Category Archives: Romans

Posted on

Romans 2: Giving God A Bad Name

Read Romans 2:17-29

Giving God A Bad Name

“As it is written: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among
the Gentiles because of you.’”
~Romans 2:24

Digging Deeper: A family-values senator is found out to have kept the company of female “escorts.” A high profile evangelical leader is exposed for visiting a male prostitute. The divorce rate among church-goers is nearly the same rate as non church-goers. Believers are said to blend in ethically with just about everyone else in the workplace.

And we wonder why non-Christians tag us as hypocrites and despise our God!

It is so easy to get caught up in the culture wars and the Christian political movement and every other cause that bashes the evil practices and mindset of this world. To be sure, there is nothing necessarily wrong with being outspoken about your spiritual values. However, we would do God and the Good News we represent a big favor if we would clean up our act first.

Jesus had some pretty pointed things to say about that:

“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.” (Matthew 7:1-5)

How about this: First try living what you say you believe, then you can talk! Make sure your beliefs match your behavior. Don’t just mindlessly parrot, “what would Jesus do?”—do it! Live it from the core of who you are.

We may not win the whole world for Christ, but we’d be a lot more effective than we are now. And perhaps we’d convince a few folks that this Good News is a pretty good deal.

“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”
~St. Francis of Assisi

Posted on

Romans 2: Goody Two-Shoes

Read Romans 2:1-16

God’s Goodness To Little Goody Two-Shoes

Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
~Romans 2:4 (NKJV)

Going Deeper: It is one thing to be a willfully sinful pagan (see blog entry on Romans 1:18-32 — http://raynoah.com/2009/09/03/romans-bad-news/), but it is quite another to be an odiously sinful religionist, which is the type of person Paul turns his theological guns on here in this passage.  This one is of that tribe of people who fill the pews of churches every Sunday, perhaps sitting inconspicuously right next to you—self-righteous, smugly sanctimonious, and self-absorbed. As John McClintock quipped, “The Pharisees are not all dead yet, and are not all Jews.”

To be an intolerant, hypocritical, pious religionist is perhaps the worst enemy to the advancement of the kingdom of God.  These types say one thing, but do another.  They spout piety, yet behave anyway but.  They sit in judgment over the evil of the world, yet their hearts are full of the very evil they condemn. They make church all about them, and very little about reaching a lost world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And more than any other repelling factor, these religious do-gooders keep seekers from church, sully the reputation of God before a watching world, and solidify the excuses of sinners not to darken the doorway of the church because “of all the hypocrites who go there.”

But, as Paul says in Romans 2:1-4, these religious moralists are without excuse, because the theological knowledge they possess brings them an even greater accountability before God. The very judgment that God has pronounced on willful pagans will fall upon these folks as well. (Romans 2:3).  It is these who will likely hear those haunting words spoken by our Lord, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” (Matthew 25:41)  In truth, it is they who never really knew the God in whose name they sat in judgment over the world.

So just what is their problem? Mainly, their self-righteousness has led them to focus only on the external acts of religious piety while ignoring the more important inner core of the heart—love, devotion and purity—that so greatly matters to God.  In so doing, they have minimized their own sinfulness before a holy God, and have lost whatever connection with him they might have once, if ever, enjoyed. According to Romans 1:5, their hearts have become “hardened”, (“stubborn”—NIV), which in the Greek language is the word, sklayrotace.  It is the word from which we get sclerosis, the hardening of the arteries—a silent, invisible but deadly condition. That is exactly what the religious, hypocritical, judgmental moralist has, and that indeed is a problem.

Even while blind to their own sickly condition (Revelation 3:17), yet again, good news is still present.  Paul says in Romans 2:4 that God’s common grace (“goodness”) is upon even these people.  He has allowed them space to come to the truth rather than face the judgment they deserve (“forbearance”).  He has given then a period of time (“patience”) for his grace and forbearance to bring a change of heart, behavior and life-direction (“repentance”).

Isn’t is amazing that God’s grace is still reaching out to the most annoying sinners of all—that sanctimonious saint sitting in his pew, turning people away from God right and left by his religious hypocrisy and spiritual hostility? Yet our stubbornly loving God continues to woo even these goody two-shoes to himself. Lord have mercy!

So here’s the deal, dear friend: Let’s make sure you and I are not in that camp. Open up your heart to God right now and ask him to examine you. Don’t let hardening of the spiritual arteries lead you down that path. There are enough goody two-shoes in your church—it doesn’t need one more.

