I was just a school boy when the movie A Space Odyssey first came out. Back then, it seemed that 2001 was an impossible date in the future. Now it is already history, but most of the imagery in the movie is still futuristic. However, the idea of being on an odyssey is...
“Passion” -- the very word somehow stirs our inner emotions and arouses something inside us. It is amazing at how often we run across the term “passion” in our daily reading. It appears almost every day in various contexts concerning sports, politics, and regular news...
One of the most troubling verses in the Bible to me is Jeremiah 8:20, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Possibly the next most unsettling verse is Joel 1:11, “Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and...
In Galatians 6:9, we are admonished, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” If we are going to enjoy a harvest, we have to have strength and stamina to make it all the way to, and then through, the harvest season. We...
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the...
Those who have a passion for harvest will think about and prepare for the harvest throughout the year, not just in the few days that the harvest is actually being gathered in. They will follow the commandment that Jesus verbalized in the parable of the pounds,...
In the book of Ruth, we read a very moving story of the love of a young lady toward her mother-in-law and the sub-plotted love story of the young maiden and the man who becomes her provider, protector, and husband. Within this love story is a lesson on the power of...
The theme of the Holy Spirit keeps coming up time and again as we look at the history of missions. In the book of Acts, each expansion of the church was accompanied with a fresh move of the Holy Spirit. As we look through the centuries, we see people like St....
Many Christians considering full-time mission work or even a short-term mission trip are more fearful of support raising than facing the hardships we have discussed in previous sections or of being martyred on the field. One of the fundamental root causes of this lack...
When Jehovah wanted to demonstrate His glory to Moses, He took him to the top of Mount Sinai. When He wanted to give Moses a panorama of the Promised Land and all the blessings that lay head for the children of Israel, He took him to the top of Nebo. When God wanted...
The first thing to do in seeing how you might fit into the over-all scheme of fulfilling the mission mandate is to take a short-term mission trip. It should not be too difficult to find a group from a local church that is headed to some part of the world for a...
The church has made great strides in presenting the message to every creature as Jesus commanded us in Mark 16:15. Statistically, the church has been growing phenomenally. In the year AD 100, there was one believer for every three hundred sixty unbelievers. By the...
It has been said that the only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn anything from history. A follow-up statement to that is that history does repeat itself -- and that is because we weren’t listening the first time! If we look back through the history...
By analyzing the record of the people present on that momentous day of the church’s birth, we can see that the Church Age was initiated with witness to all three sons of Noah -- Ham of Africa, Shem of Asia, and Japheth of Europe. The areas represented at Pentecost...
Almost without fail, when we talk about missions we want to begin with the Great Commission; however, the truth is that this little talk that Jesus had with His disciples is more closely the last word on missions rather than the first. Let’s take a little journey...
Teach All Nations -- A Case Study I guess we’ve all received them in the mail at one time or another -- return address labels sent out by not-for-profit organizations as gifts to acknowledge your support of their work. I always appreciate getting them, even when they...