SENT

As I sit in Charlotte-Douglas International Airport two hours before departing for Bolivia, I do so knowing that some close brothers and sisters in Christ are actively serving and worshiping in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.  As I prepare my heart for the mission ahead and on which the team is already on, I can't get over the idea of "sent".

God's plan is a beautiful thing (HUGE understatement).  We have been given a commission by our great Lord to go and make disciples of all nations, yet Jesus prefaces this command with a fundamental truth: that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Him.  (Matthew 28:18-20)  He is the Head...He is in control...He is STRONGER and HIGHER than ANYTHING!!!  We therefore have no reason to fear.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!  (Romans 8:38) We enter into this mission with expectation and focus...expectation that God will do far more than we could ever imagine and a focus on Christ as the center of it all...the Father has bestowed on Him the Name that is above all other names. (Philippians 2:9-10)  It is in Christ that we live and move and breathe.  It is by His Name alone that we are saved, and the desire of our souls is HIS NAME and HIS RENOWN. (Acts 4:12, Isaiah 26:8)

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

The verse above is perhaps the most well known verse in Scripture in our culture.  There is beauty in God's plan.  Jesus was SENT by the Father to provide a way by which we may be reconciled to God through the sacrifice of Christ, once for all...Christ was SENT to proclaim the Kingdom of God...Christ was SENT to seek and save lost sinners...fundamentally, Christ was SENT to do the Father's will.  And so, as Christ was sent into the world, so we as followers of Christ, as his disciples, are also SENT.  How great is the Father's love for us! "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 1 John 4:10-11

And so, as we begin our journey in Bolivia, we do so out of the overflow of our great God who poured out His love for us, though we were completely undeserving.  It is out of the overflow of His love for us that we are even capable of truly loving others, and it is in this love that we seek to serve others and one another.  As Christ was sent into the world, so are we sent into the world...and with Christ as the authority, we do so with full assurance, not in ourselves, but Christ in us, the hope of glory.  May this trip, and indeed all of our lives, be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.  May each of you reading this blog be blessed as you hear of God at work in Bolivia, and may you be blessed as you carry on your mission wherever you are!  He is able!