Neither does a world that God so desperately desires to redeem!

“A pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual
man is easy on others and hard on himself.”
~A.W. TozerRomansR

Posted on

Romans 1: Nothing Else Matters

Re-read Romans 1

“Jesus was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised
from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.
He is Jesus Christ our Lord.”
~Romans 1:4

Digging Deeper: The late Jaroslav Pelikan, one of the world’s leading scholars in the history of Christianity and medieval intellectual history, wrote, “If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen—nothing else matters.”

The resurrection is the fulcrum of our Christian faith and indeed, the pivotal point in all of human history. As C.S. Lewis said, “If the thing happened, it was the central event in the history of the earth.” If Jesus rose from the dead, then he is Lord of all. If he didn’t rise from the dead, then our faith is useless and, as Paul says in I Corinthians 15:12-19, Christians are hopeless and to be pitied above all people:

“…If Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.  And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead.  And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.  In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost!  And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.”

But we believe Jesus rose from the dead. We have staked our faith, our lives, and our eternities on the scriptural and historical evidence that Jesus broke the chains of death that bound him in that garden tomb and rose again to life, thus defeating death, hell and the grave.

Since that is true, nothing else matters—Jesus is the Son of God and Lord of all!

Since that is true, we can place our trust in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins and deliver us to eternal life.

Since that is true, we can have confidence in Jesus Christ to be with us every step of the way in our earthly journey, knowing that he will never leave us nor forsake us.

Since that is true, we can experience the same resurrection power that coursed through the body of Jesus Christ coursing through our mortal bodies, enabling us to live the abundant life that he came to give us—God’s favor in the physical, emotional, relational and spiritual dimensions of living.

Since that is true, we can experience the same overcoming life that Jesus Christ lived, living above sin and in holiness to God.

Since that is true, we can boldly share the Good News with lost people of how Jesus Christ has made a difference in our lives. We do not need to be ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). We do not have to be timid about our faith—in fact, if he is truly risen, to be timid would simply not be an option. If Jesus is risen, then he is either Lord of all, or not Lord of all.

Since that is true, we can place our lives squarely in God’s sovereign care, get busy fulfilling his purposes through our lives, and commit all of our energies, efforts and resources to glorifying him in everything we say and do.

He is risen! He is risen indeed! And nothing else matters.

“Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.”
~Watchman Nee

Romans 1 Reader’s Responses:

Bob’s Take: When I read words like “I am not ashamed of the Gospel,” which are so downright religious sounding, I have to look at the context in order to keep myself from rushing through it, or using modern word meanings to influence and perhaps even distract from the original intention. “Gospel” has become, in our day and age, a word to depict one of the first four books of the New Testament.  Is Paul saying he’s not ashamed of those books?  Of course not… those books hadn’t even been written yet.

As was pointed out in the Romans 1:1-17 blog, “Gospel” in whatever original language (probably Aramaic, but I don’t know for sure) merely meant “Good News.”  Paul is not ashamed of the good news?  Why would he be?  Why would any of us be?

And here’s where I have gotten distracted in the past.  If I’m ashamed of my church, am I ashamed of the gospel?  Many would say so, because the church is the modern proclaimer of the gospel.  If I’m ashamed of my Christian brother’s behavior, am I ashamed of the gospel?  Some would say so, because, after all, the gospel is what saved that Christian brother.

If I am ashamed of Jesus before men, I am worthy of judgment.  Jesus told us this in the “Good News” according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  Is this the same thing as being ashamed of the Gospel?  Is this the same thing as being ashamed of my church or my Christian brother?

I suspect being ashamed of Jesus and being ashamed of what Paul is referring to as the “Good News” is in fact the same thing.  In fact, I think Paul is summing up the work Christ accomplished on the cross as the “Good News.”  He’s taking for granted that the readers have already heard the Good News Herald (with trumpets sounding, standing on a street corner with newspapers in hand, reading the headlines):

“Hear Ye! Hear Ye!  Christ has done it!  All Sinners’ Debts Have Been Paid in Full!  We Can Now Enter the Throne Room of God with Confidence!”

Paul is summing up all of that with the term “Good News” because, well, can you imagine repeating all of that 6 times in the first 17 verses?

Meanwhile, he seems to be defending himself against something.  It’s as if someone is telling him he *should* be ashamed of the Gospel.

