A Single Candle {Speech on Missions}

Hi friends, this is a speech that I used in the NCFCA (National Christian Forensics Communications Association) this past year. I wanted to post it because I never want to forget the Great Commission, and I thought the more I did to remind myself of it, the harder it would be to forget! I hope it inspires or at least encourages you to keep spreading the gospel and supporting those who do full-time!

Baron Van Welz was a German nobleman; he was privileged and wealthy. Yet when he died, he was little known; little cared for; and filled a mere humble grave in Dutch Guinea. How could this happen to someone of such great wealth, titles, and influence? The Baron deeply wanted people to go to the mission field, yet many of his contemporaries preached that missions should be local rather then international and even taught that it was wrong to bring heathens the gospel. Because he saw the need for missionaries when many other Christians and theologians of his day did not, he renounced his title, land, and money so that he might serve God in Dutch Guinea. He said these words, “What to me is the title 'well-born,' when I am born again in Christ? What to me is the title 'lord,' when I desire to be a servant of Christ? What to me to be called 'your grace,' when I have need of God's grace and help? All these vanities I will away with, and everything besides I will lay at the feet of Jesus, my dearest Lord, that I may have no hindrance in serving him aright.” (Welz)

According to the article “A Signal of Need” by Michael Bronson, about 149,000 people who have never asked for Christ’s forgiveness will die today. (Bronson) God has called us to reach these lost people for His glory; yet all too often we allow trivial things to become hindrances from serving Him. Sometimes I wonder if we allow security and wealth to become poor substitutes for the joy of serving Christ. However, as Baron Van Welz realized, there is no title, nor riches, nor comfort that could ever compare to the precious treasure that comes from serving Christ. Today, I would like to talk about the command to be mission minded, the cry for missionaries, and the call that every Christian has toward missions.

The first reason that we should be concerned with missions is because God has commanded us to be. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus says, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (NIV, Matthew 28:19) Though this verse is well known, most Christians fail to live it out to the radical and life changing extent that Jesus intended it for. Here, Jesus commands all His followers to go and tell others how wonderful it is to be His disciple! But why does God command us to spread the gospel to the rest of the world? I believe God places Christians willing to follow Him on the mission field for two main reasons: to save the lost, and to glorify Him. First, God has called people to the mission field for the unsaved. John Keith Falconer said, “I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light.” (Falconer) You and I, too, have only one candle to burn. Our whole lives will be lived for a purpose. What do you want that purpose to be? Do you want to use your life to show a dying people the gospel? That is one purpose of missions. Another reason for missions is for the glory of God. Because ultimately, missions is about showing people God’s grace so that they will praise God; we should show others the gospel because God so deserves to hear praises from every person that He created in His image. That is why God has commanded missions.

The second reason we should be concerned with missions is because there are millions who are crying for the gospel and perishing without ever having heard it. In fact, according to the Orthodox Christian Mission Center, “It is estimated that 28% of the world’s population has still not heard the Gospel in a way that they can respond to it affirmatively or negatively. In other words, over 1.8 billion people today have not been presented with the Gospel message.” (Orthodox Christian Mission Center) That cry is painful, isn’t it? That cry that takes place every single second from someone who is dying without the love of Christ? That cry that we as Christians just don’t hear because we just don’t care enough. Most of the time we just don’t think about the global spread of the gospel. We’re so concerned with living our own lives here and now that we don’t think about how Christ will be spread among the nations. About six months ago, my family and I returned from Nagoya, Japan after living there for almost a year. We attended an international church. Our pastor there, Michael Oh, missionary and President of the Christ Bible Seminary, said these words that changed how I thought of missions: “Think about it – you could JUST AS EASILY have been born in the slums of New Delhi or as the son of a Shinto priest. If you had, knowing what you know today, would you not have wanted someone to cross oceans, lands, and cultures to bring YOU the Gospel?” (Oh) All too often, people who have never heard the gospel become just a statistic to those of us who have. We forget that they are real people who are crying for the gospel, and we forget to care. About a year and a half ago, my parents and I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Haiti. We stayed at God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage, a Christian orphanage that cares for about 170 children. The children there are hungry for attention. Several of them have AIDS or other diseases. While at the orphanage one day, we were upstairs with one of the young American missionaries, and the toilets began to overflow because of a plumbing problem. We were standing there in sewage water when she turned to us and said, “Even after living at the orphanage for six years, I still wake up every morning thinking what a blessing it is that I can be here.” At first, I actually couldn’t believe it when she said that. I mean, I could see realizing that God wanted her there. But she said that she was in awe of the fact that God had allowed her to go to Haiti, the filthiest and dirtiest place I’ve ever seen. How could she say that? I believe it’s because she had her eyes so fixed on Jesus that His love for the children became her love for those children. She had heard the cry of children who needed to hear about God’s love; and she chose to respond to that cry even if it meant giving up earthly comfort and treasures. She knew God had called her to Haiti and she responded to that call willingly. And that leads us to my final point today—the call to missions.

