Monday, January 21, 2019

Psalm 18:49 Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O LORD; I will sing praises to your name.

COMMITTED TO PROCLAIMING

"Send us 10,000 missionaries and 50 million Bibles." Thus spoke General Douglas MacArthur in the days following the war. As commander of the forces of American occupation in Japan, he was seeking to help a sadly disillusioned people return from the depths of confusion and hopelessness into which they had been plunged by their country's first military defeat in nearly two thousand years.

Groping blindly, they needed something to hang on to. Their very foundations of life had been shattered by the disclosure that their emperor was not God as the centuries of tradition had led them to believe.

General MacArthur saw better things emerging from chaos. He told American Protestants that for every missionary in Japan at that time, there should be one hundred more; for every dollar spent for missions, another thousand should be spent.

Disregarding General MacArthur's penchant for hyperbole, why didn't 10,000 missionaries respond to the invitation? After all, General MacArthur in effect ruled Japan after the war and could guarantee this invitation. It is as true now as it was for Japan after the war that for every missionary a hundred more are needed. For every dollar spent on missions, another thousand could be spent. But part of the problem is commitment. The problem is Illustrated in the breakfast mean of ham and eggs. The chicken only donates the meal, while the pig gives his all. Commitment to Christ means giving your all. He has purchased and won you from death, hell, Satan, sin, and all that this evil world is.

Let us commit to Christ and to spreading His Word, and not only donate. Let us be not only hearers of the Word, but also share in it's proclamation ourselves!