It’s Sunday again–I am scheduled to preach this evening as part of a mission focus on the upcoming summer 2011 mission trip. I will probably not be as bold in person as I am in my thoughts this morning as I review what I have prepared.
The church is many places is mired in either inactivity or in activities that make little or no difference in the salvation of the world. The church has become basically self-centered, and most of what we do is done for us. We pay lipservice to the need to touch the world, but the world is not touched by our lips but by our actions. The real crisis of our world has been misidentified by many who go forth in the name of Jesus. The real crisis of our world is not a crisis of poverty, food, medical care, environmental awareness, or addictions. The real crisis in our world is the absence of Jesus in daily life. I am not opposed to doing good in the name of Jesus, and in fact such benevolent, compassion actions make us like Jesus, but Jesus did not come to eliminate poverty.
The local church MUST recover its boldness and spring into action. This is not merely a mission call, although that will be our primary focus this evening. The boldness for which I plead is a daily boldness in all of the walks and contacts of life. The boldness I see described in the New Testament is the boldness I seek to restore. This is a boldness that will empower every Christian to see others through the eyes of God. We look at the lost, but do not see lost people. We interact with the hurting, but do not see their hurts. We hurry on when opportunities open. We are not acting like Jesus because we are not thinking about Jesus and talking about Jesus every moment of every day.
The local church MUST act. We could begin today if we were serious about the eternal purpose of God in this world.