October 23

Colossians 1:4-7

4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf….

Mission Impossible—Epaphras had traveled to Ephesus where he met Paul. He then went home to Colossae. Epaphras, a common nobody. Colossae, an insignificant town in the great Roman empire, filled with pagan images, untouched by the gospel.

But God…. But within this nobody of Epaphras was a Holy Spirit with a burning gospel. To this insignificant Colossae, God’s big heart for even this tiny and insignificant place poured out through this servant. And a church was planted. Not a great church, a church that struggled against heresy and false teaching (Col. 2:4, 8, 16, 20-23). But a church that stood as a light of truth to a dark world, a light of God’s love for the entire world.

Missionaries too may stare at the big cities, the vast rural countryside, the systems of injustice and paganism, the grip of sin, the power of the anti-Christian government, and the strangle of materialism and wonder if it is possible. Is it possible for a church and disciples can be birthed here? Is it possible for the truth to prevail against the lies so entrenched in the culture? Is it possible for the truth to prevail in spite of syncretism and superstition that still creeps in from the buffeting culture? But it is God’s mission. He has a heart for the dark places, the insignificant, the chained and enslaved. Missionaries are just common people with a great God. Missionaries are just normal Christians following a God on a mission.

Your Mission

·         Pray for the missionaries and the new disciples to be able to stand up against the lie that they are too insignificant or little to do something great for God. Pray for their boldness to stand firm for truth in the face of possible syncretism and compromise.

·         Do you see missions and evangelism as only for the “super-Christians”? Do you buy into the lie that you are too insignificant to reach out to your neighbors?

Mission Impossible Made Possible—Field Notes

“If you are a Christian, God is holding out to you indescribably wonderful promises. ‘'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' Therefore, you can confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?' (Hebrews 13:5-6) Well, actually, man can kill you. But that is no defeat, because you know what Romans 8:36-39 says: ‘We are counted as sheep to be slaughtered all day long...Yet I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus.’ Therefore, nothing ultimately can harm you. Remember what Jesus said in Luke 21:12-19? ‘Some of you they will kill and some of you they will throw into prison...Yet not a hair of your head will perish.’ It’s just Romans 8. Everything, including death, works together for your good. When you die you don’t perish. To die is gain.” (John Piper, “Doing Missions When Dying is Gain,” DesiringGod.org)