At the end of the Book of Matthew, Yeshua tells His disciples to “teach all nations” to observe the things He commanded them. Spreading the Gospel is one of our most important tasks, but it’s often hard to know where to start.
I’ve been asked why we put so much effort into maintaining this website. We have no true “ministry” in the purest sense of the word. We have no church building. We correspond with people through email and on social media rather than face-to-face or over the phone. There are a few reasons for this, most notably that we do not have the resources to make it happen. If and when that time comes, we know the Lord will provide. In the meantime, we put our efforts into getting the word out through articles, videos, and Christian social media.
We do not have a large audience. Our readership is in the hundreds per day rather than the thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands held by many of the popular Christian websites. That’s perfectly fine and does not diminish from our efforts. You see, we believe that the goal of reaching the nations can only be accomplished by reaching the individuals. If everything we do for the digital presence of Judeo Christian Church ends up reaching a single person in a meaningful way that points them in the right direction towards their salvation, then every bit of the thousands of hours of effort were completely worth it.
This isn’t to downplay the role of the preachers, teachers, pastors, and scholars in the real world or on the internet who are able to reach the masses. There’s a place for everyone as we discussed in an article titled, Witnesses, Educators, and Defenders: The Modern Warriors for the Faith. The thing that we hope to highlight with this article is that the task that Yeshua put before us all is not one that should overwhelm anyone. If God chooses to use you to reach a single person with the Gospel and that’s all you are called to do, then that calling is every bit as important as the message on Sunday delivered by a mega-church pastor. In fact, it may be more important.
Nations are the People
The geopolitical organization of the world is always on the forefront of news, but does it really matter? Was Yeshua talking about reaching the president in some distant country when He told His disciples to teach all nations?
It’s the people of the world who make up the nations of the world. The governments are there to set the environment, but they are not the nations. The nations are the people within them. To reach the nations, you must be able to reach the people themselves. It doesn’t have to be written in their constitution. It has to be written on the hearts of the people.
People are the Nations
God’s judgments usually come in the form of judging nations at different levels. Yes, there are individual judgments, but a look at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is an example of the wickedness of a nation compelling the judgment of all of the people other than the select few who were allowed to escape. Throughout the Bible, God judges Israel, Egypt, and many other nations. That doesn’t mean that everyone who was in the nations were all evil. It means that the nations and/or their leaders were evil.
This is an important thing to understand because we often use the fairness of our modern mindset to declare individuality over nationhood. The Bible shows that it’s not always like that. While no human is completely innocent, there are those who are much less guilty than their countrymen who faced punishment. Conversely, there were very evil people throughout history who continued through the blessings that were bestowed on a nation.
Look at how God blessed and cursed the chosen people. When Joshua was leading the campaigns against the cities and nations in Canaan, it took the action of one individual to nearly destroy the nation.
Joshua 7:1 (KJV)
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.
During the times when the nation was blessed and prospering, it wasn’t that everyone was doing the good works of the Lord constantly. They were blessed for His sake and as long as they did not commit a major trespass the way that Achan did, they were allowed to continue in their blessings.
What’s the point of all this? If you can understand that God will call you to do wonderful things at different degrees and that those different things have an impact on yourself as well as others’ lives, then it’s easier to listen for the calling and act on it when the opportunities arise.
The Butterfly Effect
First and foremost, please do not watch the movie The Butterfly Effect. It was pretty darn awful.
With that out of the way, let’s discuss the importance of reaching those individuals. The concept behind the butterfly effect is that a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world could be the catalyst that causes a hurricane elsewhere. Technically, the concept is not correct, but the point that it can make on our spiritual journey is real.
Let’s play a quick game of “what if”. What if someone had reached Adolf Hitler as a youth with a message of salvation that took him down the road to becoming a true believer in Jesus Christ? Some would say that he was a well-versed religious man, but his actions clearly demonstrate that he was not guided by the true meaning of the Bible. Let’s try another one that is less dramatic. What if someone you speak to is able to find Yeshua and follow His path? Later in life, when things are going badly, they might be having suicidal thoughts that are extinguished by the Holy Spirit, something that would not have happened had you not had the conversation with them years before.
We do not know the needs of people. We do not know the effects that our actions can have on someone today, let alone years down the road. If you truly want to participate in reaching the nations, start with the people. One conversation can change the course of history.
The post Reaching Nations Means Reaching Individuals (and visa versa) appeared first on Judeo Christian Church.
via Judeo Christian Church http://ift.tt/15QQ5n2
No comments:
Post a Comment