Deuteronomy 6:6-7 “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”

Deuteronomy 6:20-23 “And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD our God hath commanded you? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand: And the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes: And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.”

One of the biggest responsibilities that we have in life is to pass the truth about God to the next generation.  Notice several things we learn from these verses about passing the baton of faith to the next generation:

1. The Word of God must be in our heart. Before they can teach their children, they had to have God’s Word in their heart.  The key to changing our children is changing us.  The key to reaching the next generation is being reached ourself.  The solution to seeing our the next generation being passionate about God is being passionate about God ourself. Before we can teach and train others, we must be who we ought to be.  We must get so in love with God that we talk about God all the time – when we sit in our house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up.  If we are consumed with God and His love, our children and those who come after us will be much more likely to catch it!
2. We must be committed to the transfer process. They were to be diligent in their efforts to teach their children.  Teaching and passing on the baton of faith is an intentional process.  Jesus chose those that would be with Him and those that He will invest His live in. The onus is upon the teacher, the mentor, the parent, and the leader to create and environment that they can pass on their life and love for the Lord to others.  Many things would crowd out this process, but we must be diligent in our efforts to teach them.
3. The way we live should prompt questions and interest in our children in the things and ways of God. In Deuteronomy 6:20-23, the son would ask his father why he was doing such things.  Then the father would answer about the goodness, greatness, and salvation of God.  Can our children and those who follow us see that we are fiercely love in with the Lord?  Is there blatant evidence of the work of God in our lives?  Are they curious about why we love the Lord so much?  Can they see us living out our faith?

Read more helpful articles at bcwe.org.

Go here to see the original:
Passing the Baton of Faith to the Next Generation

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Check out this incredible opportunity to serve as an intern at my home church:

Welcome to a description of the Vision Baptist Intern! Thank you for your interest in serving the Lord Jesus Christ through the ministry of Vision Baptist Church and the Our Generation Training Center. The Vision Baptist Internship provides an opportunity to experience day-to-day life in the Lord’s work while working on a variety of tasks and projects.

In addition to normal church and office duties, interns attend weekly lectures, volunteer at special events, participate in tours, and contribute to world evangelism projects. Vision Baptist Internships are unpaid positions and participants are responsible for arranging their own transportation and housing (you can get help in the church office).

We invite you to apply. Please read over the Intern Application and the Vision Baptist Ministry descriptions carefully. Ministry descriptions can help you determine your areas of interest and assist you in making an informed decision about which ministries might fit your qualifications. Interns will be selected based on their application and demonstrated interest in spiritual service.

Applicants must be:

At least 18 years of age on or before the first day of the internship
An intern maybe a recent graduate from high school, a college student between semesters, or a recent college graduate.

Completed application materials must be submitted to Trent Cornwell, Intern Coordinator in the offices of Vision Baptist Church, at trent@bcwe.org.

Upon acceptance, candidates must consent to a background check prior to their start date. All background checks are confidential and intended to protect the intern as well as the ministry of Vision Baptist Church.

Again, thank you for your interest in the Vision Baptist Internship Program. We look forward to hearing from you.

Vision Baptist Ministries

Audio Visual
Working with the computers, video, recordings, sound board and many other needs!

Businessmen Committed to World Evangelism
Opportunity to spend time with men and women that have committed their lives totally to the causes of Jesus Christ through the businesses that God has given them.

Community Outreach

Soul winning, bus visitation, phone evangelism, mail outs, etc.

Discipleship
Life on life sharing to develop another as strong as the discipler, follow up, leadership training, be.do.serve.train

Faith Friends
Children’s ministry reaching out to a multicultural community!

International Bible Outreach
A ministry that reaches out via a Sunday School Class, blogs, outreach to many different nationalities.

Internet Ministry
Web pages, blogs, email, and other ways used to get the message out and to reach new people with the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Ladies Ministries
Discipleship, preparation to be a pastor or missionary wife and serve where ever in the world, reaching out to the needy!

