By Stanley Ow Chong Kheng
Stanley is the SVM2 National Lead Facilitator in Singapore.

What is culture? A sum total of whose we are today from the moment of our birth- ‘settled’ beliefs and practices. As a babe, we learnt through the 5 senses of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching from our moms (normally). We observe from our immediate environment how things are carried out, how to act and behave in an acceptable manner. Approval is a key element in our young minds. As we grow in age our mental capacity continues to expand. We now learn from our parents, siblings, and loved ones around us such as grandparents. Habits are formed- the do’s and don’ts. Our parents enroll us into kindergartens, primary and secondary schools. Our scope of influence and learning continue to grow and expand from the people around us- families, friends, church, neighbors, community etc. Learned patterns, habits, values, convictions, sense of purpose and missions are formed consciously and unconsciously. We become the sum total of what we have learned and observed through these influences. Through the years, we have grown and practiced what we are doing as a norm. This is my ‘culture’.

A quotation from Sir Edward Tylor may help us to understand culture better. This pioneer British anthropologist has combined these elements of beliefs and practices into a classical definition. It is ‘that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.’ (1871:1)

We now realize that cultures (accepted norms of behavior) are everywhere in that it has become a mindset and its own comfortable ways of doing things that need the least changes on our part. We heard of school culture, community culture, political culture and even church culture. It may be considered as sub-culture.

Let take a step further about cross-cultural mission. Mission is the task. Consider Abram before his name was changed to Abraham. From him a Jewish nation, Israel was born. Who was Abram and where did he come from? Did he cross into another culture?  What does it take for a message bearer to cross into another culture in the mission of sharing his or her faith in Christ, especially to the unengaged and unreached? What task is before us?

Abram came from one of the three sons of Noah, namely Shem (Genesis 10:1,21-22; 11:10-32). In Genesis 11:27, 31,32, we read, ‘This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. Terah took his son Abram his grandson Lot, son of Haran and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years and he died in Haran.’

Ur of the Chaldeans is an ancient city located about 100 miles southeast of Babylon near the Euphrates River in what is now known as Iraq. The moon god “Sin” was the patron god of this city. It is also to note that Abram stayed in Ur till he was married (v31). He stayed until adulthood, exposed to the culture of its day. He adapted from the culture of Ur to Haran and later another adopted new culture of God’s people- God taught Abraham the culture of heaven through faith and obedience. Eventually, Abraham became the spiritual father of all the Jews and Christian believers. Later, through Moses, God laid down the 10 commandments as principles for His people so as to continue and protect as ‘a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.’ I Peter 2:9.

How about Jesus Christ, our Savior and Master? He moved cross-culturally from a heavenly culture and stepped into human culture in order to live among us (John 1:14). In Philippians 2:6-8 we read, ‘(Christ Jesus)…Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself as nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross!’

I believe that Jesus Christ crossed into the culture of man in order for us to experience God’s culture. We are to share His culture with the world. In John 4:4 we read that Jesus had intentionally gone through Samaria. ‘Now Jesus had to go through Samaria.’ Saul of Tarsus later known as Paul the greatest apostle was called not only to the Jews but to cross into another culture to the Gentiles.

Acts 26:17-18 ‘I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and turn them from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ 

by Edmund Chan

A widely influential Singaporean pastor and author, in 1995 Edmund launched the Intentional Disciple-Making Church (IDMC) Conference. Started as a seminar with 320 participants, it has become a sold-out conference teaching disciple-making to 2,500 participants from 20 countries.

Understanding “Light of the World”

The second discipleship-metaphor Jesus employed is equally profound: “You are the light of the world” (5:14-16). This metaphor itself is accompanied by the stirring call of our Lord: “Let your light shine.”

It applies to all arenas of life. When things around us are confusing and difficult, “let your light shine.” When you face problems and difficulties, “let your light shine.” When someone needs the Gospel, “let your light shine.” That’s the radical calling of the church.

Let your light shine! A hidden light is a useless light.

Thus Jesus tells us in verse 15, “a city on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do men light a lamp and put it under the peg measure.” A peg measure is a small bowl, a measuring for grain. Put it under a peg measure means to cover it with this bowl. It’s not the right thing to do. The purpose of the lamp is to give light. And to light up a lamp and put it under a bowl to hide doesn’t make sense. It’s incongruous.  It misses the whole point.

