Thursday, March 20, 2014

Mission means radical risk

“You know that from day one of my arrival in Asia I was with you totally—laying my life on the line, serving the Master no matter what, putting up with no end of scheming by Jews who wanted to do me in.....there is another urgency before me now. I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I’m completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. I do know that it won’t be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God. - Acts 20:17-24

The message of radical risk and sacrifice seems to be some what missing in the UK church. We are obsessed with success rather than sacrifice, power over servanthood. If things are not going well for you then somehow you are doing something wrong, out of God’s will or a failure.

Paul had previously spent time in Ephesus and while there wrote to the church at Corinth describing his time:

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. -2 Cor 1:8-10

I'm 51 now. I left Bible College 30 years ago starry eyed and ready to take the world for Jesus. I set off to plant a church sent out from MKCC and failed miserably. In the 30 years since what I do know is that I've learned far more in the defeats and difficult times than I have in the easy and successful times.

Radical risk forces us to rely on God and that’s a good place to be. It's easy to serve god when everything is rosy, when the crowd is growing, people are being saved, baptisms are abounding & offerings are up, but its also easy to trust in yourself during that time.

Radical risk with radical sacrifice can often put us in a place where everything can be lost even life its self. At that point we have no other option but to rely on God but that is always the best option we have.

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