Spiritual Warfare and Missions by Stetzer Ed & Rankin Jerry

Author:Stetzer, Ed & Rankin, Jerry [Stetzer, Ed]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: B&H Publishing
Published: 2010-05-12T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

Does Satan have anything to do with an obsession among churches of local over global responsibility?

* * *

I (Jerry) have traveled throughout the world and seen masses of people who have not rejected the gospel. Instead, they have never had an opportunity to hear and respond to it. I wonder why in God’s providence He allowed Christianity to move westward across Europe and subsequently to America. Why did He allow us to be born in a country where there is religious freedom, there are churches everywhere, and ample opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel? Why has He enabled us to come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and know our sins are forgiven, and we can be assured of eternal life when most of the world does not have that opportunity?

Is it because He loves us more than the people of China, India, or those across the Arab world? I don’t think so; the Bible tells us God loves the whole world. Perhaps it is because we are more deserving than they are since we live in a moral, God-honoring society. Definitely not! We are all just sinners saved by grace, undeserving of God’s mercy. So why have we been chosen to become the people of God? I don’t know. Paul tried to explain this in Romans—why some, a remnant, were recipients of God’s grace while others were rejected. He concludes there is no explanation: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways! . . . For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever” (Rom. 11:33, 36). We don’t know why God has chosen us to be among those who know Him. But because we are, we must take up the responsibility to make Him known among all nations so that they will glorify Him forever!

If not us, who? How will more than one billion Muslims know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life if we who know Him do not tell them? How will hundreds of thousands of Buddhists and Hindus discover that the way to God is not through endless reincarnations based on personal merit but through the sacrificial death of the Son of God if we don’t go and speak into their lives and cultures? How will the multitudes duped by generations of brainwashing to accept the humanistic philosophies of communism know there is a God who yearns to forgive sin and reconcile them into a personal saving relationship if we don’t testify to the soul-satisfying hope we have found in Him? How will the generations rejecting any idea of eternal truth in Western culture come to know the God who is right and true and desires to be known by them unless we show and share the gospel?

Christians today are identified as the spiritual sons of Abraham. God has chosen us to carry out His plan, originally intended for Israel.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.