Not under the bowl but on a lampstand! That’s our destiny. To glorify God. To bear witness to His grace and greatness. And Jesus Himself gave us the reason for shining: “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (v.16)

Living with a Sense of Destiny

Without a sense of destiny, and a desire to glorify God through it, we would tend to hide our light.  But the opposite is also true. When we live with a sense of destiny, and a burning desire to glorify God, we will rise up and let our light shine.

Now, when Jesus said “you are the light of the world”, there are at least three things I find rather surprising. It grabs our attention.

Notice who this message is being addressed to. Notice what is actually being said. And notice how it is being addressed.

The first surprising thing is that this glorious declaration was addressed to an inconspicuous, insignificant ragtag band of disciples. They were not among the world’s elite. To this inconspicuous and insignificant bunch, Jesus said: “you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world.”  This is a biblical principle. The Almighty God uses ordinary people to live extraordinary lives for His extraordinary purpose!

The second surprise is that the term “light of the world” is used of Jesus Himself. In John 8:9, Jesus said of Himself, “I am the light of the world” (reiterated in John 8:12; 9:5). Now, we ask ourselves, who exactly is light? Christ or us?

As far as Jesus is concerned, He had two tasks. One is totally exclusive to Himself – to give His life as the perfect sacrifice on the Cross as a manifestation of God’s light, life and love. He is the light that, coming into the world, brings light to all men.

But there is a second task. In fact, originally this task was given to Israel. They were given a task to be a witness, to be a light. But they failed miserably in their task. So, God gathered His Church, the spiritual Israel, and said to her “Look, you are the light of the world. You are the witnesses of God.” What a privilege!

The third surprise is the scope of the task. God gave it to an ordinary group of people and said “you are the light of the world.”

To a small group of ordinary people, God gave a world vision! He did not say, you are the light of the home; or you are the light of your region. He says you are the light of the world. You are to be the light unto the nations. For a small band of Jewish disciples, that’s staggering!

God not only has a mission for the church, He has a master plan for the church. His strategy is in four simple words, “let your light shine.” That’s His strategy. Wherever God has placed you, let your light shine. If you do not shine where you are, how could you shine elsewhere?

Let your light shine wherever God has placed you. That is His strategy! Whenever it gets dark around you, you can either curse the darkness or light a lamp. Let your light shine. Wherever He places you, you shine as a light everywhere you go. People will be attracted to your light.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. It attracts people.

If we allow God to work in our life, to shine where He places us, we will shine – not because we are good – but because Christ will shine through us. We may have the same problems, the same difficulties, but the joy of the Lord, the strength of the Lord, will shine through us.

The lamp shines best when the darkness is darkest. Let your light shine!

That’s discipleship of “a certain kind”!

by Edmund Chan

A widely influential Singaporean pastor and author, in 1995 Edmund launched the Intentional Disciple-Making Church (IDMC) Conference. Started as a seminar with 320 participants, it has become a sold-out conference teaching disciple-making to 2,500 participants from 20 countries.

Living With a Sense of Distinctiveness

Losing the saltiness of salt is quite difficult. Chemically, salt (sodium chloride) is a very stable compound. You keep it for years in a jar and it is still salty. So how can salt lose its saltiness? That’s the clue to our understanding of this metaphor.

Salt loses its saltiness by contamination.

In Jesus’ day, people in Palestine took their salt mainly from two sources. The rich could have their salt from the Mediterranean Sea area but others have their salt from the Dead Sea. Salt taken from the Dead Sea can sometimes be contaminated by different minerals; especially gypsum, which looks like salt and can easily be mistaken for salt. It contaminates salt so that the salt not only loses its saltiness, it loses its usefulness as well. It’s contaminated. It is good for nothing.

The warning that Jesus gives us here is a very significant one for the Church. Beware of being contaminated. A compromised Church is a contaminated Church.

Oswald Chambers said, “We need more Christians who are distinctively Christian; he is the one who points out to the Church the very fact that it is so easy for us to become contaminated by the world.”

Don’t miss this. It is critically important. This then is the particular thing Jesus had in mind when He said “you are the salt of the earth.” The essential uniqueness of salt is what this metaphor is all about.

Not merely the usefulness of salt but primarily the uniqueness of salt.

It is so distinct that if you taste salt, there is nothing else to describe saltiness but salt. This is essentially tied with this idea of distinctiveness. He is talking about the distinctiveness of Christian disciples – of being so distinctively distinct – that there is nothing else like it!

