Stay On Mission 11th June 2018

1. At your convenience?
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:2
A few years ago, I was speaking at a conference at the Lifeway retreat center ‘Ridgecrest’ in North Carolina. During one session I raised the question ‘what are some of the things that prevent us from sharing the message of God’s love with sinners?’ In an open question time at the end of this session a lady asked if she could say what she thought the problem was. I said ‘of course’.
She then explained that reaching people who know little about Jesus and who live lives that are very different from what God intends takes a lot of time and energy. She continued to say that if we are to reach the kind of people that Jesus reached then we must invest in their lives and this will cost us something. It may cost us time, energy, and mean that we can’t do some of the things that we would like to because we are focusing on the needs of these people rather than on our own. She finished by saying “we don’t reach out to these people because it gets in the way of our lives – it is just not convenient!”
I remember that when she said these words there were lots of nodding heads across the group of people that were gathered in the auditorium. In one-on-one conversations with many people following the session people spoke to me about their take on what she had said and most agreed with her and added things like: “I know that if I take time to get to know a person who needs Jesus it will take a lot more time to try to lead them to faith – I don’t have that time”, and “I’ve got so much going on in my life already, I just couldn’t cope with adding another thing to do”.
I am not sure if you can hear yourself in any of these comments that were made? If you can then there is a challenge that it is important to consider. When Jesus called us to follow Him and go and ‘make disciples’ He made it quite clear that joining Him in His Mission would never be accomplished ‘at our convenience’. His words were, as always, an expression of His actions and he certainly did not do what was required to save us from our sins ‘at His convenience’ it cost Him His life!
I encourage you, this week, to spend some time with the Lord and be honest with him about what it is that you are ‘investing in’ with your time and energy. Ask Him to fill you with His passion so that you will begin to invest in what matters to Him!