Missional Living

Being a Christian who is committed to Missional Living is not something that can be taken lightly. God wants people to be faithful in the Great Commission and proclaim the gospel to the people groups of the world. God has a heart for the unreached people groups of the world, and his desire is that people groups from all nationalities will give Him the worship and exaltation that He deserves. I read John Piper's book Let the Nations be Glad and reading that book gave me more of a heart for missions than never before. I realized that if I give the Lord the proper respect He deserves, then God can use me and others as a vessel to the world.

Life is a war. Everyday is a constant struggle. In this world, Christians will face tribulation and opposition in ministry. Evangelizing the lost is something that has to be a lifelong commitment. It is not something that can be done overnight. Evangelizing is not an option, it is a command. Sometimes, we as a Church fail at witnessing to people like we should. People everyday are dying without Christ and everyday people are going to hell. My job is to do my best with the help of God through prayer to witness to these people so that God can rescue these people from Hell. People who have never heard about Jesus can not be saved because it takes that person knowing about Jesus and the redemptive work he did for them in order for there to be any decision made for Christ. Piper says “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more (pg.17)". By no means am I saying that missions is not important.

When people worship God the way they should, then missions will be an overflow of worship.When people exalt God the way that they are supposed to then missions will be a result of worshiping God. People who will worship God will want to be involved in missions. That is the purpose of missions. The purpose is to exalt almighty God, and in doing so missions will be empowered and the people groups of the world will come to know Jesus as their personal Savior. However if God is not exalted,missions will not be effective and will not produce any spiritual fruit.

When we are doing God's will and we are focused on reaching people groups for Christ we will experience opposition and even suffering in life. In this life there is going to be suffering. Suffering is inevitable for every believer at some point in time. There are six reasons why God appoints suffering for His servant and they are the following: Suffering deepens faith and holiness, suffering makes your cup increase, suffering is the price of making others bold, suffering fills up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions, suffering enforces the missionary command to go, and the supremacy of Christ is manifest in suffering. All of these reasons shows that although there will be pain involved in the Christian life, there are rewards for those who endure to the end.

There are three questions that are crucial for the missionary task of the Christian church and they are the following: Will anyone experience eternal conscious torment under God’s wrath? Is the Work of Christ necessary? Is conscious faith in Christ necessary? These are all questions that are of the utmost importance.When it comes to the first question, the answer is that Hell will be a place of unending torment. The torment experienced in Hell will last forever. When it comes to the second question, the answer is that Christ’s shed blood is necessary for the atonement of sins. When Christ died he died for everyone. The “point here is the universality of the work of Christ. (123)” All people are under the power of sin if they are lost and can not say anything when it comes time for the judgment. According to the Word of God, the problem of sin is universal, cutting people off from God. The solution to that problem is the atoning death of the Son of God offered once for all. The final question is answered by stating that people can not come to Jesus without hearing the gospel preached to them. According to the book, people who have never heard about Jesus can not be saved because it takes that person knowing about Jesus and the redemptive work he did for them in order for there to be any decision made for Christ.

God wants people from every nationality to get saved and come to know Him personally. It is our job to tell others about Jesus. It is our responsibility to carry out the Great Commission. We all need to have a mindset for Missional Living.