There’s a story of a young girl who shamelessly told her Aunt one day, “I don’t have much interest in missions at all!” Her patient Aunt replied, “No, dear, you can hardly expect to. It is just like getting interest at the bank. You have to put in a little something first before you get any interest. So it is with missions, the more you put into it of your time, or money, or prayer, the more your interest grows. But something you must put in-- or you will never have any interest.” (Elbourne)
If you don’t have any interest in missions, it may be because you haven’t given enough towards it to receive interest, and right now I would like to discuss with you the call that every Christian has towards missions, towards prayer, and towards giving. First of all, I’d like to ask you a question: if God so called you, would you give up everything here in America to be a missionary where few know the true Savior? Another call we have is the wonderful privilege of praying for foreign missions. Please pray every day for missionaries that you know, and for the spread of the gospel all over the world. Praying for foreign missions helps align our hearts with what God wants for missions—the more we pray for missions, the more our hearts desire to spread the gospel the way God’s heart does. Finally, every Christian is called to give to missions. Let us be like the widow in Mark 12:42, who gave her only two copper coins. The point was not how much she gave, but that everything she had she was willing to give up for the Lord. He didn’t need her gifts, and likewise, doesn’t need our gifts. He allows us to give so we can step out in faith and sacrifice. When we give to the point of sacrifice, that’s when we can say, “As much as I want this, it absolutely pales in comparison to how much I love you, Lord.” I would encourage you to give to the point of sacrifice—just like the widow.

Baron Van Welz made a decision that would be considered by many a foolish one. He chose to abandon his wealth, titles, and success to bring the gospel to heathens. Yet he showed no sorrow in doing that—rather, he was joyful that he had rid himself of those “hindrances” from serving Christ. Comfort and security in America are such alluring things. It is so easy to be distracted by them. But as Baron Van Welz realized, the sacrifice of them is so worth it. By all means, I would ask you to pray and give toward missions. But would you also pray and ask the LORD if He is asking you to go? We all have only one candle of life to burn. Would you rather burn your candle in a land already filled with light or a land that is flooded with darkness?

Something Significant

This weekend was amazing. We had a missionary conference at our church, East Cooper Baptist Church, and it was amazing.

During this conference I had the privilege of helping in the children's ministry program where kids ages Kindergarten to 5th grade learned about missions in Thailand. It was a huge blessing to me for a number of reasons, but one in particular. Saturday morning, the second day of the festival, all of us workers for the children's ministry showed up outside the sanctuary. There weren't very many of us; 10 adults or so and a handful of teenagers. I felt minorly excited, but mostly just underwhelmed. For those of you who have seen me on a Backyard VBS high-- trust me, it was nothing like that. During that time I'm enthusiastic, excited, and passionate and ready to tell the children about God. But on Saturday I felt just... normal. I was happy to help out, but that was about it. The night before had been fun, but different than I had expeceted. I guess I felt as if my being there was pointless.

Then Pastor Steve, the children's pastor, said something that shook me. He thanked us all for helping and then remarked about a little girl who had asked him a question; not about Thailand, but about China. She said that she had heard that people in China could only have one child, and she was curious what would happen to the other children. He didn't say how they had answered, but he did say that this little girl was really concerned about that. Who knows how God will use that. He continued on, saying that some of these children may really be impacted by this weekend. Maybe through a craft a child really liked, or through the testimonies, or anything. And maybe the impact might be significant enough to change their lives. And maybe their changed lives will result in the changing of other lives.