Master Clubs
Children’s ministry during the school year!

Music
Instruments, specials, choir, and every other way you can minister to the Lord and to others!

Mentoring
A different level of discipleship–much further than new converts, basic discipleship!

Mission Trips
The pastor and staff travel to different mission fields every year and you may be able to make a trip if you wish!

Our Generation Training Center
A school and training center preparing men and women to take the gospel to the world!

Pastoral Ministries
Get with the pastor and learn about everything from sermon preparation to any and all other parts of the ministry!

Preaching
Every student from the OGTC knows that they must teach or preach 100 times to graduate–ready!

Reformers Unanimous
A ministry of love to those that deal with addictions.

Secretarial Ministries
There is so much you can do to further the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ by helping the staff.

Spanish Ministry
An active vibrant ministry reaching out to the Spanish community under the leadership of a Peruvian Pastor!

Sunday School
From administration to teaching!

Teens
One of the most important areas of ministry in a church if it is done right to reach and teach the Word of God!

World Evangelism
Spend time with missionaries, the world evangelism committee, and learn how to be part of reaching the world in our generation!

Writing
There is much to be written each week that you could be used to accomplish!

Internship Application INSTRUCTIONS

1. Send a copy of your current resume
2. Three letters of recommendation
3. Send your application by email to trent@bcwe.org
4. If you have questions or problems with the application please contact Trent Cornwell via his email or by calling 770-456-5881.
5. The Vision Baptist Internship is a full time program
6. Have you served as an intern in another program or church prior to this application.
7. Please list three references. These may or may not be individuals who wrote your letters of recommendation.
8. Please list, in order of preference, the ministries that most interest you.
9. Narrative Question One: Why would you be a good representative of the Lord Jesus Christ and the ministry of Vision Baptist Church?
10. Narrative Question Two: What would you contribute to the Intern Program?
11. Narrative Question Three: Which ministry is most important to you? Why?
12. Narrative Question Four: What do you consider your most significant accomplishment? Why?
13. Narrative Question Five: What are your future ministry plans? What do you feel that God has called and gifted you to do?

See the rest here:
Church Planting Internship Opportunity in Atlanta

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There are only 10 days left to register for the Latin Bridge Retreat ’12!  Make your plans today to be a part of this event.

The sessions will focus on cross-cultural evangelism, the role of discipleship in leader training, and strategic church planting principles for the Latin American context.  All classes will be taught by experienced church planters.

We are so glad God has given us the opportunity to have two of the best keynote speakers you could imagine.  Be sure to register today!

Visit bcwe.org to learn more about Latin American missions

The rest is here:
10 days left to register

Continued here:
Latin Bridge (10 days left)

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There are only 10 days left to register for the Latin Bridge Retreat ’12!  Make your plans today to be a part of this event.

The sessions will focus on cross-cultural evangelism, the role of discipleship in leader training, and strategic church planting principles for the Latin American context.  All classes will be taught by experienced church planters.

We are so glad God has given us the opportunity to have two of the best keynote speakers you could imagine.  Be sure to register today!

Visit bcwe.org to learn more about Latin American missions

The rest is here:
10 days left to register

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By Charles H. Spurgeon

TWO learned doctors are angrily discussing the nature of food, and allowing their meal to lie untasted, while a simple countryman is eating as heartily as he can of that which is set before him. The religious world is full of quibblers, critics, and skeptics, who, like the doctors, fight over Christianity without profit either to themselves or others; those are far happier who imitate the farmer and feed upon the Word of God, which is the true food of the soul.

Luther’s prayer was, “From nice questions the Lord deliver us.” Questioning with honesty and candor is not to be condemned, when the object is to “prove all things, and hold fast that which is good;” but to treat revelation as if it were a football to be kicked from man to man is irreverence, if not worse. Seek the true faith, by all manner of means, but do not spend a whole life in finding it, lest you be like a workman who wastes the whole day in looking for his tools. Hear the true Word of God; lay hold upon it, and spend your days not in raising hard questions, but in feasting upon precious truth.

