Explore God's Heart For World MissionsExemplo

There are approximately 3.2 billion unreached people in the world today. This number does not indicate those who have access to the gospel but choose to reject it, but those who are untouched by the reach of the gospel message. Less than 1% of these people live in North and South America combined, so it seems fairly obvious that there is great need for Christians to go to places like the 10/40 Window. While we may not believe we are equipped for the task, the truth is that God can use any one of us, with whatever skills, talents, abilities, vocations, or personalities we bring to the table. A Cross-Cultural Goer is simply, “one who is laboring to reach people of a significantly different culture than their own with the truth of Jesus. Most often, this is on a foreign or distant ‘field.’”

We are quite quick to discount ourselves from the call to missions, saying that the Lord has not made it clear, or that we have not received the call. Additionally, we are eager to pursue the American Dream with little to no time spent pursuing God’s heart on the decisions of occupation or homestead, believing that this dream must be His dream for us, too. Robert Speer says, “If men are going to draw lines of division between different kinds of service, what preposterous reasons lead them to think that it requires less divine sanction for a man to spend his life easily among Christians than it requires for him to go out as a missionary to the heathen? If men are to have special calls for anything, they ought to have special calls to go about their own business, to have a nice time all their lives, to choose the soft places, to make money, and to gratify their own ambitions. There is a general obligation resting upon Christians to see that the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached to the world. You and I need no special call to apply that general call of God to our lives. We do need a special call to exempt us from its application to our lives. In other words, every one of us stands under the presumptive obligation to give his life to the world unless we have some special exemption.”

We have to ask ourselves, “do I really believe that my life is owned by a God who has a right to direct me and whose call I must await?” If the answer is yes, then the decisions of life must be made from His vantage point, not ours. While we will inevitably always seek our own pleasure and comfort, He will always seek the fulfillment of His word—that every tribe, tongue, and nation would know the hope of Christ. Robert Speer continues on to say, “Every one of us rests under a sort of general obligation to give life and time and possession to the evangelization of the souls everywhere that have never heard of Jesus Christ. And we are bound to go, unless we can offer some sure ground of exemption which we could with a clear conscience present to Jesus Christ and be sure of His approval upon it. We have taken our lives into our own hands and proposed to go our own way unless God compels us to go some other way. What I ask is that, until God reveals to us some special, individual path on either side, we should give our lives over into Jesus’ hands to go in that path which He has clearly marked out before His church.” 

These words are sobering, and yet they are met with the kind of grace that only God can give. His command to go comes with an invitation to join Him, and we do this by first simply confessing to Him daily that we will go anywhere, at any time, and do anything for Him, with a heart genuinely open to His leading. The first step could be going on a short-term trip within the next year, or finding someone who was or is currently a long-term cross-cultural goer, and asking to hear their story. You don’t need to sell all of your belongings tomorrow to go across the world; all He asks is for your heart to be open to knowing and walking in obedience to His. 

PEOPLE GROUP FOCUS: BUDDHIST

The Buddhist people live mostly in Southeast Asia, China, and Japan, and believe that suffering is caused by desire. They believe that to end suffering, they must rid themselves of desire through meditation and multiple reincarnations. The ultimate goal is to reach nirvana, where suffering ends and the self ceases to exist. The Bumthangpa people are a Buddhist people group living in Bhutan. Bhutan is a Buddhist Kingdom located in the Himalayan Mountains, and its name means, “Land of the Thunderdragon”. The Bhumthanpa people have been living in this region since before the 7th century, and their practices consist largely of subsistence farming (mostly rice and buckwheat) and animal husbandry. They have lived in almost the exact same way for more than 1,200 years. Their religious practices have also not changed. They practice a form of Buddhism that incorporates the worship of local deities, which requires daily incense burning to household local gods. Monks are the community leaders, and every aspect of a Bumthangpa person’s life is shaped by Buddhism. 

Most High God, reveal to the Bumthangpa people that the only way to deal with suffering is through the peace and life of Jesus Christ. Reveal Jesus to these people in powerful and life changing ways. Father, show these people that only You have the power to truly deliver them from evil spirits and purify them from their sins. Lord of the harvest, we ask You to empower and send out a new wave of laborers to the unreached and the hard places of the world, like Bhutan and the Bumthangpa people. Make us obedient to Your Word first and foremost in our lives, Lord. Open doors that only You can open, and close doors that only You can close. In Jesus Name, Amen!