If we look at the context of when this letter was written, and to whom it was written, it helps me with this.  I find in the study notes for the epistle that:

1) Paul has not yet visited the Romans, this will come later.  In fact, this epistle is probably by way of introducing himself to them, along with exhortation and education about the “good news” he preaches.

2) Paul is probably on the return-trip to Jerusalem of his 3rd missionary journey.  This would put him smack-dab in the middle of Acts 20.  This means that, by this time, Paul has been imprisoned, stoned, the subject of riots, not to mention being scorned by his own people (just as he scorned and persecuted the Christians before his own conversion).

Based on this, I’m sure people are ashamed of Paul, both Jew and Christian alike.  These people are asking “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?  We certainly are!  Don’t you think God is ashamed of you?  And if God isn’t ashamed of you, you don’t worship the same God as us!  Aren’t you ashamed of a god who would let you be imprisoned, insulted, stoned, left for dead, and persecuted?  What sort of god do you worship, anyway?”

To which Paul replies… “I am not ashamed of God, nor of Jesus.  He should be ashamed of me, because of all I did to His followers, passing judgment in His name.  Instead, Jesus saved me.  I am not ashamed of him, I owe my life and my salvation to Him!”

Paul was at times ashamed of his brothers.  He was ashamed of John Mark for “abandoning” them on the road.  He was ashamed of his people for not hearing the Gospel and turning a deaf ear to it.  He was ashamed of himself at times.

But he draws the line at being ashamed of the work Jesus did on the cross for him, and for me and for you…for the world.  It was a shameful thing.  We put the creator of the universe on a cross because we didn’t recognize him as the giver of life, the way to peace and wisdom.  He had to die to pay for our sin, but we didn’t have to make it so humiliating.  We should be ashamed of ourselves.

And it would be tempting to be ashamed of any God so humble and meek to be weak before men and submit Himself to such humiliation and shamefulness.  Zeus would never have done that!  (Nor would Lucifer, by the way.)  But, in fact, due to the nature of this fallen world of ours, the requisite death, which paid for the penalty of our sin, could come in no other way.  So I guess overcoming the temptation to be ashamed of my God who is willing to stoop to my level to reach me is one that I should in fact work hard to overcome, because I’d rather be in God’s company than Lucifer’s.

And in fact, I don’t find shame like that to be much of a temptation, as I suspect would be the case with most readers of your blog.

Am I ashamed to tell others about the Good News?  That’s not quite the same as being ashamed of the Gospel, but it might be close.  It’s especially difficult to proclaim my own Christianity to my workplace when I am ashamed of the behavior of other Christians in my workplace.  Or if I’m ashamed of how the church is acting in my community or society.  But if shame of my brother’s behavior or my church’s social engagement causes me to be ashamed of the Good News, I suspect I’m probably confusing my priorities.  I’ll have to think on that one.

James’ Take: The Good News is the power of God! It’s the one thing that can not only change a person’s eternity, but bring true fulfillment and purpose to a life. And I am often too worried about making myself or someone else “uncomfortable” by sharing that with them. How selfish I am! That’s what the Lord reminds me of whenever I read Romans 1:16.

But that’s the power of Scripture: to give us an accurate picture of God and to turn our hearts ever towards Jesus.

So today, when faced with the opportunity to share the message of Jesus Christ and his salvation, I’m going to remember that it’s worth is so much greater than my discomfort and shame. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation.

Posted on

Romans 1: Bad News

Read Romans 1:18-32

Bad News: God Is Angry

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness
and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
~Romans 1:18

Going Deeper: We are not too comfortable with an angry God, are we? In our day, people prefer a tame God to a dangerous one.  As Dorothy Sayers aptly put it, “We have declawed the lion of Judah and made him a housecat for pale priests and pious old ladies.”

But if we are to be faithful to the authority of the Scripture, then we will have to acknowledge that God hates sin, and his righteous wrath will not only be poured out on sinful humanity some day in the future, but is already “being revealed” against those who have gone their own way.

Now you might ask, how is God’s wrath being revealed? Well, from time to time we have seen how God has broken into human history to reveal his wrath by inflicting punishment upon both evil nations (the plagues visited upon Egypt being the most well known example—Exodus 7-14) and disobedient individuals (for instance, the sudden death of Ananias and Saphira—Acts 5:1-11).  We also understand that when people die in their sinful state, there is a literal hell that awaits them, a physical place where they will suffer the eternal wrath of God.  And likewise, we know that one day, at the end of the age, the Great White Throne judgment of God (Revelation 20:11-15, Romans 2:5-6) will mark the final end of sin, when Satan, evil systems, and all the wicked will be cast into the lake of fire forever.

