Missions & More

Slothfulness (i.e., laziness) is a key reason for many of the failures in missions. It takes effort to do the work of missions. A missionary who does not commit himself to diligence in making the necessary phone calls, will find it difficult to raise the needed support. A missionary must be willing to commit himself to days of drudgery in making the calls, packing the car, driving the miles, and repeating the vision. However, this hard work will produce the desired fruit of raising support and getting to the field in a timely manner.

Likewise, the sending and supporting churches must commit themselves to the diligent work of ministering to the missionary. It takes work to stay in touch with the missionaries. It takes commitment to invest the funds for their support, to visit their field of ministry, and to encourage their families. It means being willing to be inconvenienced at times, and then realizing that it was not really inconvenient at all. It means working at looking beyond your walls and seeing the need of the field (i.e., the world) as Jesus sees it. It means working at maintaining personal communication with the missionary and his family.

Sadly, too many people are lazy in their Christian lives. They always have an excuse. Churches have excuses on why they cannot do the job in missions. Yet, the Great Commission must be fulfilled. We must allow God’s Word to challenge us to faithfulness and not be satisfied with slothfulness.

Consider the following principles from verses in the book of Proverbs on the subject of laziness:

Pro. 12:24 - Lazy people never become good leaders. “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute.”

Pro. 12:27 - Lazy people waste a lot. “The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is precious.”

Pro. 15:19 - Lazy people can never seem to “get a break” in life. “The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.“

Pro. 18:9 - Lazy people are wasteful people. They will not put forth the effort to cook that which they kill for food (cf. 12:27). “He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.”

Pro. 19:15 - Laziness produces sleepiness. This type of laziness equals idleness which leaves a man hungry because he was too lazy to work. “Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.”

Pro. 19:24 - Lazy people walk around with their hands in their pockets, and are to lazy to work to feed themselves (cf. 26:15). “A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again.“

Pro. 21:25 - Lazy people whine, but don’t work. “The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour.”

Pro. 22:13 - Lazy people always have an excuse not to work (cf. 26:13). “The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.”

Pro. 24:30-31 - Lazy people do not take care of their possessions. “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.“

Pro. 26:14 - Lazy people stay in bed all day. “As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.“

Discovery Kids is an exciting children’s ministry of Lighthouse Baptist Church.  Missions is at the heart of the ministry, and the children learn to have a passion for reaching the world.

Asst. Pastor Stephen Wynn welcomes your ideas, suggestions and comments on this blog.

This post is for anyone to add their own comments on ideas, strategies, etc. for effectively fulfilling the Great Commission and reaching the world in our generation.

“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light”
– John Keith Falconer

“While vast continents are shrouded in darkness…the burden of proof lies upon you to show that the circumstances in which God has placed you were meant by God to keep you out of the foreign mission field.”
– Ion Keith-Falconer

When I get to China, I will have no claim on any one for anything. My claim will be alone in God and I must learn before I leave England to move men through God by prayer alone”
– J. Hudson Taylor

“Oh, that I had a thousand lives, and a thousand bodies! All of them should be devoted to no other employment but to preach Christ to these degraded, despised, yet beloved mortals.”
– Robert Moffat

“It will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home.”
– J. Hudson

“If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”
– C.T. Studd

“I have but one passion - it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.”
– Count Zinzindorf

“Sympathy is no substitute for action.”
– David Livingstone

“We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.”
– John Stott

“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light”
– John Keith Falconer

“The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed”
– Hudson Taylor

“Today five out of six non-Christians in our world have no hope unless missionaries come to them and plant the church among them.”
– David Bryant

“The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.”
– Henry Martyn, missionary to India and Persia

“Never pity missionaries; envy them. They are where the real action is — where life and death, sin and grace, Heaven and Hell converge.”
– Robert C. Shannon

“The reason some folks don’t believe in missions is that the brand of religion they have isn’t worth propagating.”
– unknown

“The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity.”
– Mike Stachura

“God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on him.”
– Hudson Taylor, missionary to China

“The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time”
– Carl F. H. Henry

“If you found a cure for cancer, wouldn’t it be inconceivable to hide it from the rest of mankind? How much more inconceivable to keep silent the cure from the eternal wages of death.”
– Dave Davidson

“We who have Christ’s eternal life need to throw away our own lives.”
– George Verwer

“I have but one passion - it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.”
Count Zinzindorf

“If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”
C.T. Studd

“It’s amazing what can be accomplished if you don’t worry about who gets the credit.”
Clarence W. Jones

“I have but one candle of life to burn and would rather burn it out
where people are dying in darkness than in a land that is flooded
with light. I look upon foreign missionaries as the scaffolding
around a rising building. The sooner it can be dispensed with, the
better; or rather, the sooner it can be transferred to other places,
to serve the same temporary use, the better. ”
-James Hudson Taylor (1832-1905)

“Some wish to live within the sound of church and chapel bell. I wish
to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell .”
-Charles Thomas Studd (1862-1931)