It is, no doubt, very important to settle the point of General or Particular Redemption; but for unconverted men, the chief matter is to look to the Redeemer on the cross with the eye of faith. Election is a doctrine about which there is much discussion, but he who has made his election sure, finds it a very sweet morsel. Final perseverance has been fought about in all time; but he who by grace continues to rest in Jesus to the end, knows the true enjoyment of it. Reader, argue, if you please, but remember that believing in the Lord Jesus gives infinitely more enjoyment than disputing can ever afford you. If you are unsaved, your only business is with the great command, “Believe!” and even if you have passed from death unto life, it is better to commune with Jesus than to discuss doubtful questions. When Melancthon’s mother asked him what she must believe amidst so many disputes, he, knowing her to be trusting to Jesus in a simple-hearted manner, replied, “Go on, mother, to believe and pray as you have done, and do not trouble yourself about controversy.” So say we to all troubled souls, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.”

Read more helpful material at bcwe.org.

Read the original here:
Feed on Truth; Don’t Fight About It!

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There is a text which says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved.” I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; is it irrational to believe that I am saved?

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,” saith Christ, in John’s Gospel. I believe on Christ; am I absurd in believing that I have eternal life?

I find the apostle Paul speaking by the Holy Ghost, and saying, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.”

If I know that my trust is fixed on Jesus only, and that I have faith in Him, were it not ten thousand times more absurd for me not to be at peace, than for me to be filled with joy unspeakable?

It is but taking God at His Word, when the soul knows, as a necessary consequence of its faith, that it is saved. I took Jesus as my Saviour, and I was saved; and I can tell the reason why I took Him for my Saviour.

To my own humiliation, I must confess that I did it because I could not help it; I was shut up to it. That stern law-work had hammered me into such a condition that, if there had been fifty other saviours, I could not have thought of them,—I was driven to this One.

I wanted a Divine Saviour, I wanted One who was made a curse for me, to expiate my guilt.

I wanted One who had died, for I deserved to die.

I wanted One who had risen again, who was able by His life to make me live.

I wanted the exact Saviour that stood before me in the Word, revealed to my heart; and I could not help having Him.

I could realize then the language of Rutherford when, being full of love to Christ, once upon a time, in the dungeon of Aberdeen, he said, “O my Lord, if there were a broad hell betwixt me and Thee, if I could not get at Thee except by wading through it, I would not think twice, but I would go through it all, if I might but embrace Thee, and call Thee mine!”

Oh, how I loved Him! Passing all loves except His own, was that love which I felt for Him then. If, beside the door of the place in which I met with Him, there had been a stake of blazing faggots, I would have stood upon them without chains, glad to give my flesh, and blood, and bones, to be ashes that should testify my love to Him.

Had He asked me then to give all my substance to the poor, I would have given all, and thought myself to be amazingly rich in having beggared myself for His name’s sake.

Had He commanded me then to preach in the midst of all His foes, I could have said,—

“There’s not a lamb in all Thy flock
I would disdain to feed,
There’s not a foe, before whose face
I’d fear Thy cause to plead.”

Spurgeon, C. H. (2009). C. H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography, Compiled from his diary, letters, and records, by his wife and his private secretary: Volume 1, 1834-1854 (111–112). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Check out bcwe.org

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The following material that is being quoted is taken from here! At the Our Generation Training Center we have all of our students spend 6 months living and studying overseas. I think that there is much to be gleaned from the following article!

The American bubble that is mentioned is a great danger. The spending so much on time communicating back to the states and home is also a great danger. I am afraid that this modern technology can make it harder to adapt to the new culture and your new home.

Educators are thrilled to see more American college students venturing abroad — perhaps 300,000 this year alone.

