Questions…

Questions we are often asked: How can I know God’s will for my life?

We’re often asked during our ministry engagements –by young and old alike, how can I know God’s will for my life?  It seems to be an age-old question most believers seek to understand.  But I believe we’ve been asking the wrong question, the result of being distracted from God’s intent for our lives.  You see, our perspective of God’s will for our lives often misses the purpose of why we were created.  God created us that we might glorify Him through our lives.  So it’s not about who we will marry, where we will live, or what we will do.  It is God’s desire for us to live as Christians committed to His purpose.  As one of our ministry colleagues stated, “We should be asking, ‘What is God’s will and how do I fit into it?’”

It is God’s will that none perish. It is God’s will that all men come to repentance.  …So if it is God’s will that none perish and that all men come to repentance, we’ve got to ask ourselves “What are we doing to fulfill his will?”

Jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty of sin for everyone.  But not everyone in the world knows that.  Millions of people are still waiting to hear the gospel although they don’t know they are waiting to hear; they are lost in their sin.  Lost men don’t know they need to repent because they don’t know what it means to acknowledge their sin.  They, like many here, think they are pretty good in spite of sinful lives.  Pretty good doesn’t get anyone into heaven.  The real question is “What are we doing to change eternity for those who haven’t heard the gospel?”

Here’s how that played out for us…

We embraced God’s purpose to impact lost people at our workplace more than forty years ago.  Then we began reaching out to those in our community… it seemed there was something more we should be doing to impact people for Christ.  Then we learned of those living in hard to reach places of the world that needed Jesus.  We left our jobs to pursue training and equipping to go to unreached areas of the world to reach such ones.  God gave us many years serving in PNG.  We’ve gone full-circle in reaching lost people and now we get to mobilize others who can go.

Ok, it really isn’t about ‘how things played out for us…’ it was actually responding to the commission Jesus gave to make disciples.  He was very specific about this when he ascended back to heaven and told his followers to be his witnesses.  He didn’t ask “Do you think you might want to do this? or “Could you make some time to impact lost people?” He said “Do it.”  I think that’s pretty simple, don’t you?

We realize every Christian will never go to the hard to reach areas of the world to impact lost people for Jesus –what we call ‘missions.’  But we do know Jesus wants us to be witnesses’ right where he’s placed us; that’s being responsible Christians.  Responsible Christians understand the importance of sharing and sending and supporting those who serve in missions.  It’s a team effort.