Jesus is thus talking about the essential nature of the Church. If the church is not unique, it is useless (v.13). It is good for nothing. The idea of usefulness is only seen in the context of distinctiveness.

Get this discipleship principle: The usefulness of the Church of Jesus Christ is directly linked to the distinctiveness of the Church of Jesus Christ. That’s discipleship of “a certain kind.” Another way of stating this principle is this: The Church has a distinct calling of God because it has a distinct character in God.

That’s what discipleship is all about. Character. So what Jesus was saying is that the Church is designed by God for God; but if it is not distinct in God, it is good for nothing else!

The Church is radical in calling because the Church is radical in nature.

We are to be disciples of “a certain kind”! This is expressed in the preceding context in the Beatitudes. Blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the gentle, blessed are the poor in spirit – these are the qualities that makes for the saltiness of the Church!

That’s why the “you” is an emphatic pronoun. It means “you and you alone” (there is nothing else!) – “you are the salt of the earth.” There is no substitute for the Church. There is nothing like the Church. It is as unique as one of the most unique things on planet earth. Salt.

by Edmund Chan

A widely influential Singaporean pastor and author, in 1995 Edmund launched the Intentional Disciple-Making Church (IDMC) Conference. Started as a seminar with 320 participants, it has become a sold-out conference teaching disciple-making to 2,500 participants from 20 countries.

Salt of the Earth and Light of the World

Salt and light. These are two unforgettable metaphors.

Stunningly profound. Brilliantly provocative.

The Sermon of the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is Jesus’ manifesto of Kingdom discipleship. Everything else that Jesus taught in this grand manifesto is entirely anchored upon our understanding of these two metaphors. Jesus masterfully employed these two striking metaphors to convey something fundamental about radical discipleship.

These two discipleship metaphors are referring to two distinctly different things. The first emphasizes what God calls us to be and the second, what God calls us to do.

The first metaphor, salt of the earth, has to do with discipleship with a sense of distinctiveness. It relates to one’s identity in the world.

The second metaphor, light of the world, has to do with discipleship with a sense of destiny. It relates to one’s influence of the world.

Understanding “Salt Of the Earth”

“You are the salt of the earth”, Jesus said. In our contemporary world, this metaphor seems rather uninspiring. The sentiment today is to eat less sugar, less fat and less salt.

So, who wants to be the MSG of the world? It doesn’t sound very flattering.

Why then didn’t Jesus simply say, “I’ve got news for you, you are the gold of the world”?

That would be more inspiring than salt, wouldn’t it?

The answer is quite obvious. If He said “you are the gold of the world”, it would have referred metaphorically to being precious or worthy. But that’s not what Jesus had in mind. There is something else, something far more important, that He wanted to intentionally convey.

How then are we to understand this metaphor?

The common approach is to study the uses of salt; and thereafter to declare by inference its meaning for the Christian disciple.

Alison and Davis listed down eleven different ways that salt was used in ancient times and showed their implications what Jesus meant when He said that “you are the salt of the earth.”

Let me highlight for you just four common uses of salt and how these are prescribed to us as an understanding of the metaphor.

1. Salt is used as a seasoning. Thus as disciples we are to season the world; such as by “seasoning your speech with salt.”
2. Another use of salt in ancient times was as a healing antiseptic. So, by inference, it means “as the antiseptic of the world, you bring about healing”. Indeed, the modern therapeutic revolution – of inner healing, physical healing, emotional healing – would certainly welcome this.
3. Salt was also used as a wage in ancient times. That is why we have the modern saying “a man worth his salt”. It is taken from the days of the Roman Empire where they paid their Roman soldiers in salt as a wage. So, the inferred understanding is that the disciple is somewhat valuable.
4. The fourth use of salt was as a preservative. In ancient times, meat was often preserved with salt to prevent it from turning bad. By inference, disciples are to the preserving agents of the world. In a society that is spiritually corrupted and morally decaying, the Church as “salt of the earth” serves to preserve moral and spiritual purity.

This is a good and profitable consideration. But as to it being the interpretation of what Jesus really meant, I humbly beg to differ.

The context tells us something totally different. Jesus himself defined what He meant in the context. The Lord Jesus followed His metaphor with an important rhetorical question. It indicates to us what He was thinking about. He asked, “if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be salted again?” (v.13)

PHOTO by Ian Britton

By Ryan Shaw

Ryan is the international lead facilitator for SVM2.

