Follow Jesus and Love Him Well
Part 2 of a series of videos explaining the story and message behind “Unto Death.” Part 3 coming soon . . .
Unto Death Part One // He Has Been Enough
Part one of a 3-part video series explaining the story and message behind my new book “Unto Death”
The Most Important Verse in the Word of God for Our Generation // An Intro
Matthew 24-25 is Jesus’ famous sermon about His glorious second coming and the end of the age. Right in the middle of it we find what may be the most important prophetic statement in the entire Bible on a number of profound levels.
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14 ESV)
Within this monumentally important prophecy we identify a mandate, a message, and a motive, which–when rightly understood–force us to ask an ultimate question.
The answer to that question has the potential to dramatically alter the course of history and determine the eternal fate of innumerable multitudes from many nations, tribes, and tongues. This is why in his exceptional book The Gospel of the Kingdom, George Eldon Ladd called Matthew 24:14 “the most important single verse in the Word of God for God’s people today.” [1]
After wrestling through the implications of Jesus’ holy decree, I’m coming to agree with him.
In a series of subsequent articles I aim to explain why.
. . . to be continued
[1] George Eldon Ladd, Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies in the Kingdom of God (Eerdmans Publishing Co) Kindle Edition, 123.
My Driving Convictions Concerning Frontier Missions P1 // The Majesty of God
[read the introduction to the series here]
Allow me to preface the first installment in this series with a quote from A. W. Tozer’s epic book Knowledge of the Holy concerning the supreme importance of the knowledge of God. He said that:
All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared to the overwhelming problem of God: That He is; what He is like; and what we as moral beings must do about Him. The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems.
God is the beginning, the end, and the chief motivation for all Christ-glorifying and humanity restoring ministry. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.” What then is the chief end of missions? The answer is the same. That the nations would glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Therefore, the majesty of God must be the bedrock of our theology of missions.
This has been the theological seedbed of missions throughout Church history, especially to unreached peoples in difficult places. Count Nicholas Zinzendorf (1700-1769), the founder of the Moravian prayer and mission movement put it this way:
Our passion for lost souls is only surpassed by our passion for the Lamb of God.
Paul said that Christ is to have “preeminence in all things” (Col. 1:18)–even missions. Missions exists to make Jesus preeminent in all nations among all peoples above all things. It is a means, not an end. Missions is our assignment and our mandate. God is our inheritance and our reward.
The number one reason why missionaries burnt out, fizzle out, or cop out is because they have never connected with this in a person way. I’ve known many people who signed up to ‘serve the Lord’ in ministry who are now disillusioned, disappointed, bitter, jaded, and bored. The reason is because they elevated the needs of man, the nobility of a service, or their own hunger for adventure above the worth of Christ. Though it is an abrasive term, this is idolatry. And it is toxic to the missions movement. Read more >>
My Driving Convictions Concerning Frontier Missions
I have spent the last 9 years in South America, South East Asia, and the South Pacific serving alongside and pioneering missions bases, discipleship training schools, church plants, and houses of prayer. My exposure to these different expressions of the Body of Christ, my reading of the Word of God, and my study of Church history have wrought convictions in me concerning the task of global missions that I cannot shake if I wanted to.
As I approach the 10-year mark in missions, the proverbial wet cement of those convictions has hardened. They dictate how I live, love, labor, and lead. And they govern how we make decisions as a family.
As you may know, later this year we will be moving to the Middle East to pioneer a work among the unreached of the Islamic world. We will be joined in the first wave by 20 or so of the most precious people I’ve ever met [read the full story here].
The decision to move our young and vulnerable family to the Middle East was motivated by the clear and unmistakable leadership of the Lord. But if it weren’t for the convictions that drive us, we wouldn’t have been able to submit. They have defined me as an individual and set the trajectory of our family.
As we begin the next leg of our journey I want to share them with you in hopes that they would kindle in others what they have kindled in my family–the conviction that as we go to the hardest and darkest places we have have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
Soli Deo Gloria.
To be continued . . .
