Missionary Responsibility
MARTIN LUTHER ON MISSIONARY RESPONSIBILITY – “A Christian does not only have the right and the power to teach the Word of God, but he has an obligation to do so, unless he is willing to forfeit his soul and bring upon himself God’s wrath…And when he is in a place where there are no Christians, he needs no other calling but that he is a Christian and inwardly called and anointed by God Himself. He is obligated to preach and teach the Gospel to the erring heathen or non-Christians out of his duty of brotherly love, even though no man has called him”
The Bible Is a Missionary Book: Just think! Every book in the New Testament was written by a missionary. Every epistle in the New Testament that was written to a church was written to a foreign-mission church. Every letter in the New Testament that was written to an individual was written to the convert of a foreign missionary. The one book of prophecy in the New Testament was written to seven foreign-mission churches in Asia. The disciples were called Christians first in a foreign-mission community. The language of the books of the New Testament is the missionary’s language. The map of the early Christian world is the tracings of the missionary journeys of the apostles.
HOW IS IT? A daughter of Islam once asked a woman evangelist who went from house to house reading the Gospel to women (who men could not reach due to Islam’s strict rules): “Why do you go from house to house reading the Gospel?” The woman evangelist answered: “It is the master’s command.” The daughter of Islam asked: “Why do not all of your caste obey it? Out of so many Christians, only you come here once a week to read to us. Oh, they will receive a very great punishment! How is it?” How is it indeed? Each son and daughter of God “How is it? “How sweet ’twill be at evening, If you and I can say; ‘Lord Jesus, we’ve been seeking, the lambs that went astray; Heartsore and faint with hunger, we heard them making moan, And lo! we come at nightfall and bear them safely home!”
A PRAYER – While we usually don’t subscribe to too much of what Francis of Assissi said, the following is good. “Lord make me an instrument of Thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love, where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is sadness, joy; where there is darkness, light.” “O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; not so much to be understood, as to understand; not so much to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.” I know I have trouble with these things. I would say that it is a good prayer for our selfish age.