Missions

"Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation." (Mark 16:15, ESV.)
"...God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow...and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. 1:9-11, ESV.)
My parents and I were praying tonight and as we prayed for missions and missionaries, praying the Lord of the Harvest to send forth more laborers, I again felt an increasing burden for the thousands of people groups who have never heard the name of Christ. One day every tribe, every nation, every people group will kneel before the King of kings---and how many of them will have never heard of Jesus Christ?
Go to the cities, they say. Send missionaries to the cities, where more people are. By all means, yes--go to the cities if the Lord leads you there. But what about the people in the mountains of Uzbekistan? What about the tribes who live in the middle of nowhere, content with their cultural tradition and heritage? What about them? Who will take the Gospel there, where there is danger and suffering and pain and disease?
In some ways I wish I lived in the era of Amy Carmichael and Mary Slessor, who just went! They were women of God whose passion for Him led them to leave their homes and suffer any cost. That's the kind of vision, the kind of passion, the kind of desire that we need to have as 21st century disciple-makers. They went, they lived with their people, they died with their people.
I am both zealous and idealistic, which is a somewhat dangerous combination. Missions today is not what it was even 50 years ago. But above all else, may we risk all, give all, offer all, that we might gain all. We need people to stay here, yes. But if you can go, by all means Go. Go--and don't waste your life. Every knee Will bow. Every tongue Will confess.
"I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying "my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish my purpose...I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it." Is. 46:9b-11.