Now if they can just get them to venture out of the “American bubbles” that can make the streets of study-abroad hot-spots like London, Barcelona and Florence, Italy almost feel like exclaves of Tuscaloosa or Ann Arbor.

They’re trying.

After decades of laissez-faire and faith that just breathing the air in foreign lands broadens horizons, American colleges and international programs are pressing students harder to get out of their comfort zones.

It’s happening in popular destinations as well as more exotic spots in Asia and Africa, where there are fewer Americans, but language and culture barriers make them even more tempted to stick together.

And it’s happening online, where one study found Americans on study abroad spent more than four hours per night communicating back home via the likes of Skype, Google Chat and Facebook.

Their tools: less free time, mandatory local internships, signed promises students won’t speak English, and even “Amazing Race”-style solo scavenger hunts — like one where wide-eyed Nebraska students were dropped off their first morning in China in a distant corner of their new city with $5 and instructions to find their way back home alone.

“Unless something is set up that really forces them to get involved in that environment, they really don’t,” said William Finlay, a University of Georgia sociologist who became so frustrated with the bubble leading trips to Italy that he set up a new, intensive program that takes Georgia students to work in impoverished South African townships.

“We push them to do things that are uncomfortable,” Finlay said. “Sometimes they get overwhelmed.”

Once reserved for a wealthy and adventuresome elite, it’s now reaching a wider, more diverse population which often has less travel experience.

But also like higher ed, study abroad is getting more expensive, and facing pressure to demonstrate its educational worth.

That’s harder on the short-term and summer trips — less than a semester — that account for most of the growth, and at the “safer” destinations of Western Europe that remain the most popular.

The danger is that it’s become easier to head off on what’s supposed to be a voyage of discovery and fail to immerse oneself in the local culture.

“People want real outcomes, said Mark Lenhart, executive director of CET Academic Programs, which sends about 1,100 students per year from feeder colleges like Vanderbilt and Middlebury to programs in seven countries. “They want to come home with big improvements in their language and a really deep understanding of the place.”

That means giving at least some students a nudge, says Lenhart, whose programs make students live with local roommates.

On his own study abroad experience in China years ago, Lenhart remembers the Americans sticking together, fueling each other’s griping about the amenities. When they’re sharing a room with a local and can only speak in Mandarin, they think twice about going to the trouble to complain.

Historically, most study abroad has taken place in so-called “island” programs, where Americans live, study and often party together. U.S. colleges like keeping a close eye on the education side of the experience, particularly if they’re awarding course credit. Island programs, educators say, remain popular and valuable for many students — particularly those new to study abroad.

Marie Hankinson loved her semester in London, but admits parts of the experience didn’t feel all that different from being back on campus at Syracuse University. She lived with four Syracuse classmates, took classes with fellow Syracuse students in a Syracuse-owned building from Syracuse-affiliated faculty.

“Our social circle was pretty much other people in the program,” says Hankinson, who says she met a few Brits through the local university union but rarely hung out with them elsewhere. Still, she says her time abroad was a great introduction to international travel that will push her to visit more exotic destinations in the coming years.
“I wanted to go abroad, but I’ll be honest, I wanted to speak English as well,” she said.
Many students want something different.

With little knowledge of the country or Arabic, he took a full year away to study in a Moroccan university where he was the only American.

He was grateful his program didn’t mollycoddle him. Moroccans were welcoming and he resisted the temptation to hang out with his compatriots.

“I know Americans pretty well. I didn’t go there to learn about them,” he said.
Hug, who now works for a Chinese freight company, says his last two employers seemed especially interested in him because of the self-reliance he showed studying abroad.
For students who aren’t so driven, a creative push from an educator can help ensure they learn something about both themselves and their host country.

In China, students from Beloit College in Wisconsin are assigned to become a regular at some local spot, — a park, a restaurant, a corner shop — returning there repeatedly to get to know the neighborhood and people there.

