Some Thoughts on Missions (Not From Me)

Here are two things worth your time and careful listening:

This first is a message by David Sitton from the 2006 Desiring God Pastor’s Conference entitled Missionary Martyrs: Fools for Jesus for the Nations.

The second is a panel discussion on missions with David Sitton, David Sills, and Jason Mandryk.

I highly recommend them.

Quotable

“Holiness is far more than an inclination toward occasional acts of kindness and charity. It is a commitment to persistent surrender before God …

Persistence doesn’t make sense unless we live with a keen sense of eternity. …

Christian endurance is based on the idea that there is another life, commonly known as heaven, which is eternal, and for which this life is preparation. The coming world is so glorious, weighted with so much honor, that it is worth making sacrifices now to receive glory and honor and immortality there.”

(Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage: What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy, culled from pp. 108-110)

Around the Horn

Early this week, but here goes:

Here’s a good article on short-term mission trips. It draws an interesting comparison, particularly concerning the exporting of American Christianity in English to places who have neither the language, the American Christian culture, nor the resources to sustain it. I, and many others, have been personally benefited by short-term missions, so they are not worthless. But they are dangerous in that they present a view of missions that isn’t realistic, and can put a tremendous burden on the missionary while not accomplishing much that is actually helpful to him.

Here’s a good article on The Profile of an Abuser. There are some interesting ironies for consideration here. It is often said that it is easy to miss an abuser because they look and acts just like everyone else. 

Here’s an interesting page with pictures of the libraries or studies of some famous people, like Churchill, William F. Buckley, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, and some others. As much as I would like to be like some of these people, I think I am most like William F. Buckley, at least in my office.

The home run this week is this article about Lou Zamperini and Peter Carroll. If you haven’t read Unbroken yet, you should. It will be well worth every minute it takes you, and you will find they go by quickly when reading Unbroken. It is the best WWII history book I have read, and one of the best books period in many ways. You will probably think the same after reading it.

If You Know Single People …

If you know any single people, then this is a good post with a series of links to be familiar with.

Most single people want to get married, and most probably need to give more thought than they do.

(As always, read with discernment. Remember that a link here does not mean that I endorse any of all of what the site might say elsewhere. I hate having to say that but this is not my first rodeo.)

In the News: Evangelism on the Head of a Pig

I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that taunting Muslims with the head of a pig probably isn’t the best way to open doors to the gospel.

I suppose you can call me a chicken or compromised or something, but it just doesn’t ring true to what I see in the Bible about how we should go about evangelizing.

Regardless of our strong commitment to the gospel, we must have some basic common sense when talking to people.

As has often been said, the gospel is offensive enough. Let’s not add to it by the way we present it. If someone is going to reject the gospel, let’s make sure it is the gospel, not us or our methods, that they reject.