Burkina Bound/Mission Thoughts….

Hey TFAB!

The Jacques and I have arrived safely in Paris after being on a plane for about 13 hrs.  Seeing as how the in-flight movies were incredibly lame (the secret life of Bees just isn’t gonna move me to put on the head phones)  I had a lot of time to think back on this mornings study.  There was so much more that I wanted to talk about and address (SURPRISE SURPRISE) but making my flight was pretty much a top priority.  So perhaps another time I will be able to share with you a little more concerning how our lives can live out the mission of God in Bend, but there is one thing that I want to clarify.  At one point I said

This is the Heart of TFAB missions… Matt 28

We are To Go, To Teach, To Baptize, To make Disciples and Hit REPEAT….

NOW What you may notice about missions in the early church in the book of Acts, is that they didn’t build a building and then expect everyone else to come to them because of there amazing kids programs..

There many offerings to the COMMMUNITY —

THEY WERE GOING- THEY WERE TEACHING THEY WERE BAPTIZING THEY WERE DISCIPLING—-

IT wasn’t just one of them or the elite apostles— BUT

All of them From The Apostles—To GUYS LIKE PHILLIP—

Who was a servant of Widows in Acts 6-

An Evangelist in Acts 8—

A Pastor of his family in RAISING for VIRGIN daughters that prophesy in Acts 21

Then I went on to say that

We can’t just expect people to show up here on Sunday—

We have to infuse ourselves… perhaps a better word is

Incarnate ourselves like God did in JESUS into this CULTURE-

He became Flesh and Blood as Heb 2:14, He ate and drank with us, Celebrated holydays with us, laughed with us, and cried for us.  He is the model of Missions

Therefore we need to be biblical in all we do- as He was

We need to teach repentance so people will recognize sin and turn to God

We need to go into culture- This is important we need to be like pal at mars hill went to Athens saw there idols and was able to talk about them…

We need to disciple- Keep on edifying and building up the saints once saved

We need to be spirit led- Without the Spirit we have no direction, we need to rely on the spirit leading continually…

What I want to Clarify is this, it isn’t a sin to have a building, or to have a place where you can hold meetings and gatherings and talk about Jesus and not have to worry if some day your going to get kicked out or that your rent will be raised.

A building can be a huge blessing.  It can be a place where the Saints/Body can come to be edified and strengthened in their walks.  As EPHESIANS 4:12-16 talks about how God has Given Gifted men to edify the body  (can be at a building, it has to happen somewhere) TO DO THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY….  You could have a building and you could use it to equip the saints through daily studying the word and communing together, but then the point of fulfilling mission would mean that you would then need to be ready to go!   You see, sometimes Christians are like the average American… They come to church they feed, and feed, and Feed some more and they keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger and then never WORK OUT what they have been feeding on!  We get fat, and we are edified but we miss out on the mission of God.  We are partakers of it, but we don’t help in fulfilling it!  This is our purpose, because its Gods Purpose!  This is Gods heart, This is His desire!   If we do not evangelize we will fossilize!  We will Die like a diabetic!

The last thing we should do is get lazy and think that we as a body can just sit back eat our meat weak after weak and think that either people will just somehow find us as they are dead in sin, or that we will win people to TFAB with dumb gimmicks, churchy tricks, or passionate promotions. My pastor use to always say you keep people with what you catch them with.  At TFAB we want people Caught by the Holy Spirit, and brought to the Father through the Son and the teaching of His Word which will cause them to crave Him, and be a witness for Him.  The only way they will be taught is if we embrace the mission of God to our schools, neighborhoods, parks, playdates, jobs etc…..

So I leave you with this reminder as we prepare to board the next flight…

You don’t have to go to Burkina to be involved in Gods mission this week! You get to go to bend this week.  Gods called you to this mission field- He has given you a mission, you get to be apart of His mission! Do you accept that or are you ashamed of IT? Some of you may say, Well if Gods going to make His mission happen then  wont it Happen, why worry why care?

Because Jesus cared! Jesus WEPT over Jerusalem—Paul cried over  lost Israel-

God Will make it happen I have no doubt about that Matt 24:14 BUT HE USES US—

Rembemer Without Him We CANT—Without us he wont

Can I encourage you once again to embrace the Mission of Reconciliation!