There is a cry arising in the hearts of multitudes of young believers around the world today. It is cry for a relevant walk with Jesus Christ. The human heart was created by God to experience the highest levels of love relationship with Him.

Often, what we hear from Sunday to Sunday does not enable us to lay hold of the kind of love lifestyle available to us through faith in Jesus. Without rightly internalizing how to walk in increasing depths with Jesus Christ, the human heart fills that cry with other, ultimately unsatisfying, alternatives. This leaves many believers frustrated and ends up breeding skepticism in a person’s heart, saying such a life in God is not really possible.

Abandoned Unto Him

The Lord has an answer for this. Yet it requires our all and a turning completely to Him. This is what we call pursuing “Abandoned Devotion” for Jesus. It is a posturing of our whole hearts and lives before the Lord in order to allow Him to work into us an ever increasing blaze of love for God over a lifetime.

Paul had this passion burning in his heart when he wrote in Philippians 3:12,

“But I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ has also laid hold of me.”

This “laying hold” for Paul was multifaceted. First, it referred to his bent on attaining to the highest levels of love possible for God, His church and the lost. Second, Paul referred to attaining the full implications of the personal destiny God had ordained to accomplish through himself as he surrendered all to Christ. Both pieces of Paul’s passion to “lay hold” are critically important for every believer to continually emphasize before the Lord throughout their lifetimes. In this article we will focus on the first.

God First Loved Us

As we seek to become believers who are bent on living a lifestyle of abandoned devotion for Jesus, there are important theological truths that must come alive to us in our hearts and spirits. The first is 1 John 4:19,

“We love Him because He first loved us!”

Every believer who has ever believed in Christ’s work through the cross and resurrection has done so only because of God’s tireless love manifested in incredible mercy toward them. The only way a person can hope to respond with abandoned devotion for God is if the revelation of God’s intense pleasure and enjoyment of us has penetrated our hearts.

This is different than merely buying into the fact of God’s love for us at an intellectual level. Believers throughout history have believed in the doctrine of God’s love for them at an intellectual level and been saved. Yet millions of these did not do so at a heart level. Usually this results in a believer only attaining a casual walk with Christ.

Instead we want our hearts deeply aware that even when we stumble the pleasure of God is upon us. God is not mostly mad at us but mostly filled with enjoyment by us and over us (Psalms 16:11). Yes, when we willfully rebel against Him, His heart is hurt, but even then He is seeking to motivate us to come back to Him and recommit ourselves unto Him.

He is not like a human being who keeps records of wrongs. He is not sitting up in heaven saying, “You’ve blown it one too many times, son or daughter.” He knows our weakness and accepts us in that place, moving us onward step by step and from glory to glory.

Abandoned Devotion begins with receiving God’s intense love for us and telling Him how wonderful that love is to us even though we don’t deserve any of it. Experiencing His kindness and mercy in our hearts motivates a response that says, “No matter what it takes I will love this God who loves me so greatly!” This is the bedrock of abandoned devotion.

Abiding in Christ

The second foundational verse is 1 John 2:6 where the apostle writes,

“He who says He abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”

This is a massive statement with many significant implications. First, if we are true believers we will embrace the abiding lifestyle.

We will purposefully spend increasing amounts of time simply being with Jesus and sitting at His feet as Mary did in Luke 10:42. Knowing Him and gazing at His beauty will become our top priorities (Phil. 3:10; Psalms 27:4). This happens, however, in small steps and not all in one moment. We make a choice of the will that we want to know Him more.

We don’t necessarily feel like we want to know Him more, yet we pursue it anyway. The next day we affirm that choice and give ourselves to activity which promotes such a lifestyle. The next week, month and year we do the same thing. Over time our hearts are saturated and transformed and we feel something missing when we don’t get to spend adequate time in His presence in prayer, worship or Bible study.

Walking like Christ

A second main point in this verse is the call to walk just as Jesus walked. This is a jam-packed reality that I don’t have space to adequately go into now. In some measure we are tempted to ask John if he really meant what he wrote or if it was a mistake. Yet, the call is plain that one of the ways we walk as Jesus walked is to love the Father in the same way Jesus showed us by example.

Jesus taught us what this means in Matthew 22:37-38; “Jesus said to Him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.” Mark adds in Mark 12:30 “with your strength” to the list.