University of Nebraska professor Patrice McMahon won’t go so far as her colleague who dropped students off on the far side of a city in China. But she does give ice-breaker assignments — getting their picture taken with a monk, or taking a note card with an unknown Chinese word around town until they can figure out from locals what it means.

“Our students are from small towns in Nebraska,” McMahon said. “They’re really nice kids. But they haven’t had a lot of opportunities to just figure things out.”

The people who run study-abroad programs say not every student responds. But most welcome the push. “I always ask them, ‘Did you make some friends (in the host country)?’” said Kelsi Cavazos, study abroad adviser at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Most have, “but they always say it was hard to break free of the Americans.” The technology bubble can both help and hurt. Fifteen years ago, study abroad programs misjudged cell phones as a danger, assuming students would use them to stay tethered home, says Mary Dwyer, CEO of IES, a nonprofit consortium that sends students abroad for 200 colleges.

In fact, cell phones have transformed study abroad by helping students meet and mix with locals. Technology’s also handy in emergencies, and using it to report back to friends and families can facilitate reflection— the modern-day travel diary. But technology can also be a crutch, and suck up valuable time.

A University of California-Santa Barbara researcher found one group of students averaging 4.5 hours per day online, and 83 percent of their contacts were with other Americans, either at home or in the country they were visiting. Other studies paint a somewhat less alarming picture.

Still, some educators are taking needles to the technology bubbles. One Australian program makes students leave their iPods and sometimes all electronic devices back home on field trips, to help them focus on their experiences.

Others — dumbfounded to see students busy posting pictures when they should be taking them — purposefully choose day-trip destinations where they know students won’t find Internet cafes.

“You could say there’s a spiritual shift,” said Sonja Bontrager, who leads her students from Carson University in Kansas on a semi-formal “technology fast” during the early stages of their travels in Guatemala.

She says the ritual bonds the group together and makes them pay more attention to their surroundings. She remembers the group huddled under shelter during a rainstorm at forestation project. Normally, students with time to kill would turn habitually to their smart phones.

Without that option, one noticed a column of unusual ants, and soon the whole group was on hands and knees examining the ground. “It just makes people more aware,” Bontrager said.
When the connection home is set aside, “it’s not that they’re just left with emptiness. It’s that other things can come in.”
In many cases, it isn’t the students who are to blame for the tether — it’s parents.
“I wish parents would say, ‘You’re going abroad for the semester, let’s not talk every day, let’s talk once a week,’” Lenhart said. “If they could cut those ties a bit, it would serve them well.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2011/09/25/overseas-studies-gets-students-out-their-american-bubbles/?test=faces#ixzz1Z4STTSdh

We are constantly looking to improve what we do in our overseas study at the Our Generation Training Center. We have been guilty of allowing too much “island or bubble” study. We also know that they have used technology as a way to hide out. But it has been helpful and many have returned to the field as missionaries over the years.

Check out bcwe.org

Originally posted here:
Overseas internship

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You need to read this entire article by clicking right here! I want to take some points from the article that I think will bless pastors and missionaries. I really enjoyed the article so I hope this only whets your appetite to read the article.

Never give up no matter how hard the task seems to get. You started out believing this was God’s will for your life so go for it. The old saying was don’t doubt in the night what God gave you in the light!

Keep a spirit of praise. Laugh in the middle of the crisis because you know that God is going to get your through. Do not let the obstacles win. See Jesus and the work that He is doing in and through you!

Spend and be spent for those that God blesses you with the privilege to lead. Do not fall into the trap of using men. Someone once said, use the work to build your people and never use your people to build the work!

Every lesson from this article is clearly an illustration of Biblical truth. Paul exhibited it in his life long before this article.

We are blessed to pastor, to lead men, to train people, to care for them. We must never forget the great blessing that we have been given. As we have gotten more and more successful we have wanted to turn it around and make the ministry about us and being served more than about them and serving Jesus and others.

Read the article. Compare it to how you lead your men and work your ministry. See if there is anything that you can learn and apply to your ministry!

