The Purpose of This Blog

In response to the challenge by the Southern Baptist Convention that churches take on the task to share the gospel with unengaged unreached people groups, the missions team of Harmony Pittsburg Baptist Association felt the need for a way to focus prayer on the task. This blog is intended to facilitate prayer for those contemplating their role in fulfilling the Great Commission. This on-line prayer guide may prove useful to those exploring a call to missions involvement as well as to those who have sensed a call to pray for those who will go to the front lines.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Sent to Seek

"As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you," Jesus told the disciples on the night of Resurrection Day (John 20:21).  Since Jesus came "to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10), shouldn't we be doing the same?  Of course in a technical sense we can't save anybody, but we can introduce them to the Savior so that they can be saved.  However, what is our excuse for not seeking the lost?

I still remember how shocked I was the first time I heard someone say, "They [the lost] know where the church is.  It's up to them to come."  I had heard preachers say in sermons and I had read in books that people had that attitude, but I thought it couldn't be true.  To hear someone actually voice something so contrary to biblical teaching boggled my mind.  I was fresh out of seminary where my evangelism professor had taught us that the Bible does not command the lost to come and hear rather it commands us to go and tell.  Probably, most of us would never say such a thing out loud, but what do our actions show?  How much effort do we put in to finding those who don't know Jesus?

A good question for all believers today is, "In what ways am I intentionally looking for lost people and sharing the gospel with them?"  A common observation today is that many long-time believers no longer know any lost people.  Such a situation could not occur if we were living like Jesus did.  He would take the initiative to find sinners to befriend.

One way to seek the lost is to research the unengaged unreached people groups and to allow the Lord to lead us to those He will put on our hearts.  I will be putting links on this blog site where you can access the information that missionaries have compiled on peoples around the world.  Perhaps learning about the unsaved in other cultures will sensitize us to those around us who are without Christ.

Today we should pray two kinds of prayer:  a prayer of repentance for our failure to be proactive in seeking the lost and a prayer of commitment to dedicate ourselves to living the way that Jesus did.

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