Isobel Kuhn, a missionary to China and Thailand once said “I believe that in each generation God has called enough men and women to evangelize all the yet unreached tribes of the earth. It is not God who does not call. It is man who will not respond!”
The story of Jonah in the scriptures is very familiar to most people but it is his responses that is very intriguing. He is such a classic example. He was THEOLOGICALLY correct (that when the people of Nineveh received the preaching they would turn away from evil and God would forgive them) but was wrong in PRACTICE and RESPONSE to God’s purpose for Nineveh. Jonah had a callous heart/indifferent even waiting for God to destroy Nineveh for wickedness.
But wait a minute…before we say yeah, he was wrong! let’s consider what Pastor Jack Wellman says about Missions. He says “Missions is that something that only some people do, when their church sends them to another country to talk about Jesus? True, those people are missionaries – but so are those of us who stay at home! Your own country, your own neighborhood, sometimes your own family could be your mission field. Everywhere we go, we should be representing Jesus”. If that speaks volumes to us then maybe we need to relook at our PRACTICE and RESPONSE to missions because we are ALL missionaries wherever we are!!
Like Jonah we must guard against pride, prejudice and indifference as ‘missionaries’ and as people of God if the Gospel of Christ is to go to the ends of the earth…that includes our Jerusalem!