Check out bcwe.org

Read the rest here:
Leadership Lessons

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Several have asked what the blessing service is, how we do one, and why . I wanted to take a few minutes of your time to try and answer that.

The reason we do a blessing service is that we want to honor God’s men and also because “you get what you honor!” You get what you expect, what you are looking for, what you honor! I firmly believe that, so at Vision we look for, honor, and expect missionaries/church planters!

The idea of the blessing service comes from the stories in the Old Testament when the man of God would lay hands on the young man and give him his blessing. It often happened just prior to death or when the ministry change was taking place.

The idea would be that our church would recognize publicly the ministry of a man and his family. We would just love on them profusely. I learned something very beautiful while living in Peru. Those days were very difficult financially for the Peruvian people.

I would get invited to a family birthday, anniversary, or something else very special. They might not have had something for a gift but they would have the person of honor sit in a special seat. Then everyone would share loving comments about the person to their face.

It was the kind of thing that you hear at the funeral. It is too late to say it then but many of us wait until that moment.

So when we have a blessing service we do the following things.

We try and sing a couple of songs and have a couple of special music pieces that are the favorite of the person being honored.

We write them letters or notes with encouraging words that will go in a memory box that they will be presented that evening. Vision gives them a sword that says either, Has your sword tasted blood? Or His hand clave to the sword, depending on if they are just now going out into the ministry or if they have already been in the ministry.

Pastor Trent Cornwell represents our church preaching something to challenge and motivate the family. Then I, also, as pastor preach to challenge and help them.

The main goal of the evening is to magnify Jesus while letting them know how much we love them.

We then will have a couple dozen testimonies from men and women to each of them telling how we love them and will be praying for them.

After all of that we have them sit in chairs on different sides of the auditorium and then the men gather around the men and the ladies around the lady and we lay our hands on them and pray.

It is a super sweet time. It is one of our most beautiful services. The people always tell me how much they love being there.

Of course we also take up a love offering to give them but that is the least important part of the night!

I hope you can institute something like this in your church. I hope you will look for, expect, and honor men of God in your church.

We desperately need more missionaries and church planters. Our churches need to be training the next generation and more leaders for the work.

Check out bcwe.org

Read more here:
The Blessing Service

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This is one of the strongest explanations of the need to get involved in World Evangelism that I have ever read. Read and enjoy!

by Robert E. Speer

source

What constitutes a missionary call? It is a good sign that men ask this question.

First, because it suggests that they think of the missionary enterprise as singularly related to the will of God.

Second, because it indicates that they believe their lives are owned by a Person who has a right to direct them and whose call they must await.

But when we have said these two things, I think we have said everything that can be said in favor of the question because, far too often, it is asked for thoroughly un-Christian reasons.

For instance, Christians will pursue a profession here in the United States having demanded far less positive assurance that this is God’s will than it is for them to go out into the mission field.

But by what right do they make such distinctions?

Christianity contends that the whole of life and all services are to be consecrated; no man should dare to do anything but the will of God. And before he adopts a course of action, a man should know nothing less nor more than that it is God’s will for him to pursue it.

If men are going to draw lines of division between different kinds of service, what preposterous reasoning leads them to think that it requires less divine sanction for a man to spend his life easily among Christians than it requires for him to go out as a missionary to the heathen? If men are to have special calls for anything, they ought to have special calls to go about their own business, to have a nice time all their lives, to choose the soft places, to make money, and to gratify their own ambitions.

How can any honest Christian say he must have a special call not to do that sort of thing? How can he say that, unless he gets some specific call of God to preach the Gospel to the heathen, he has a perfect right to spend his life lining his pockets with money? Is it not absurd to suggest that a special call is necessary to become a missionary, but no call is required to gratify his own will or personal ambitions?

