Staying "On Mission"

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be" (2 Peter 3:10-11 (KJV))

When you are a soldier the most important thing you must do when you are in the field is "stay on mission". That is the whole reason why you are out there; to complete the task you were sent out there to do. If you deviate from your mission it does not matter how many enemy you take captive, it does not matter how much territory you win, it does not matter how many fortified positions you establish. If you do not complete your mission you have failed to accomplish the very thing you were sent out to do. You may never know the cost of your failure but those who sent you will. You get no praise, no commendation, no medal and no victory, for going off mission. Therefore the most vital piece of information a soldier enters the battlefield with is knowing and understanding what his or her mission is. The very thing they were sent to do.

There is a lot of discussion going on in our church at the moment about mission and discipleship. But as I am listening to it the Lord keeps bringing me back to the passage above (2 Peter 3:10-11). If we are here on a mission for God we need to be very clear on what that mission actually is in a world marked for imminent total destruction. The Bible makes it very clear nothing we can do will stop it. Stopping it is not our mission.

The ultimate "fire sale"' - everything goes. All buildings, cities, farms, oceans, all churches / cathedrals / synagogues / temples / mosques etc. All orphanages, hospitals, schools, trees, grass, crops, etc. and all people and all nations - all gone.

Love will always compel us to help those in need wherever we find them, as it should, but it is not our mission here in this battlefield we call the Earth. Anybody can provide material support to the needy but there is something only those in Christ can offer -  the only way to escape that fast approaching destruction. No matter how well fed, well educated, well clothed, well housed, and healthy they are, without belief in Christ, repentance from sin, and baptism of the Holy Spirit they all perish.

But we ourselves cannot save them. Christ alone has that power for man (flesh and blood) cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. To be saved we have to be something else entirely, not sons of man but Sons of God. The only way to become Sons of God is to be in Christ and born again of the Spirit (Romans 8:14). The Lord has declared only those who are spiritually in Christ, who are born again a new creature, beyond mere flesh and blood, escape the destruction and inherit eternal life.

Our mission is to help people become born again as Sons of God before the coming destruction. Only then will they have eternal life and not perish. Not just to "make disciples" who are imitators of us but who are true followers of Christ Himself. That do not obey and abide in our word or the word of our churches, but obey and abide in the word of God alone. For neither we nor our churches can make people a new creature born of the Spirit. Only God can do that and He has declared that only to those who repent from sin, and believe in, give their lives to, and obey His Son Christ Jesus does He give the power to become the Sons of God. (John 1:12, Rom 8:14, Gal 4:6)

Even Paul rebuked those who said "I follow Paul" (1 Cor 1:11-17). For when he said imitate me he meant imitate me and follow Christ as I do. As Adam, our trainee pastor, preached a few weeks ago, WE are John (the Baptist). And like John once we have brought a person to repentance and water baptism we must point to the Lamb of God and say "I must now grow less in your life and He must grow greater, for I did not die for you nor can I give you eternal life .... But He did and He can. Follow HIM and He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit of God Himself."

THAT is our mission.

Provided it is done freely and without charge

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D.J. Ludlow copyright 2015

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