A person doesn’t necessarily have to pack a suitcase in order to be willing to “go into the
highways and hedges” to compel the people to come in. In fact, a lot of us can just go next
door, or across the street. In our experience so far these past 5 years, we have seen many
more willing to go to the jungles of Africa before they would offer Christ to their neighbor.
The best example of willingness to “go” is Isaiah. “Here am I-send me.” God wants to send
us where the seed needs to be planted. And, while we are there, we might harvest a seed
someone planted years before. We don’t see a wheat crop in the middle of the interstate.
Where He is asking us to go may be a little off the beaten track. It may not be Africa-it
might be a group of teenagers that hang out under the bleachers at the Friday night high
school football game.It might be old man who fought in the war or lost his wife to cancer,
and turned to a bottle, that no one else will approach.
Our great commission, as commanded by Jesus, is to go out from Jerusalem, to Judea,
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) We know Jerusalem is where God lived-in
the temple-and now we are the temple in which He lives, so the spreading of the Gospel has
to start within ourselves. We must know it by knowing Him, in order to share it with
others.
Next comes Judea. Those who are non-believers in our households, our family and friends,
coworkers and neighbors. Venturing into Samaria, we will meet those people who have tried
“religion” and didn’t like it, yet profess a “knowing’ of God. And, if we happen upon a woman
by a well, we know we will be well received. (A little pun, there, to make you smile.)
And, lastly, we get to “the uttermost parts of the world.” It can mean Africa, but it doesn’t
have to be that far away geographically. And, it doesn’t mean that is somewhere that hasn’t
heard the Gospel. It is those places where the Gospel has been rejected, for whatever reason,
causing that place to be “off limits” by others who are still in Jerusalem or Judea. Like under
the bleachers on a Friday night, or visiting someone who has been through a terrible ordeal.
Or, it could be someone who was not “raised in church” and simply hasn’t heard about the
Lord from someone on a personal level. The scenarios are as many as there are people in the
world.
Does God want you to “go” for Him? Absolutely! Do you have to pack a suitcase to do it? Not
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necessarily!
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