There is a general obligation resting upon Christians to see that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached to the world. You and I need no special call to apply that general call of God to our lives. We do need a special call to exempt us from its application to our lives. In other words, every one of us stands under a presumptive obligation to give his life to the world unless we have some special exemption.

This whole business of asking for special calls to missionary work does violence to the Bible. There is the command, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” We say, “That means other people.” There is the promise, “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” We say, “That means me.”

We must have a special divine indication that we fall under the command; we do not ask any special divine indication that we fall under the blessing. By what right do we draw this line of distinction between the obligations of Christianity and its privileges? By what right to we accept the privileges as applying to every Christian and relegate its obligations to the conscience of the few?

It does violence to the ordinary canons of common sense and honest judgment. We do not think of ordering other areas of our lives on this basis. I think ex-president Patton of Princeton was representing the situation accurately when he used the following illustration. He said, “Imagine I was employed by the owner of a vineyard to gather grapes in his vineyard. The general instructions were that as many grapes as possible should be gathered. I went down to the gate of the vineyard and found the area around the walls well plucked and the ground covered with pickers. Yet away off in the distance no pickers at all are in sight and the vines are loaded to the ground. Would I need a special visit and order from the owner of the vineyard to instruct me as to my duty?”

If I were standing by the bank of a stream, and some little children were drowning, I would not need any officer of the law to come along and serve on me some legal paper commanding me under such and such a penalty to rescue those children. I should despise myself if I should stand there with the possibility of saving those little lives, waiting until, by some legal proceeding, I was personally designated to rescue them!

Why do we apply, in a matter of infinitely more consequence, principles that we would loathe and abhor if anybody should suggest that we should apply them in the practical affairs of our daily life? Listen for a moment to the wail of the hungry world. Feel for one hour its sufferings. Sympathize for one moment with its woes. And then regard it just as you would regard human want in your neighbor, or the want that you meet as you pass down the street, or anywhere in life.

There is something wonderfully misleading, full of hallucination and delusion in this business of missionary calls. With many of us it is not a missionary call at all that we are looking for; it is a shove. There are a great many of us who would never hear a call if it came. Somebody must come and coerce us before we will go into missionary work.

Every one of us rests under a sort of general obligation to give life and time and possession to the evangelization of the souls everywhere that have never heard of Jesus Christ. And we are bound to go, unless we can offer some sure ground of exemption which we could with a clear conscience present to Jesus Christ and be sure of His approval upon it.

“Well,” you ask, “do you mean, then, that I should take my life in my own hands?” No! That is precisely what I am protesting against! That is exactly what we have done. We have taken our lives in our own hands and proposed to go our own way unless God compels us to go some other way. What I ask is that, until God reveals to us some special, individual path on either side, we should give our lives over into Jesus’ hands to go in that path which He has clearly marked out before His church.

I want to say one last thing.

I think love will hear calls where the loveless heart will not know that they are sounding. If there were a hundred little children crying, a mother would be able to pick out the voices of her own – especially if they were voices of pain and suffering.

There is a mighty keenness in the ears of love, and I wonder, after all, whether that may not explain a great deal that one is perplexed over in this matter of a special missionary call. Is it possible that, in many cases, it is just a matter of a callused heart, a reluctant will, or a sealed mind?

God so loved the world that He gave. It was need in the world plus love in God that constituted a call for Jesus. Do we need more than what sufficed for Him? If they were our own, would we hesitate and hold back?

Let us lay aside all double-dealing, all moral subterfuge, all those shuffling evasions by which the Devil is attempting to persuade us to escape from our duty, and let us get up like men and look at it and do it.

Students are old enough to decide to do their duty. They are old enough to decide to go to college. They are old enough to decide for law and medicine and other professions. They are old enough, too, to decide this question. God forbid that we should try to hide from solemn consideration of our vital duty behind any kind of pretext.

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Read the original here:
A Missionary Call

Related posts:

1. The Call by Jesse Penn Lewis
2. The Missionary and the Mentor
3. What about the Call?