But the question remains: Is God’s wrath currently being revealed against sin, as Paul declares here in verse 18?  The answer to that is a clear “yes!” And though all these other forms of punishment are tragic, this type of judgment is particularly sad, since it involves the removal of the Divine restraints that have protected man from his own worst self. There comes a point where in judgment, God says to rebellious man, “if you insist, then go ahead, do your own thing.” Paul describes it this way:

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.” (Romans 1:24)

“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.” (Romans 1:26)

“He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” (Romans 1:28)

And not only throughout this passage, but throughout humankind’s sad history of suffering and violence, we see the awful results of man’s rebellion against God: foolishness, darkened thinking, sexual perversion, degradation, idolatry, depravity, “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” (Romans 1:29-31)

No wonder God is angry: He offered us his righteousness; we chose the worst kind of evil. And what makes this even worse is the depravity of the human race was, and continues to be, quite deliberate. Let’s be clear, man’s rebellion against God is not from ignorance, it is intentional, since “what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.” (Romans 1:20)  God’s truth has been made clear to every human being through the inner witness of the Creator’s implanted Spirit and through the Creator’s awe-inspiring creation itself, yet man has actually gone out of his way and has “suppressed the truth.” (Romans 1:19)

Obviously, that is a boatload of bad news!  Yet amazingly, because of the immutable character of our gracious and merciful God, even within the bad news there is good news—Good News that should cause our hearts to explode in grateful praise.  You see, there is yet another way that “God’s wrath is revealed from heaven”:  At Calvary, God fully focused his judgment against sinful man on his sinless Son, Jesus, as he hung on the cross.  In the greatest act of grace and mercy ever, Jesus bore the wrath of God for the sins of the world when he was crucified. (I Peter 2:24)

As a believer it can be so disheartening to watch the world get increasingly and more inventively evil as the days go by.  And it can be quite discouraging as we take the hits from those who don’t want to hear about a God who actually punishes sin.  Yet we can take heart that even in the midst of all this evil, as God’s wrath is being revealed against sin, there at the center of it stands the grace and mercy of a God so loving that he was willing to sacrifice his only Son for all the sins of the entire world.

And that includes you and me!

“People want a God without wrath who brings people without sin
Into a kingdom without judgment to a Christ without a Cross.”
~H. Richard Niebuhr

Posted on

Romans 1: Good News

Read Romans 1:1-17

Good News

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation
of everyone who believes, first for the Jews, then for the Gentile. For in the
gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness
that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written:
“The righteous will live by faith.”
(Romans 1:16-17)

Going Deeper: As you read the opening paragraphs of Paul’s letter to the Romans, you immediately recognize the apostle’s emphasis on “the gospel.”  In the first seventeen verses of this introductory section alone, the word “gospel” is used six times. “Gospel” is not only the theme of these first few verses, it is not just the touchstone of the entire letter, it is ground zero for Paul’s life.  The Apostle Paul is simply enthralled with the gospel!

And why not?  It was Paul’s Damascus Road encounter with the Subject of the Gospels that radically and instantaneously transformed his life from Jewish zealot to zealous Christ-follower. (Acts 9:1-6) Overnight, Paul went from pious Jew and persecutor of Christians to preacher of the Christian message.  No wonder Paul declared, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” If the gospel could save a religious thug like Paul, then that same righteousness from God could certainly be revealed to anybody and everybody!

But just what is “the gospel”?  The word itself comes from the Greek word, euangelion, which means “good message” … the good news!  And what good news it was to Paul, and to everyone who hears and believes it, for through the resurrected son of God, Jesus Christ, Almighty God has revealed that his very righteousness can be imputed to thoroughly and hopelessly sinful mankind, thus bringing even the worst sinner into a right relationship with God himself. Good news? You bet, for nothing less than eternal salvation is imparted to people worthy only of eternal damnation.