We know that Jesus loved the Father in all four of these distinct categories. And equally as important, the Father loves Jesus, and every human being, in this same way.

We respond to the fact that God loves us with all His heart, soul, mind and strength with a wholehearted desire to return the favor of a life poured out with the same manner of focused love. As we posture our lives to grow in intentionally loving Him in each of these four distinct categories we are moving toward walking just as Jesus walked. This is pursuing abandoned devotion for God.

This article was originally posted in The Abandoned Times on January 25th, 2010.

By Ryan Shaw

Ryan is the international lead facilitator for Student Volunteer Movement 2 (SVM2) and currently lives among the unreached.

The Parable of the Virgins

There is a direct correlation with the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins found in Matthew 25:1-13. All ten are meant to be seen as believers who were waiting for their Bridegroom. They all expected Him, but the primary teaching of the parable is that not all had “burning hearts.” Five had oil in their lamps and five had run out. The five who ran out ask the five who had some left to give them some of their oil. This request is denied. What was going on here?

Throughout the Old and New Testaments, oil is almost always seen as a representation of the Holy Spirit. The oil in the lamps refers to an alive, experiential, Holy Spirit inspired, radiant love and discipleship among believers. The oil testifies of a vibrant, fervent and intimate devotional life where the Spirit teaches, trains, provides revelation, correction and guidance on an ongoing basis. This isn’t necessarily true 100% of the time but the bent of the heart is in pursuit of this.

The lack of oil refers to believers who started well yet have tapered off in their devotional life. They have become nominal. Spiritual gifts go uncultivated and unused and spiritual fruit is minimal. Love for the lost is cold and commitment to obey Jesus’ commands weak.

They have a form of Christianity and participate in the rituals, but the abundant life is absent. Their prayer lives appear dutiful and dull with sensitivity to sin numbed. Obtaining oil in the lamps has to be done through God’s scripturally prescribed manner. We cannot ask another to give us some of their “burning heart.” It doesn’t work that way.

Cultivating Oil

Obtaining oil has to be cultivated personally as we give ourselves to becoming a believer clothed with the Word of God and invite the Holy Spirit to have His way in us, working His processes into our experience with Christ.

This is not an overnight process. Obtaining oil in our lamps simply means we get back to allowing the Holy Spirit His rightful place of teaching and training and in so doing develop a “burning heart” on the inside.

This parable is a warning parable of the need to keep our hearts growing with fresh love for Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The call to “watch” is just this….to watch our own hearts in order to guard them from buying into the spiritual malaise of cultural Christianity all around us and in so doing, lose the “burning heart” of vital intimate fellowship with Christ, becoming nominal.

Ready for His Return

Thankfully, this parable speaks directly to the time of Jesus’ return and the individual believers’ responsibility to have a bright and shining lamp in anticipation. The five foolish virgins tried, at that late date, to get spiritual “reality” in their lives and they paid a steep price for it.

However, part of the message of the parable is that today we can change our situation. For those who do not presently have oil, we can get it. There is hope in our day. We can proactively give ourselves to “buying” oil by giving ourselves to intentional study and meditation of the Word, growing in revelation of Jesus and His ways, and inviting the Spirit to teach us and in so doing cultivate a “burning heart.” It is imperative that we do so now, in order to not be caught without oil on that day when no further opportunities present themselves.

By Ryan Shaw

Ryan is the international lead facilitator for Student Volunteer Movement 2 (SVM2) and currently lives among the unreached.

This is what the Holy Spirit does when He reveals and teaches Truth to us. He takes the Bible, from beginning to end, and shines His light upon it and connects it together – always with the purpose of causing our hearts and spiritual eyes to marvel at the beauty and majesty of God in the flesh, Christ Jesus. The Spirit applies this Truth to our circumstances and situations, making it personal and real.

Aligning Our Lives

As believers, however, this process is conditional. We are to make a conscious decision to set ourselves with intentionality to meditate and engage the Word of God. The Spirit will not violate our wills in this process. Participation with “The Fellowship of the Burning Heart” is a continual choice on the part of every believer to give ourselves to the hard work, time, and energy of becoming a student of the Word of God, under the
teaching of the Holy Spirit.

In the process He sets it ablaze within us, causing its Truth and power to penetrate the very core of our being in every area of life.

