Last night, I had the privilege of having fellowship with two tent-maker missionaries to the Middle East who shared both wonderful stories of God's grace and the challenges they had met. Every time I hear stories about missionaries, it excites me to the very bone.
Missions are exciting, and though it may surprise you to know this, God calls everyone into missions. We often think of missions and the first thing that comes into our mind is leaving the country to live in a straw hut, teaching African kids English while introducing them to Christ. I'm not saying that's not missions. It definitely is, but that's not the only thing that qualifies as missions.
Matthew 28:19 commissions all believers, saying, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (ESV). The actual translation for the first part of that Jesus-mandated commission is "as you go, make disciples." What that means is that as we go on with our day-to-day lives, we can and should respond to the mission of discipling others to follow and obey what Jesus has commanded us.
Your mission field could very well be where God has placed you today—your campus, your office place, your gym or the coffee shop you frequent. We are called to go there and, as we go, be a light to the darkest places.
The gospel can and should go to the nations, but missionaries aren't just people who go to a different country where they are immersed in a completely new culture and bring Jesus to places the gospel has not yet reached. We are all missionaries and your mission field is where God has placed you.
Again, I do not want to discredit the work of full-time missionaries who are sent out. I bless every missionary who goes and honour them, and I someday hope to be one. But we don't have to leave our homes and our jobs to go to the mission field. You are in your mission field and as you go, you can and will be a representative of the Gospel of the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God should advance to closed nations, to unreached areas and to broken lands, but it should also advance into the streets of your neighbourhood, the downtown area of your city and the metropolitan areas of your district. God wants to put you on a mission and He asks you to respond by going for Him to where He sends you, whether it's to somewhere that requires a passport or a thirty-minute commute.