Furthermore, this imputed righteousness that brings eternal salvation is free of charge to sinful man.  Man can do nothing to earn it, and can never be holy and good enough to deserve it.  This, too, is good news.  You see, God’s righteousness covers man’s sin at the expense of another—Jesus. And it is only by faith—another key term in Paul’s letter, used in these opening words four times—that God’s righteousness is received. Simply by believing, accepting, receiving and submitting to the gospel—both the Subject and the Predicate, the person and work of Jesus Christ—one is thoroughly saved for time and eternity. Not by works, not by human righteousness, but by personally accepting God’s righteousness through Jesus’s death and resurrection does faith catalyze the grace of God that produces salvation.  It is therefore by faith that the righteous will live—in both the active sense of receiving salvation and walking with Christ and passive sense of being brought into eternal life once this life ends.

And that, indeed, is good news—the Gospel—the best news you will ever receive.

Now that is nothing to be ashamed of!  In fact, it is something to be proud of, and to proclaim near and far at every chance we get.  For that good news has made you right with God, and it is the only message that will bring salvation to those who were once as you and I were—thoroughly and hopelessly sinful and inexorably bound for a Christless eternity.

If you haven’t shared this good news with anyone lately, maybe you should today.  Just unabashedly tell them your story—no matter who it is that God puts in front of you.  Even the worst, most resistant, and unlikely sinner falls into the category of “everyone who believes,” which simply means that they, too, can be saved!

So go ahead and deliver some good news. Who knows, you might be telling it to the next Apostle Paul.

“Salvation is from our side a choice; from the divine side it is a seizing upon,
an apprehending, a conquest by the Most High God.  Our accepting
and willing are reactions rather than actions.”
~A.W. Tozer

This Week’s Assignment:

  • Memorize Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”
  • Meditate on what it means and what it took to have personally received a righteousness from God.
  • Make a commitment to share “your” gospel with one person this week.  Ask God to lead you into a spiritual conversation with the person of His choosing.
Posted on

Unsung Heroes

Read Romans 16

“I commend to you Phoebe…she has been helpful
to many, and especially to me.”
(Romans 16:1)

Food For Thought… So who was Phoebe? We don’t really know, except that she was a deacon in the church in Cenchrea—which brings up a whole different matter about women deacons. I won’t go there for now, but, hey, the Bible sure does…

Anyway, we don’t know much about Phoebe, or the other people Paul names as he closes out the book of Romans. Now at this point, I want to do something normally guaranteed to lose your interest at this point—I want to list those names for you. But before I do, promise me that you’ll read through this entire list. You probably won’t be able to pronounce them names correctly, but that’s okay. I can’t either. I just read them really fast and with a lot of gusto, so when people hear me they think I must be an expert in ancient languages. Try it—you’ll impress your friends.

So here they are: There’s Priscilla Aquila, Penetus, Mary, Andronicus, Junia, Ampliatus, Urbanus, Stachys, Apelles, the household of Aristobulus, the household of Narcissus, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis, Rufus and his mother, Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and his fellow Christians, Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, Olympia and her Christian friends, Timothy, Lucias, Jason, Sosipater, Tertius, Gaius, Erastus, and last but not least, Quartus.

Whew! My spell-checker is smoking. I don’t think it will ever be the same again.

So what’s up with these names? Simply this: Paul, the great Apostle, the guy who deservedly gets his name in lights almost every Lord’s Day in churches around the world, knew very well that he couldn’t have done it without the help of his friends. If Paul were accepting an Oscar, he would be up there for minutes listing off all the people he’d like to thank—these names and many others he mentions in some of his other writings.

This great theologian who was largely responsible for the evangelization of the western world didn’t do it all by himself. He needed a little help from his friends in every city where he preached the gospel and/or planted a church. Though you will likely never hear a sermon or attend a Bible study where these names are given any mention, Paul gives them their props in the eternal Word of God.

My point is, it takes a team to do the work of the Kingdom. For sure, there are leading characters on the Kingdom team, but it’s still a team, mostly of unnamed, unsung heroes who are typically forgotten—except by God. God never forgets. He appreciates the contributions of each and every one—even the lesser lights. And he has stored up indescribable recognition and reward for them in the Kingdom to come. And Paul’s mention of them here in the last chapter in Romans is a subtle reminder to us of their contribution to his efforts and of their value to God.

Maybe you are one of those unnamed, unsung heroes who goes unnoticed by everyone else. But your faithfulness is noticed by God. Perhaps you are a Phoebe to a Paul or a Patrobas to a Peter or a Junius to a John, and you wonder if you really matter. My response to you is, “Yes, you matter. We wouldn’t be effective in building God’s Kingdom without you! It takes a team—and no matter how you feel, you are an integral part of that team!”

