But If I Did

"I do believe; help my unbelief." (Mark 9:34)

A man was being led by the prison guards to the chamber where he would suffer his punishment; execution in an electric chair. As they walked slowly through the corridors, a priest was walking alongside dutifully reading scripture passages. At one point the condemned man stopped, turned to the Priest and said, “Do you really believe that stuff”?

 “Well, yes sir, I do,” replied the priest, “Don’t you?”

“No, I don’t. But if I did, I would consider it worthwhile to crawl across England, on my hands and knees, across broken glass if need be, to save but one soul from such a damnation as that.”

This story illustrates what is to me a widespread anomaly; Christians who believe, but who are careful not to take their beliefs too seriously. Like one man said, "We admire the poverty of Jesus, but are quite careful not to share in it." When I consider Jesus on the cross, I see a man who not only was serious about his life and mission; He was dead serious.

In 1980, at age 20, I gave my heart to God and experienced a transformed life. In the next couple of days my heart began to ache for the multitudes of people across our planet that did not yet know God.  And I felt an overwhelming desire --a responsibility even-- to do something about it. As I read through the Scriptures my logical mind concluded, if this be true, then there is nothing more important on earth than the gospel of Christ. Within one week I sold everything I owned, resigned my job, and left my home town of Aurora, Illinois to work with some “Jesus People” on the streets of St. Louis.  Two weeks later I met a visiting missionary who invited me to come with him to a foreign mission field. Five weeks after my conversion to Christ I arrived in the Philippines, where I have served as a missionary for 29 years to date.

Many people find this fast track to mission involvement unusual, and extremely radical.  But my perspective is different. Since I believed the gospel, I have never been able to escape the overwhelming conclusion that the gospel is the most important project on planet earth. My mind cannot resolve the issue to another conclusion.  Call me narrow minded, or fanatic, but I simply don’t “get” less urgent views. When I met Christ, read and understood the Scriptures, my immediate conclusion was, “this changes everything.”  So to me what is really radical is that anyone could actually believe the gospel and not at the same time feel the urgent call to action.

In this respect, the need of a crystal clear “call” as it pertains to commitment and involvement in what is called the “great commission” is intriguing to me.  (In reality, it’s the “only commission” the Church has. Remember? “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them…”). Throughout the years of my travels and ministry I've come across many believers who explain how they are “waiting on God” for a clear "call" to be involved in ministry. I often reply, “That’s great. How about coming out to the Philippines and waiting there? And while you wait you can help us serve the lost, the needy, and the hurting.”

As a genuine Christ follower, you’ve subscribed to some very radical stuff. Just read the New Testament! I'm convinced that it deserves our most serious and thoughtful attention. And that how serious we take it may well determine how God can use us in a world of needy and hurting people.

The Scriptures declare that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; The only way to the Father; That he died and rose from the dead, and that He is coming to earth again; That every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; That the nations of the earth will mourn because of Him; That time as we know it will one day end;  That all people who have ever lived in all of history will be resurrected from the dead and be judged.

Pretty heavy stuff. Do we believe it?

Really?