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Information site on churches and mission, beliefs and practice associated with the Christian Brethren (CB) denomination in Western Australia
Working for God full-time is a noble and viable career option!
The harvest is ready, but the workers are few. The time is short.
Tracker launched 16th May 2012
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A missionary has the patience of a fisherman, the audacity of a tightrope
walker, the carefulness of a bookkeeper, the vision of a dreamer, the
strength of a builder, the intelligence of a teacher, the wit of a humorist,
the irresponsibility of a child, and when he/she attempts something, they
are all prayer.
They like letters from home, children, preaching, mission recruits,
returning from furlough, faith promise rallies, tracts, printing presses,
radio stations, translators, mission boxes, airplanes, villages, Bible
studies, cities, correspondence courses, and bookstores. He/she is not much
for high pressure promotion, red tape devaluation of the dollar, lukewarm
faith, hypocrisy and discrimination. Nobody else is so quick to care, and so
slow to give up. Nobody else gets so much fun out of crocodiles, boiled
rice, elephants, pet cobras, earthquakes, visas, monsoons, droughts, and
conversations.
A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ
just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of
people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service
for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the
inspiration out in front— to sweep everything together in front of us and make
it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the
inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be
true to Him— to carry out His plans. Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing
that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God’s
call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human
sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by
Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every
power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great
reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the
people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command
of Jesus Christ— "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations..." ( Matt 28:19 ).
Ministering as opportunity surrounds us does not mean selecting our
surroundings, it means being very selectedly God's in any haphazard
surroundings which He engineers for us. The characteristics we manifest in our
immediate surroundings are indications of what we will be like in other
surroundings. The things that Jesus did were of the most menial and commonplace
order, and this is an indication that it takes all God's power in me to do the
most commonplace things in His way. Can I use a towel as He did? Towels and
dishes and sandals, all the ordinary sordid things of our lives, reveal more
quickly than anything what we are made of. It takes God Almighty Incarnate in
us to do the meanest duty as it ought to be done.
"I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you."
Watch the kind of people God brings around you, and you will be humiliated to
find that this is His way of revealing to you the kind of person you have been
to Him. Now, He says, exhibit to that one exactly what I have shown to you.
"Oh," you say, "I will do all that when I get out into the foreign field." To
talk in this way is like trying to produce the munitions of war in the trenches
- you will be killed while you are doing it. We have to go the "second mile"
with God. Some of us get played out in the first ten yards, because God compels
us to go where we cannot see the way, and we say - "I will wait till I get
nearer the big crisis." If we do not do the running steadily in the little
ways, we shall do nothing in the crisis. "And now, says the Lord, that formed me from
the womb to be His servant." Isaiah 49:5
The first thing that happens after we have realized our election to God in
Christ Jesus is the destruction of our prejudices and our parochial notions and
our patriotisms; we are turned into servants of God's own purpose. The whole
human race was created to glorify God and enjoy Him for ever. Sin has switched
the human race on to another tack, but it has not altered God's purpose in the
tiniest degree; and when we are born again we are brought into the realization
of God's great purpose for the human race, viz., I am created for God, He made
me. This realization of the election of God is the most joyful realization on
earth, and we have to learn to rely on the tremendous creative purpose of God.
The first thing God will do with us is to "force through the channels of a
single heart" the interests of the whole world. The love of God, the very
nature of God, is introduced into us, and the nature of Almighty God is focused
in John 3:16 - "God so loved the world. . ."
We have to maintain our soul open to the fact of God's creative purpose, and
not muddle it with our own intentions. If we do, God will have to crush our
intentions on one side however much it may hurt. The purpose for which the
missionary is created is that he may be God's servant, one in whom God is
glorified. When once we realize that through the salvation of Jesus Christ we
are made perfectly fit for God, we shall understand why Jesus Christ is so
ruthless in His demands. He demands absolute rectitude from His servants,
because He has put into them the very nature of God.
Beware lest you forget God's purpose for your life. 
Of course, as in every battle, not everyone can be on the front lines, for
there are many things that are needed to aid those who are. But you must be
clearly called by the Lord to stay away from those front lines before you
can be assured that you are in the will of God. It is obviously true that
many Christians are called to reach out to the lost in the ghettos, red
light districts, and homosexual communities in their own areas. And there
are always those faithful wives and mothers who diligently let Christ be
known to their doctors, plumbers, and P.T.A. groups. These things bless
God's heart, there's no doubt about it. Someone who loves Jesus should
always be ministering His love no matter where they are. But every Christian
should always be willing, ready, and “on-call” to leave everything at the
command of their General, and go to a different “battlefield” to war against
the king of darkness, bringing healing and light to “free the captives.” 
Be Available - Abandon yourself to God
and to His call on your life. Tell Him you will go anywhere and do anything
that He shows you as His will for you. 