But more important than my acknowledgement is God’s. He has written your name in a book too—one that’s even better than Romans. It’s the Book of Life. And God himself will celebrate your name all eternity long. How’s that for recognition.

So just be faithful doing what you’re doing. Your day is coming!

Prayer… Lord, I thank you for all of the unsung heroes who have quietly but faithfully built your Kingdom throughout my life. People like Emma Miller and Gertrude Martin and Mr. Ewing… They are now gone, and have mostly been forgotten on this planet, but they are not forgotten by you. They have joined the unending list of others long gone but not forgotten by you. They are the spiritual fathers and mothers of others who now serve in your eternal kingdom quietly but faithfully. Father, bless each one. Wrap your arms around them and remind them again that you noticed. And say “thank you” for me.

One More Thing… “God has not called us to do great things, but to do small things with great love.” —Mother Teresa

Posted on

On Mission

Read Romans 15

“My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the
name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a
church has already been started by someone else. I have
been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures,
where it says, ‘Those who have never been told
about him will see, and those who have
never heard of him will understand.’”
(Romans 15:20-21)

Food For Thought… Are you a missions-minded Christian?

I thought I was. I grew up in the church where the occasional missionary would come, and if we were lucky, show slides of his work in Africa, or some other far off place that I’d only heard about in geography lessons at school. Then I grew up and became a pastor, and again, the occasional missionary would come and tell the church of what God was doing somewhere far away, and I would feel good that we were a missions church. I would even give occasionally to support the church’s missions effort around the world. I thought I was a missions-minded Christian.

But that begin to change. Periodically, I was sent oversees for short-term missions projects by the various churches I served, and my heart begin to get reshaped by what I saw God doing among people who had never heard the name of Jesus before. The signs, wonders and miracles in the missions context (Paul talks about that in this missions context in Romans 15:19) blew my mind. I had never seen such things in the U.S, and experiencing it abroad, I longed to see the supernatural back home in my church, too. God was shaking and reshaping my heart for missions.

Then about five years ago, God completely dislocated my heart, and gave me a passion for missions, for reaching people who’d never heard the Gospel of Christ. I have a notion now that I have become a missions-minded Christian.

It all happened when I reluctantly got involved in a church-planting project in a remote, unreached region in Africa. I was reluctant because I knew that my involvement would require a lot of my own personal resources, and to be successful, would require significant resources from my church. Figuring our resource pie was stretched, and limited, I secretly feared that the finances we dedicated to this project would flow away from other worthy projects; that we would simply be “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Then, as I was stressing over this likely outcome, something wonderful happened. God spoke to me. Not in an audible voice or through writing on the wall or some other sensational sort of way (wouldn’t that be cool!). He simply and clearly spoke to me through an undeniable and unmistakable inner impression in my spirit. Addressing my stressing, he simply said, “Ray, if you will take care of the things I care about, then I will take care of the things you care about. I care about a lost world. I care about people who have never heard my name. And I want you to care about them too!”

That was good enough for me. I jumped into this project up to my eye-balls, and true to his word, God turned on a miraculous flow of resources, not only for this church planting project, but for those other projects I had been so concerned about as well. Best of all, our obedience keyed a revival in this region of Africa that was beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. In a region where only a few believers attended a handful of churches before this missions effort, five years later over a thousand churches have been planted and at a last count, over 60,000 believers added to those churches. And the revival is showing no signs of slowing.

What God has done in Africa through the obedience of that church changed my heart forever, and has given me a growing, if not consuming passion for missions. I still have a passion for my local church (that’s missions, too), but I have an added ambition now: To keep God’s people focused on reaching people who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ.

That was Paul’s ambition, according to verse 20. That is God’s ambition, according to verse 21. I hope that you will open your heart and let God make it your ambition as well. I hope that you will travel with me down the path to becoming a missions-minded Christian. If you will, I will make you the same promise God made me:

“If you will take care of the things God cares about—a lost world, God will take care of the things you care about—your world.”

What a deal! That’s an offer you can’t refuse.

Prayer… God, you so loved the world that you went on a missions trip to it, giving your very best to save it by giving your Son to die for it. Love was the root of your mission, and sacrifice was its fruit. I am the beneficiary of such extravagant love and costly sacrifice. In truth, I am a product of missions. Today, make me a loving and sacrificial extension of your mission to reach a lost world.

One more thing… “The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.” —Henry Martyn