Foreign Missions for the Jesus Junkie3/23/2015 Does living a life spent in abject poverty appeal to you? Is the thought of sweating it out in a foreign county year in and year out sound like a blast!? What about being separated from friends and family and all that it entails? Can you catch, kill, pluck, and cook a chicken? If you answered yes to any of the previous questions then a life of radically serving God in foreign missions could be right for you!! This is typically the first things that probably enter our heads when considering being obedient to Jesus's final command to His church. In Matthew 28:19-20 before returning to heaven Jesus gives his disciples a final job. He says "All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." John Piper writes in his book let the nations be glad "You have three choices in world missions: be a joyful, sacrificial goer, be a joyful, sacrificial sender, or be disobedient.”. So I know you're probably ready to stop reading at this point. Here we go again you're thinking another missionary telling us that we need to support missionaries or be missionaries or maybe you're not even a Christian and you're thinking what the heck is Uriah talking about. Here's where I want to shift focus a little bit. Coming back out here to Kona Hawaii 3 months ago I told God and some leaders I know out here that I wasn't going to "bang the missions drum" as I put it. I wasn't going to rant and wail about the billions of Muslims, Hindus, atheist, and agnostics, who are not going to heaven unless we do something about it. It's so tiring and uninspiring. What then would motivate myself as well as the staff and students in the discipleship school I'm apart of to a radical, wartime, sacrificial life style of being on mission. The answer I've found is simple. For our own Joy. Through out these last 3 months a theme has been coming up. In lectures, worship, prayer, studying scripture, and discussions with friends I've realized that the more we let go of, the less of this world we possess, the more we hunger for Jesus the more we will be satisfied. Truly and utterly satisfied like nothing nothing else on earth can satisfy satisfied. The last 3 months have been the best months of my life. Not because I'm in Hawaii although that has been great but because I've found an entirely new joy then anything I've known before. So if you're as selfish and in need of comfort as I am please consider the teachings of Jesus as an alternative to whatever you're currently following. Consider partnering with me and others in a life spent pursuing heavenly treasure and true earthly pleasure. To borrow again from John Piper "The desire to be happy is a proper motive for every good deed, and if you abandon the pursuit of your own joy, you cannot love man or please God." In closing as me and my team prepare to spend the next 4 months in Cambodia and our time here comes to a close it isn't with fear or anxiety that we look out onto the mission field. We look to Cambodia and see Jesus there calling us saying come and draw near to me. I will give you water that if you drink of you'll never thirst again, my yoke is easy and my burden is light, he that would keep his life will lose it but he who loses his life for my sake will find it. I can't wait to spend time in Cambodia in all of it's craziness with Jesus again. We have such good times there. Pray I will be able to introduce many people to Him and that they'll find Jesus as wonderful even more wonderful then I do.
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AuthorMy name's Uriah Lyford and I'm a volunteer with YWAM. My dream is to see the spiritual solution of a restored relationship with God through Jesus be made available to every person on earth. I do this through the mentoring and training of young people to build and become the Church Jesus died for. Archives
June 2018
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