If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Matthew 5:29-30
Our mission. To live totally and completely for God. He is our King. He deserves our love and dedication. We live to serve Him. Yet too often we hold back. Yet, Jesus wants our total dedication. Later He would say, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”
In much of American Christianity, we insist that God would not want us to be uncomfortable or risk illness or persecution. We feel it is a great sacrifice to attend a church service or two a week and quit watching porn. That is enough to make most people feel self-righteous enough to walk around with boards at protests expressing hate for the sinner. But Jesus did not simply call us to go to church. He called us to go into all the world with the Gospel. He commanded us to baptize and make disciples. Yet we hide behind Christian T-shirts and fancy church buildings and then race out to lunch and be rude to the gay server.
Now don’t misunderstand me. The church service is important. In my view it really has two main purposes. 1) To be an emergency room for the wounded. That means that if we are operating correctly, we will have people coming in with sucking chest wounds. They will disrupt your well-orchestrated service. We must allow the hurting to be treated by the great physician. Heart surgery should be the norm at every church building. 2) To be a training ground for spiritual paramedics. Most of the wounded won’t just show up at your church. You will need to send the members of your church on a search and rescue mission. The lost are perishing while we enjoy the entertainment and safety of the local church.
My friends, we must do more. Where is the church willing to take a risk? We often send groups on missions’ trips. That should continue. However, what should be more consistent is going out onto the highways and byways. Go to the darkest part of town. Visit the seedy hotels and share the Gospel. Take your church into the local rescue mission and meet those experiencing homelessness. The church should be visiting nursing homes and hospitals. For those really daring can face the government process to get yourself into prisons. People are perishing because they have not received a message of love and hope. In America they have only seen a 2D version of the Gospel.
Our role is to move out into the world at large, charged up, trained, and inspired by the weekly church service to rescue the perishing. Start with getting to know these men and women. Do not preach at them, speak with them and express your love and the love of Christ. If you are uncomfortable, you can tell them that. They actually already know that you are out of your element. Don’t lie. Smile, invite them to church to learn more. We must tell them about Jesus and when they don’t believe, invite them to come and see.