This burning is two-fold in what it produces within us. First, it causes us to worship Jesus with greater clarity, understanding, adoration and whole hearted devotion. When our hearts get a hold of a new (for us) nugget of spiritual truth and we wrestle with it, praying it back to God and proactively aligning our lives with it, a burning love and desire to honor Jesus wells up within.

It is not an intellectual occurrence, but an exercise through which spiritual understanding is produced by the Holy Spirit and felt on the inside. A burning confidence in our unseen God springs forth in that moment. This is directly given through the Holy Spirit as we respond to the Word of God.

This is the second purpose. God is seeking to grow a deeper trust and dependence on Himself in every one of us. He does this as we catch a vision of the truth and essence of His Word and give ourselves with abandonment to faithfully obey that truth.

Biblically Illiterate

It is no secret that today’s generation of believers is known as the most Biblically illiterate generation in a long time. On average, believers appear not to be reading, studying, meditating, chewing, reflecting and praying the Word of God on our own as much as we ought. We go to Sunday service and listen to a message, yet we are often not personally engaging and personally interacting with the Word.

How can we have a “burning heart” apart from personally giving ourselves to hours spent with the Word of God open before us, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us on a daily basis? This lack of a “burning heart” has produced a boredom among many related to the Word of God. Boredom has given way to avoiding it, which has given way to weak discipleship, which in turn has seemingly produced a fairly weak, modern church.

It is through the “burning heart,” propelled by the Word of God in partnership with the release of truth by the Holy Spirit, that our discipleship in Christ is developed and matured.

By Ryan Shaw

Ryan is the international lead facilitator for Student Volunteer Movement 2 (SVM2) and currently lives among the unreached.

Throughout the generations, pockets of believers have committed to becoming a people clothed with the Word of God and seeking Jesus Himself, through the Person of the Holy Spirit, to teach them all truth. Together these pockets have comprised what some have called, “The Fellowship of the Burning Heart.” This has been an informal community of like-minded believers in pursuit of a real and alive experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ through His Word.

It is these “burning” ones who have impacted society with the Kingdom of God and been at the point of every advancing mission thrust among least reached people groups. As a result we want to grow to be like them and emulate their discipleship.

Walking with Jesus

The concept comes from the account in Luke 24:13-36. Two disciples are walking together from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus. Jesus has been crucified and has already risen, but they are unaware of the second fact.

They started their walk to Emmaus the same day the other disciples learned about Jesus’ resurrection. Along the way the resurrected Jesus meets them on their walk and continues their journey with them. He veiled His glory from them so that they did not know it was Him.

Together they speak of all that had transpired with Jesus in Jerusalem over the previous week. They confided of their own disappointments in Jesus’ untimely death and their misunderstanding of it. Then, still in His veiled form, Jesus rebukes them for their misunderstanding and proceeds to teach them using all the Scripture, about the truth of Christ and the place and purpose of His suffering.

These three then came upon Emmaus. Jesus wants to keep walking and teaching, yet they tell Him of their need to rest. Jesus stays with them for the evening, continually surprising them with His knowledge of the Old Testament and how it thoroughly points to Christ.

Over dinner, Jesus reveals to them that it is He. Then He disappears from their company and the two disciples make the profound statement, “did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened up the Scriptures to us.”

He Shines Great Light

We find the Lord’s will for every believer in this wonderful process. He is seeking to walk with us and shine light and spiritual revelation to us all along the way, providing deep understanding related to His person, His attributes, His ways, His purposes, His perspective and so much more.

This is not meant to be a mere intellectual and academic exercise, to which it is often limited. Instead, we are to feel the truth and apply it to our lives, making it experientially our own. We are meant to have truth touch our emotions and move us on the inside. The burning sensation was real and profound.

This drew the disciples into Jesus in order to learn more. Jesus taught them with an anointing that pulled back the previous darkness of their understanding and shone great light that caused their hearts to grasp what had taken place and hunger for more.

by Justin Long

Justin is the Information & Team Mobilization Strategist for Mission to Unreached Peoples.

Since you are reading this, you are probably—at least in some small degree—interested in missions. You want to know a little more about missions, and most likely your place in it. You are probably like many of us who feel prompted and maybe even challenged by the Holy Spirit to be involved in missions in some way.

Still, you are also probably like many of us who are grappling with what our specific role is. What, precisely, are we supposed to do? Where? For how long? And how do we get started in it?

Simply finding a need and working on it is a challenge, because no matter where you go in the world, whether close by or far away, you’ll find plenty of good things to do and plenty of people in need. With so many different causes clamoring for our attention, how do we choose?

