What is the purpose of missions?
Like Piper says in Let the Nations be Glad, “Mission is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn’t.” We definitely get this foolish idea in our minds that we “need” to go and do cross cultural missions across seas for a pat on the back. It’s almost like what Buddhists do to earn good merit. We want people to look at us and see what a dedicated follower we are. We want God to look at us and say, “Good job.” So really, from what I described on Buddhism in my earlier blog, is what we are doing as foolish as what Buddhists do? Yes. We are. God doesn’t need us to do these things. Missions is not the goal of the church, worshiping God is. Worship is ultimate, not missions. God is ultimate, not man.
Where ever you are in your walk with Christ, where you are at is a spiritual war. Spiritual warfare is going on around us every day and everywhere. The enemy is always on the move and every second we must be on our guard. How we do this is to stay in constant communication with God, and that’s prayer. In Let the Nations be Glad, prayer is talked about as a war time walkie talkie with God. Which obviously makes a ton of since considering the fact that we are at war. The enemy tempts us with situations of fleshly desires. Physical times of war fare has plenty of examples on what we worry about, panic/alertness, tense, economy, family, time, unity, food consumption, religious, etc. These all go under spiritual warfare as well. Look at that least. So many times we worry about these things and how God is taking care of them. We can be so foolish on the things we worry about compared to God Himself.
1 Timothy 6:12 says, “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
Since my time in Bangkok so far, I’m trying my best to stay in constant communication with Christ. Even though that we are in such a dark place, God as already won the fight. There really is no fight when we think about it. There is no comparison between God and the enemy. God knocks in the enemy’s teeth every time. I am sometimes can be fearful, but God quickly reminds me of His power whenever I see a spirit house, because I then look around it to see His full creation which is Him. We have to talk in any kind of relationship that we have in life. Our relationship with God is the only one that matters, so communication with Him is a must. I really do have to stay in worship and prayer for my life to mean anything. God will speak.