Report from the Mission Field
The “great commission” is in Matthew 28:19-20. Jesus said to his disciples, “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, …teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you, and lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” Colossians says that God is our sufficiency and that he has made us able and sufficient ministers of the New Testament of the gospel of Christ. Either we are missionaries or we are a part of the mission field.
Steve works with Gideons International. The Gideon’s bible society is famous for distributing bibles in hotel rooms throughout the United States . They also work with local churches to saturate a particular local area with the Word of God. A scripture blitz in Senegal is part of the total of 96 million bibles that the Gideons will distribute this year. The Gideons are an extension of local church congregations to bring people to the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. Wherever they distribute bibles, the word of God never returns void.
A Vietnam veteran named Fred recalls that the Gideons gave him a bible before he was deployed to Vietnam. Fred was captured by the Viet Cong and found solace in the scriptures while in captivity. He finally escaped but left behind his precious Gideon bible. Many years later Fred received a letter from a prison guard who had brutalized him in the VC prison. His captor had become a Christian as a result of finding Fred’s bible that he had left behind. Jesus Christ is the living Word of God. Peace is a result of reconciliation. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There is no peace without the Prince of Peace. Reconciliation and peace is available only at the foot of the cross of Christ.
At the LA county fair last year, the Gideon’s distributed 13,500 bibles. Many were accompanied by personal testimonies from people who were saved by reading the scripture. Each bible that the Gideon’s place in a hotel room will be touched by over 2,000 people. Nothing is as powerful as the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. The word of God never returns void…. According to Isaiah 55, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but is shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the purpose whereunto I sent it.”
Glenn and Father Kelly
Pete travelled with Father Kelly and Glenn to Israel earlier this year. Glenn is in Southern California to “help himself to the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” at our Influencers meeting in Irvine. Father Kelly works with biblical archaeologists in the ancient city of Magdala. He and his team are excavating a synagogue in the city of Magdala. This is the city of Mary Magdalene. At one end of the synagogue is a stone engraving of a chariot of fire, a symbol of God taking Elijah into heaven. The wheels of the chariot represent the presence of God in the synagogue. This building matches the description of the synagogue in Luke 4 where Jesus preached in Galilee. At the site is a women’s atrium, a beautiful area where the pillars are engraved with the names of many women who appeared in the bible. Mary Magdalene herself was the first person to witness the resurrected Christ. Many women in Galilee were at the top of their social hierarchies. Some of them supported the work of Jesus’ ministry. God spreads the gospel of the good news through people from community to community. Women often have the gift of relationships…they live to pour out their lives to their family, friends, and communities. Father Kelly reminds us that before there was wi-fi, there were wives. Wives were the instantaneous method of communication that God used to spread his gospel message from house to house.
In the Men’s chapel at this synagogue there is a life size mosaic of Jesus walking on the water. The significance of this mosaic is the compassion and grace in the face of Jesus Christ as he bids Peter to come walk with him on the water. This reminds us that the first of the Ten Commandments is, “thou shalt have no other gods between God’s face and your face.” Father Kelly recalls that he witnessed one man who wept as he pressed his hand against the mosaic of Jesus’ hand as he looked intently into the mosaic of Jesus’ eyes. His children who were with him had never before seen their father pray this intently. They joined their hands with their father’s hand and prayed together, looking intently into Jesus’ eyes of compassion and grace.
Either we’re missionaries or we’re part of the mission field.
In John 3, a Pharisee named Nicodemus came to see Jesus by night. Jesus’ message was a message of exclusiveness. He said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father except by me. Salvation is on God’s terms not ours. There is a narrow way though a narrow gate. Jesus Christ is the narrow way. Although Nichodemus was a Pharisee who had been trained in the best higher institutions of learning of his day, he didn’t know the truth. To know Jesus is to know the truth, for Jesus Christ is the truth of the word of God made manifest. According to the beatitudes, he who hungers and thirsts after righteousness will be filled. The third chapter of John gives the context of John 3:16, one of the foundational verses of the bible: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
This is the gospel message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael