A couple weeks ago I reminded you that the Outpost is made up of people, that it’s not a program or a sermon or a pastor – its you (Christ in you). Here’s some “lift” for you if that left you feeling stalled and on the verge of a nervous breakdown: It’s always a team effort – you’re never alone. So important was this fact that it was the last thing Jesus made sure to remind us of before leaving earth… “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matt. 28:20). So what does this look like from day to day?
Paul Rader, second president of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, was on a world tour of the Alliance mission fields when he sat in on a breakfast devotional presented by famous missionary to China, William Christie. “Christie had read the passage in John 10 concerning Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Every time the Lord referred to Himself, Christie emphasized the pronoun: ‘I am the door…I am the Good Shepherd…I lay down my life for the sheep.’ When Christie came to verse sixteen he read, ‘Other sheep I have which are not of this fold…’ and he laid the Bible aside, looked around at the group and repeated with strong feeling, ‘…them also I must bring.’
“He paused, then quietly made a comment that burned into Rader’s soul: ‘Brethren, no man can be a missionary. Jesus is the only Missionary. He can bring them. He says He must bring them. If He is abiding in His fullness in me, then I am carrying about China the great, the only Missionary. Only as I carry Him in His fullness, is my life a missionary life’” (147 All For Jesus).
In all the talk about “attendance,” attending church is only half of the equation. The other half revolves around this question: Who are you attending to? Who are you allowing Jesus the Missionary to talk to, encourage, lend a hand to, cry with, pray for? What does this look like from day to day? It looks like you, carrying around Weaverville the great, the only Missionary, and being willing to hear and obey His still small voice as He challenges you to be His hands and feet.
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