Scripture reading: Mark 1:14–20

 

Why YOU Should Go to the Mission Field

Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation. (Mark 16:15)

                    

The word “radical” is derived from the Latin radix meaning “of or having roots.” For example, a “radish” is a vegetable that is an edible root.  But through usage, the meaning has come to include persons holding unconventional or even extremist views.

Keith Green was a radical Christian. Everything about him was unconventional: his hair, his clothing, his rock music, his passionate intensity, and especially his message. Bursting on the Christian music scene in the 1970s, Green touched a generation for God. Though many considered him “extreme” he was really just helping the people of God to rediscover their roots. Just a few days before he died in a tragic plane accident in 1982 at the age of 28, Keith Green wrote an article for his organization’s newsletter. The burden on his heart was to see 100,000 young people released to the mission field over the next five years! The message was radical then and it is still radical today. He asked, So why should you go to the mission field?

,. Because Jesus has told you to go (Mark 16:15) . . . Every believer is called to spread the Good news about Jesus to those who have not yet heard . . .

,. You should go because the need is so great (Matthew 9:37–38) . . . We can populate either heaven or hell by our obedience or our laziness . . . Does it matter to you that an estimated 80,000 unsaved people die every day to face the judgment seat of Christ?

,. You should go because so few Christians are obeying the call, making the need even greater (Romans 10:14). While we in America have approximately one worker for every 230 people, those who have never heard the Gospel even once have one worker for every 450,000 souls!

,. You should go because God gives special anointing and grace to those who leave their own land, people and culture to do God’s will and spread the Gospel (Genesis 12:1–3).

,. You should go because America is literally drenched with the Gospel, while most other countries and cultures of the world do not have any continual, relevant witness at all (Romans 15:20–21).

,. You should go because, as Oswald J. Smith said, “No one has the right to hear the Gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once” (II Corinthians 4:3–4).

,. You should go because the time is short. More and more countries are clos- ing their doors to missionaries and the Gospel, and we must go now (John 9:4).

,. You should go because the Holy Spirit is speaking to Christian leadership all over the world that it is God’s desire for there to be a great final missionary thrust before the end of the age . . . And unless you get involved personally, there is no hope of that ever happening in our generation (Matt. 24:14)!

Thanks Keith, for living a radical life and preaching a radical Gospel! Now Lord, help me to get back to the roots of what it really means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

 God had an only Son, and he was a missionary . . .—David Livingstone

point to ponder • Are you a radical Christian?

prayer focus • A response to “send forth” workers into the harvest.