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What Is A Missionary?

by Robert J. Young
©, 2003, Robert J. Young
[permission is given to reprint with credit noted]
"As my father hath sent me, even so I send you." (John 20:21)

A missionary is one sent. Every heart where Jesus dwells is a missionary; every heart where Jesus does not dwell is a mission field.

Genuine missions is first inspired not by the needs of men but the command of Jesus. I go because he told me to go. Inspiration to do God's work is first, not second. Today we tend to value success, to want all in front of us clearly. Such mission work will always quit too soon, for at the first hint of failure, the funds are withdrawn and the missionary brought home. Good that the Savior sent by God did not quit too soon! Remember then, we are to be like him.

The great danger in missions is that what God ultimately wants for his creation is erased at worst or overshadowed at best by the pressing needs of humanity. Sympathy can easily overwhelm the sense of "sentness." Seeing such enormous needs, our human powers fail. We forget that we are not sent to elevate people, educate people, nor to ease the plight of needy people. We are sent with good news for eternity.

Certainly the spirit of Jesus within us will act with compassion and feeling, but the commission is to make disciples. May we not forget. God's mission is eternal, not only temporal. God's mission feeds the soul, not only the body.


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Last updated October 9, 2003.