin my day in prayer and reading the Word? Do I prepare my heart before a prayer meeting? Before CG?

I'm shocked, personally, at how many times we start a meeting and plan for our flocks, but forget to pray first. It stuns me, because this is a spiritual task, and logically speaking, shouldn't we be using spiritual weapons to aid us in our spiritual tasks?

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Then missions. Good question. Am I preparing myself for it?

On a larger scale, HQ was sharing with us and Sarah's DMM (it was a combined one) a few weeks ago about the need to return back to our church's vision (which aims to fulfill the Great Commission).

As one of the 'old birds', I perceive that over time, we may have started sliding, even as we seek to increase our numbers, from the original vision - to fulfill the Great Commission in our lifetime.

I guess, it's not wrong to want to win the marketplace for Christ... but we mustn't forget that ultimately we have to go out and preach the Good News. How sad it is, when we let go of the dreams and desires that we had when we were students once and young, and then start settling for a more "reasonable" existence. To be content to consider ourselves as one of the 'senders'.

C'mon. This is a calling for everyone. Whether you're student or family, you can go forth and fulfill the Great Commission. So what if you have 4 kids to take care of? Yes, there's extra considerations needed, but did you know that the family unit is one of the best and most stable teams to go church-planting?

So what if you don't have money as a student? C'mon, there's something called university or trips or whatever else.

So what if you're a working adult trying to find a job? C'mon, there's something called tentmaking.

So what if you're a little kid? You can bring another little kid too.

The nutshell of it is that there's a role for everyone to GO. We go in whatever way we can go. But there's at least one way or so to go. We make our money go. We make our time go. We make our children go. We make our parents go. We make our friends go. We make ourselves go.

I think the core of it is that we don't want to volunteer or sign up for the Lord's army. The Lord's army is not a draftee army. It is an army of volunteers.

"WHOM SHALL I SEND? AND WHO WILL GO FOR US?" Isaiah 6


Ha. I think I'm brimming with zeal for this. I was worshipping God during service on Sunday, when I had this strong impression in my heart. "Therefore, GO..."

I was wondering what it means, and asked God. "Go what?"

Then think He told me that this means that it's time to go forth and evangelise.

'Cos one thing that stops me from trying to evangelise is that I keep thinking I must find the right person to evangelise. Ok, that's true. But sometimes, I just prefer to stay in my comfort zone. If I don't go out and try, then who else will go?

By evangelism, I don't mean preaching in your face. That's not the most effective way I think. But at least can offer to pray for the other person, right? There are lots of non-Christians who are actually more willing to be prayed for than the Christian is willing to offer to pray for! And did you know that a lot of them still have never heard of the gospel?

So what are we waiting for, actually?

So on Monday, I saw my colleague. Chatted with him, and saw his toe. He had gone for toe surgery. So I decided to ask him whether can pray for him. He was surprised, but smiled and asked me whether I was a Christian. I said yes, and he started sharing about his other friends who are Christians/Catholics, and what their disagreements are and so on.

Just like that, it's so simple to transit into spiritual conversations.

Because the Lord already has authority over the person you're trying to reach out to. The Lord said that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. THERFORE, go and make disciples of all nations...

So shall we go now?