Tag: Missions

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The Mission offering.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

But before I come, I must go to Jerusalem to take a gift to the believers there. For you see, the believers in Macedonia and Achaia have eagerly taken up an offering for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem. They were glad to do this because they feel they owe a real debt to them. Since the Gentiles received the spiritual blessings of the Good News from the believers in Jerusalem, they feel the least they can do in return is to help them financially. ‭‭Romans‬ ‭15‬:‭25‬-‭27‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Follow the money! Paul mentions this collection of free-will offerings among the churches he started. Here in Romans, he mentions that he will be able to visit Rome and connect with the churches and believers.

Jerusalem was in horrible turmoil because of mass persecution and riots targeting Christians. As the hub of both Judaism and Christianity, it left many poor and hungry. The “mission” here was to encourage churches all over the Roman empire to give as they can to provide money for believers basic needs, namely food.

Paul has been bold in asking, and he has a real gift of encouraging people to be generous. Just the fact that he mentions these areas of Macedonia (modern-day Greece) and Achaia (southern Greece), is a way to let the believers in Rome know that some of the poorest of communities and also under persecution from their Jewish brothers, are already deeply committed to giving and have already sent their money in for the cause. This “leveraged” giving was also used to encourage believers in Corinth, a quiet wealthy city. Paul, himself a missionary, would not take money for his work, because he chose to make and repair tents to earn his personal and travel expenses. Paul did not want anyone to compare him to the common “itinerate” preachers “fleecing the flock,” just to make money.

One of the jobs of trusted, early church deacons, was to carry cash to Jerusalem. Giving is one of the greatest themes of the New Testament churches. Remember in Acts 2, the proof of the Holy Spirit moving in a church community was giving – ”And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.” They also “shared their meals with great joy and generosity” (Acts ‭2‬:‭44‬-‭46). This was the pattern that permeated the church and set a high bar of generosity for believers everywhere.

Still today, churches that are healthy and growing are generous in local causes, feeding the poor and helping the needy as well as distributing money for the gospel to be preached in all nations. And, also today, when there is an overwhelming need, either in the United States or anywhere in the world, churches come together to extravagantly give to support that cause. This is the ethos of true Christianity! We freely give because God has freely given to us. We can thank the Apostle Paul for this challenge and model of generosity.

Prayer

​Dad.
What a wonderful lesson on being generous. I believe in extravagant, radical giving because you did so for us! As you know, I did not learn this until I was in my forties, but have continued to exceed our giving each year since. I am grateful for mature believers as well as thriving churches who are generous. Thank for the encouragement and the challenge to not be able to out-give you!

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What is it about the Seven churches in Revelation?

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Smyrna. This is the message from the one who is the First and the Last, who was dead but is now alive: “I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich! I know the blasphemy of those opposing you. They say they are Jews, but they are not, because their synagogue belongs to Satan.” Revelation‬ ‭2:8-9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​I don’t spend a lot of time in the book of Revelation. A book of endings. John, the revelator, is writing what he sees and it is filled with mystery, and God summarizing the finality of the story that began in Genesis and now has its apocalyptic conclusions here. John also gives us the letters to the churches, kind of an update on how they are doing and how the gospel either continues to thrive through the people or how it suffers because of sin, error or distractions. John says these letters are from Christ himself who brings praise, correction or judgment to the church’s behavior. There are seven churches listed. Each one, similar has an understanding from God about the struggles they face and most have a complaint or an admonition as well.

The church of Smyrna only has encouragement and a warning of severe suffering ahead. They were already suffering and poor, John notes, but more will be coming. Their enemies are strong and powerful, but God is with them. I find it interesting that these are individual churches in real cities at the time of John’s writing. These are not seven denominations because they all believe in the same thing. At this time there is no mention of differences in doctrine, polity or practics, they are all ONE church under Jesus. I think each church was too busy struggling for their life, or their sin to be splitting hairs over styles of worship (hymns, choruses, sitting or hands raised), sermons (exegetical, verse by verse, practical, or series), or even church management (elder led, pastor led, congregational, or committee). They were just living or not living the gospel and doing the best they could.

Did you know that some New Testament cities still have a “church” in them? Granted, most are just buildings and do not have a gospel witness through a group of people. Some of the buildings are now tourist attractions only. Some of the cities mentioned have no churches, building or otherwise in them. Take Ephesus for example, they have a lot of monuments and ancient ruins, but no thriving gospel witness in town at all.

The gospel itself is still going out to ALL the world and there are some places that it has not been able to go, thus no church presence has been formed. Much of the emphasis of missions continues to take the message of faith, of grace to these areas where the name of Jesus has not been heard. In the nineties, the church focused on the “10/40” window, highlighting the geographic equator lines where it has been difficult to share the message of Christ. The 10/40 window also refers to the “poorest of the poor” in our world. In the past ten years, there have been so many internal, political struggles within those areas, namely wars and genocides, that refugees have fled their own countries and migrated all over the world. These have been extraordinary opportunities for the them to hear the gospel message. Even in the darkest of political climates and radical religious oppression, God has been speaking to thousands through dreams. Through these powerful dreams, God has put a yearning, a curiosity in the hearts of men and women to find this Jesus that appears to them while they are sleeping. In these last days, we may have difficulty getting the gospel into a nation, but God is supernaturally bringing them out. Some of them may even be your neighbors! You might find yourself being a missionary on your own block!

PRAYER:

Dad,
I am so grateful you found me! I am so grateful for THE Church. I am so grateful for my local church as well. The body of Christ coming together to worship, pray and hear your Word. It is both encouraging and challenging these days because of another round of “falling way.” However, your Church will go on and your gospel will go out because you love us and have made a way for anyone who believes!