That really stuck with me. Later in the day, we were reading 1 Corinthians 15:58, "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

Don't you love it when God just hits you right in the face with something you needed to hear? No one else would know that's how I was feeling. I didn't tell anyone that I felt useless. But God knew. And so, just at the right time, He told me that my labor in Him is not in vain. NOTHING! Nothing I do for Him in vain. It doesn't say 'only the really big things' it says 'your labor in the Lord is not in vain'! Jesus also said, "And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."

Even the littlest, day to day things, if done in Christ's name, are not done in vain. I think there's something really significant about that. I think it's significant enough that it should change how I live my day-to-day life. Do I seek to do even the smallest tasks for God's glory? Do I desire to point to God's grace when I wash the dishes, do my Chemistry homework, play with my younger siblings, and make lunch? It's one thing to say I'm a Christian. But do I shine with the radiance of Christ, first for Him, and only because of Him-- no matter how small or menial the task before me seems?

You will never know the impact that you will have on someone's life unless you let Christ rule your life.

And I think that's pretty significant.

Have You?

Have you read this? Do you know what's happening in North Korea?

Would you be willing to go back if you were her? Would you risk everything you had left-- when you had already lost so much-- to gain something for eternity?

Have you read this? Have you?

If not, do. You will be blessed. http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/weeping-for-north-korea

On the balcony in Haiti!

So the story behind this picture... the Infimel vitamin company donated vitamins to us to give to GLA, so we were taking pictures of the kids with them. I love this one cause it looks like they're all under interrogation!

This little one is so skinny-- I'm sure you can see from the picture, but his legs were also very thin! He was adorable and had the cutest personality!

Sitting in the Bumbo seat

She was ticklish!

Oh, she was such a sweetheart.

Tricked into Giving Bibles away

“One day the teacher told us that we would play a special game. She whispered to us about a special book that our parents may have hidden in our homes. We were to wait until our parents went to sleep, search for this book, and secretly bring it to school the following day for a special surprise. I went home and immediately began searching for the book.
“The next day I was one of fourteen children who brought the black book, a Bible, to class. We were awarded bright red scarves, and the other students clapped as the teacher paraded us around the room.
“I ran home that afternoon because I was so excited to tell my mother how I had won the red scarf. She wasn’t in the house or the barn. I waited, but neither she nor my father came home, and I began to get scared. I was hungry and it was becoming dark. I began to feel sick inside, and I fell asleep in a chair.
“The next day police officers came and informed me that I was now in the care of the government. I never saw my parents again.”
An elderly woman from North Korea relayed this story. She never heard from her parents and is still struggling to find forgiveness. She is only one of many who have gone through such trials.



Let us be in prayer for the people like this lady in North Korea. It's so easy to fall into the trap of just believing that these people are just names or figures. It's easier still just not to think about it. Not to think about the pain and suffering that goes on around the world; not to think about how those who try to preserve the faith are brutally and heartlessly murdered and imprisoned around the world. It's easy to try to ignore it, or push away thoughts of it that arise in our minds.
But the people of North Korea who are suffering right now under the iron fist of a Communist dictator are real people. They are real people who are being deprived of the gospel. And they are real people who need the Lord. Because the heart of the problem lies in their need for a Savior. North Korea has robbed so many people of their Bibles, like in this story; they have done so much to deter the spread of the gospel. Yet the people still need the Lord. Still, even though darkness has filled North Korea like a plague, still, the people are hungry for the Lord. Still.

And they will continue to need the Lord. Forever.
Tomorrow, they will still need the Lord.

Still.

Forever they will need the Lord.

Still.

These people-- real people-- need the Lord. So please, join me in prayer for them. Pray continuously for the people of North Korea who are persecuted and not allowed to read the Bible. Pray that God would work a miracle so that they can know Him personally and experience His love. Pray, pray, pray. I challenge you to pray for them constantly. Do something that will remind you of them often, and pray whenever you're reminded. Pray with me for these people. Ask others to pray. These people need the Lord.

Still.