Admittedly the easiest option is to stay where you are and work on the people closest to you. Perhaps the most tempting option is to go where it’s easiest and the harvest is “most ripe,” and work there! Instead, let me point out the examples of Jesus and Paul.

Examples from the Bible

In Luke 10, Jesus chose 72 disciples and sent them out in pairs “to all the towns and places he planned to visit.” (Luke 10:1) He didn’t put them to work in the town where he was presently ministering—he sent them to places that he (probably) hadn’t visited before.

In Luke 10:11 he warned them that some of the towns they would enter would not welcome them. This was potentially dangerous business: “I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.” (Luke 10:3)

Paul, similarly, went to “other places far beyond you, where no one else is working.” (2 Corinthians 10:16) In such places it was impossible to know whether the harvest was “ripe” or not–because no one was there to examine the fields!

Unreached Places Today

Today there are many such places, clearly identified by research:

• There are over 2 billion people in unreached people groups (for exhaustive lists, see the Joshua Project website at http://www.joshuaproject.net). Many of these groups have churches and some Christians, but the local church is not large enough to reach everyone in the group on an ongoing basis (that is, foreign missionaries): they can’t reach the current generation and future generations on their own.
• There are over 1 billion people in unevangelized people groups (for exhaustive lists, see the World Christian Encyclopedia, 2nd edition). In many of these groups there is some missionary work going on, but it’s not nearly enough to reach the entire group even once: most of the people in the group are not likely to hear the Gospel in their lifetime.
• Finally, there are over 231 million people in unengaged people groups (see the Finishing the Task List at http://www.finishingthetask.com). These groups have no workers and no churches at all. Most of the people in these groups will slip into a Christless eternity because no one in the church undertook the difficulties to go to them.

By Paul Borthwick
Paul is a leading mission speaker and senior consultant for Development Associates International. He is also a leader in the SVM2 network.

#3: THE SCRIPTURES REVEAL God’s Sending Heart:

“Whom Shall I Send and Who Will Go for Us?” (Isaiah 6:7)

These words, spoken to Isaiah before his famous response – “Here I am; send me” (Isaiah 6:8) – reflect God’s method of getting the message of his love to the world. He sends us.

Jesus commissioned his disciples to make more disciples (Matthew 28:18-20), preach the Good News everywhere (Mark 16:15; Luke 24:45-49), and be his witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

All these commands launch us out because Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you” (John 20:21).

We are God’s method. He fully intends to involve us as his local and worldwide “ambassadors” because God makes his appeal of love and reconciliation to the world through us (II Corinthians 5:20).

For some miraculous and mysterious reason, God limits himself to do his work in the world through us.

Chuck, a recent graduate school graduate working behind the counter at a fast-food chain, understands God’s sending heart when he said,

“This is not where I’d choose to be right now, but God has me here – to touch people who might otherwise never know about the love of Jesus. I work with people from eleven nationalities, and he’s send me into international missions from behind this counter.”

Katie and Jack, Bible translators pioneering in Central Africa, understand God’s sending heart when they state,

“God could reach these people in any way he wants, but for some wonderful reason, he’s chosen to reach them through us.”

When we understand God’s sending heart, we start accepting our God-given privilege of partnering with him in the work of local and global evangelism, mercy ministries, and cross-cultural outreach.

We are the primary expressions of the love of God that people will see.

GOD’S WORD & GOD’S HEART TO THE NATIONS

Deep Bible study reveals that God seeks the lost – and so do his people who comprehend his heart.

Deep Bible study reveals that God sacrifices to get the message of his love out – and so do his people who comprehend his heart.

Deep Bible study reveals that God sends us to be his ambassadors – an awesome truth for those who comprehend his heart.

Our dedication to local outreach and our motivation for global ministry flow out of the heart of God, and we know His heart by understanding His word.

John Stott reminds us that the Bible is the foundation for pursuing our commitment to the global cause of Christ:

Without the Bible, world evangelization is impossible. For without the Bible, we have no Gospel to take to the nations, no warrant to take it to them, no idea of how to set about the task, and no hope of any success.

It is the Bible that gives us the mandate, the message, the model, and the power we need for world evangelization.

So let us seek to repossess it by diligent study and meditation. Let’s heed its summons, grasp its message, follow its directions, and trust its power. Let’s lift up our voices and make it known.