The next two Sundays we will have a guest speaker as our mission team goes to Haiti. This week’s focus will be on mission and outreach, and there will be no 10/2 Grow next week. - Roger
Talking to other people who have been on mission trips, they all comment that the experience really has an impact on them. Most feel they have been changed. Even those of us who have only performed small endeavors of service – like assisting at a soup kitchen for a day – know the strange, new outlook we all have on our spiritual lives.
What advice and encouragement does Paul offer? What are we to do? Why?
It is so easy to become stagnant, to remain where we are, and to avoid doing extra work. Many face fears of what might be in store for them should they volunteer to help others. There may be real labor involved – hard work that will cause a sweat and aching joints.
Still others choose not to be bothered in helping others. They value so much their own time, their own pastimes and leisure, that they will not do anything to help others.
But we are called by God to spend time and effort in helping those less fortunate than ourselves. We are not expected to abandon our own lives to give ourselves wholly to others. But we should have sufficient love for others that we can take some part of our own lives and dedicate time and labor to helping.
As Paul says, our labor in the Lord is not in vain. The work we do in the name and for the sake of our God and for Jesus Christ is not pointless. It has value.
But more than having value in a spiritual sense, our missional and outreach efforts bring us something valuable. We are rewarded with the tremendous blessing in our souls of knowing we have done the Lord’s work.
The feeling a person gets when mission work is done is difficult to describe to others. But everyone I have ever met who has indeed done any type of mission or outreach work has experienced this indescribable feeling that is such a blessing to the one who serves.
DAILY CHALLENGE: Is there an outreach or mission project in which you may be involved?
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