Working Simultaneously

The Great Commission calls us to go into all the world making disciples and baptizing them and teaching them all that Jesus had taught. Jesus's last words before His ascension were informing His disciples that they would be His testimony to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost of the earth.

Unfortunately, many get the idea that these instructions had to happen chronologically. Once Jerusalem was reached, then Judea was to be reached, then Samaria, and the finally the uttermost. However, that is not how it was stated. It was stated that His followers would be to all those places at one time.  We as the church are to be sharing everywhere at once. We as individuals are to be sharing wherever we are as we go.  It is not here then here, but rather wherever it is that we go as we go the world over.

Reading Multiply by Francis Chan this week has reiterated that fact. I was reminded of some comments were made before we went to Africa as a family the first time. A sweet old lady asked me how we could go over there when there were still so many that needed to hear the Good News in the city in which we were living at the time. I kindly looked at her and let her know that she could share with the people in that city, while we went. I was not trying to be sarcastic, though I succeeded. I was simply trying to remind her that the job of sharing the Good News is not merely that of paid ministers and missionaries who are paid to go overseas or even in this country. Sharing the Good News is the job of every believer, and we all have our niche where God has placed us to interact with certain people.

Some might however see those who go overseas as forgetting those in the Jerusalem and Judea. I would say too that those who go overseas cannot forget those back "home". Unfortunately, sometimes family members can be the hardest to share with or least willing to hear. Our job is not to convert but to share the seed of Truth and water the seed.  It is God's job to bring fruit, according to 1Corinthians 3:6.

So get out there and sow some seeds wherever you may go today!