The Coming Revolution in Global Missions: The Worth of Christ
Since my conversion I’ve been a student of Church history; particularly of reformers and reformations. I’ve always been stirred by those who ushered in new seasons of redemptive history and wrought revolution; especially with regard to frontier missions. While I love domestic ministry (i.e. ministry connected to an established local church) and consider it indispensable to God’s global purposes, frontier missions (i.e. ministry among unreached and unengaged peoples) has always been my passion. Apart from the Word of God, nothing stirs me like the stories of pioneers who laid down everything to preach Christ where He has never been named (Romans 15:20). Among the pioneer revolutionaries that have impacted me most is Hudson Taylor. Of his ministry Taylor said,
“My work is a very peculiar [and unique] one; in many respects it has, and can have no precedent. It may be called an experiment; to a certain extent it is so. And by God’s help it shall be, as it is being, faithfully made.” [1]
Going against the grain of conventional wisdom Taylor embarked on a lifelong journey of changing the face of global missions. Church historian Ruth Tucker described the impact of his consequential “experiment” in these terms:
“No other missionary in the nineteen centuries since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematised plan of evangelising a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor.” [2]
What Taylor did was not a passing fad. What he did and how he did it still serve as a standard today. The methods and models pioneered by the likes of men such as William Carey, Adoniram Judson, and Samuel Zwemer have decisively shaped the face and trajectory of frontier ministry. These men wrought reformation. And they instigated revolution.
I believe that we are currently on the cusp of the next revolution in global missions. This revolution however, won’t have much to do with methods or models. While these will have their place and are sure to be in the mix, they will not be the primary prophetic emphasis. The coming revolution will have everything to do with motive–not what we do or how we do it but rather, why we do it. And more importantly, why we go in the first place.
As with all true apostolic revolution in Church history, Read more >>
Unto Death: Martyrdom, Missions and the Maturity of the Church
Below are the notes to a message I preached on the 56th anniversary of the martyrdom of Jim Elliot and his comrades in Ecuador in 1956. Audio will be added when it becomes available.
I. THE CALL TO MARTYRDOM AS FOUNDATIONAL TO APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY
The New Testament and the witness of Church history, exalt the call to martyrdom is foundational and indispensable to authentic apostolic Christianity.[1] It is at the core of the call to Christ-exalting faith and obedience. When and where this calling is faithfully expounded, appropriately emphasized, and rightly demonstrated, the Church will mature and fulfill the high calling for which she was conceived. When and where it is avoided, omitted, and dismissed, the Church will exist beneath the intentions of God, in a state of general irrelevance before the peoples of the earth and the powers of the air.
As I aim to show, the call to martyrdom is not reserved for nations and peoples undergoing persecution. It is for every believer. When Jesus called us, He called us all to “come and die.” Read more >>
“The Church Needs More Martyr Blood”
In 1908 John G. Lake spoke the following words over a group of missionaries who were being ordained.
“I am calling you in the name of Jesus Christ, you dear ones who expect to be ordained to the Gospel of Jesus Christ tonight, take the route that Jesus took, the route the apostles took, the route that the early Church took, the victory route, whether by life or death. Historians declare, “The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church.” Beloved, that is what the difficulty is in our day – we have so little seed. The Church needs more martyr blood.
. . . If I were pledging men and women to the Gospel of the Son of God, as I am endeavoring to do tonight, it would not be to have a nice church and harmonious surroundings and a sweet do-nothing time. I would invite them to be ready to die. That was the spirit of early Methodism. John Wesley established a heroic call. He demanded every preacher to be “ready to pray, ready to preach, ready to die.” That is always the spirit of Christianity. When any other spirit comes into the Church, it is not the spirit of Christianity. It is a foreign spirit. It is a sissified substitute.
. . . we never had Church splits in our work in South Africa. . .The split business began to develop years afterward when Punkin Pie eating Pentecostal missionaries began infesting the country. Men who are ready to die for the Son of God do not split.”
(From “A Trumpet Call”)
One of the Most Powerful Statements I’ve Ever Read: “He Has Been Enough”
Since I first read this statement a few months ago I have felt as though my heart has been in a vice that is slowly being tightened with the last five words running through my mind almost incessantly.
“The night I sailed for China, March 3, 1893, my life, on the human side, was broken, and it never was mended again. But He has been enough.”
– Amy Carmichael 1867-1951
(missionary to Asia, mostly India, for over 55 years)
