Why Study Mission? pt 3, Reason 1

Reason #1:

I don't know how many people I have messed up because of how messy I may or may not have been in sharing the gospel.  I believe the gospel is too precious to be handled in a callous or cavalier way.  I study missiology because I want to understand how to help people, who are different from me, who think differently from me, whose worldview or perspective on life is so alien to mine that everything about me is entirely and totally unfamiliar to them, and use their God-given power to choose God.  God has entrusted me with one job, and I must be careful how I handle it.  I don't want to mishandle or break God's message, and I don't want to abuse God's children and break their desire to turn to God because I didn't understand how to point them to the Creator.  I need to know how best to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ so that it is meaningful to someone entirely different from me.  I know it is the Holy Spirit that brings conviction, but God has trusted me with a job, and I want to please Him because I love Him, and I want to make Him proud of Me and hear Him tell me, "Well done, Chalvar, well done!"

But here is the caveat.  It was necessary for God to restore our power of choice because God chose not to force His Divine will on us since that is not His nature.  You see, once I discovered that my son had broken the plate, I didn't give him any opportunity to redeem himself.  I took that choice from him by not allowing him to wash dishes again.  He can never break a dish that he hasn't been allowed to wash.  I took away my son's freedom because I don't trust him.  If God declared us saved and effected that change by restoring us and initiating this process in our present fallen condition, he would be doing so without our consent.  That is essentially slavery, forced compliance.  We cannot be restored unless we choose to be restored.


Please post a comment and let me know what you think.  I look forward to your questions and responses.  God bless you and Happy Sabbath when it comes.

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