Missions
We’re All on a Mission
New York Times opinion columnist Frank Bruni shared a book review recently that unflatteringly bashed Vice President Mike Pence.
I like Mike Pence.
For many years he served in Congress, then as governor of the state of Indiana, and most recently as VP. Pence is a committed family man, soft spoken, possesses great character and principles, is a person of faith, and was, by most accounts, the best choice President Trump made in choosing his cabinet.
Bruni disagrees and believes that Pence is on a mission.
Hey, Frank. I hate to tell you but ALL human beings are on a mission.
Is yours a worthy one?
Here’s the quote from Bruni while commenting on Michael D’ Antonio and Peter Eisner’s soon to be published book The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence (out August 28, 2018):
“There are problems with impeaching Donald Trump. A big one is the holy terror waiting in the wings. That would be Mike Pence, who mirrors the boss more than you realize. He’s also self-infatuated. Also a bigot. Also a liar. Also cruel.”
What? Mike Pence a Lucifer look alike? And this diatribe printed in the New York Times, heralded to contain “All the Truth That’s Fit to Print?”
Talk about fake news.
Bruni continues:
“To that brimming potpourri add two ingredients that Trump doesn’t genuinely possess: the conviction that he’s on a mission from God and a determination to mold the entire nation in the shape of his own faith, a regressive, repressive version of Christianity. Trade Trump for Pence and you go from kleptocracy to theocracy.”
Bruni covers his tracks by blaming others for these insults: “That’s the takeaway from a forthcoming book by the journalists Michael D’ Antonio, who previously wrote The Truth About Trump, and Peter Eisner.”
So Bruni, D’Antonio, and Eisner all believe that Mike Pence is:
- A holy terror (I thought holiness is a good thing?)
- Self-infatuated (Pence comes across more as a selfless servant-leader).
- A bigot (because he disagrees on some issues?).
- A liar (certainly less than most politicians).
- Cruel (that would be fascists or abortionists).
But the most damning charge (and easily the most bigoted) is the last one–that Vice President Mike Pence’s faith is regressive, repressive, and a akin to forcing theocracy on vulnerable Americans.
Plus, Pence is on a mission.
Duh.
Of course he is. All people are on a mission just like these three misguided journalists. Human beings were made in the image of God. We were designed to live purposeful lives that impact the world around us.
In fact, the mission we each possess was meant to be a “Great Adventure.”
Jon Bloom recently shared some insights on the mission God desires for every single one of us. Here are some of his thoughts from “God Didn’t Give You a Boring Life. He Gave You An Adventure. Now Go Live It!”
Life is a Gift
“Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him” (1 Corinthians 7:17).
“Your life is a gift and an assignment from God. This should infuse our life — its good and evil, its sweet and bitter, its health and affliction, its prosperity and poverty, its comfort and suffering — with an unfathomable dignity, purpose, and glory. You are not an accident. Neither are you a ruined potential, run off the rails because you were dealt a poor genetic hand of cards, suffered others’ abuse, or made foolish and sinful choices, putting you beyond the hope of a useful calling in Jesus’ kingdom.”
“The greatest thing you can do with your life is to live to the hilt the adventurous assignment God has given you.”
God Has Called You.
“We tend to think of our callings as our vocations, some significant job God gives us to do with an identifiable and preferably esteemed title. Perhaps it’s a career vocation or perhaps it’s a non career vocation in a church or ministry. But that’s too narrow. Of course, vocations should be vehicles for our calling — ways we fulfill our assignment from the Lord. But our calling encompasses more than our vocations.”
“Our primary core calling is to love God with all we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Luke 10:27). And this calling incorporates everyone we interact with, or perhaps comes to mind, in everything we do from morning till night. Which is why John Calvin said, “God commands each one of us to consider his calling in every act of life” (Institutes, 821).
Be Faithful to Your Assignment
The Spirit tells us through Paul, “Let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him.”
“Think of bond servants. They were the physical property of a human master. And yet Paul says to them in 1 Corinthians 7:21, ‘Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)’ What Paul meant was circumstances, even very difficult ones, don’t disqualify anyone from God’s assignment. If we can extricate ourselves honorably from such circumstances, we ought to do it. But if not, let us consider it God’s assignment, at least for today, and be faithful” (Ephesians 6:6–8).
Your Greatest Adventure
“[God] has assigned us a life to lead. And there is no more wonderful, exciting, hopeful, fulfilling, joy-producing sense of life purpose than to realize that we are who we are, what we are, how we are, where we are, and when we are by the assignment of the Lord.”
“You have been given the unfathomable gift of life. You have been given the infinitely more valuable gift of eternal life. And you have been given the astounding and extremely rare privilege of receiving an assignment from God. Embrace your assignment, this great adventure chosen for you, and press it to the limit.”
Bloom is right. We were built for a mission in life.
I have written two books on this subject. The first, If God Has a Plan for My Life, Why Can’t I Find It? You Have a Destiny exposes the dangerous lie of macro-evolution and proposes that “character is destiny” for fulfilling God’s mission for your life.
The second, The Fourth Wave: Taking Your Place in the New Era of Missions discusses the purpose of this current generation in fulfilling God’s Great Commission. The key to that is each one of us living a missional life.
Every human life, due to its very humanity, is on a mission. NYT columnist Frank Bruni’s mission is to destroy Donald Trump and his administration and push a radical progressive agenda. Some have secular missions and vocational dreams. Others live purely for entertainment– a personal-pleasure mission. And some even fly airplanes into buildings in pursuit of their jihadist mission.
This year I’ve been meditating on the missional words Jesus Christ–the greatest life ever lived. Just before he died for the sins of the world and rose from the dead, he prayed to his Heavenly Father in John 17 (The Message):
“But I have known You. . . that you sent me on this mission. . . I glorified you on earth by completing down to the last details what you assigned me to do. . . In the same way you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world.”
Now that’s a mission-focused life.
Mike Pence has chosen to follow Jesus’ example. His faith is not regressive. Biblical truths have created more progress in the world than every other philosophy combined. It’s not repressive–except for sin, crime and war–which hurt and destroy people. And it’s certainly not a theocracy (like Iran)–rather a representative democracy with a republican constitution.
Those of like faith and character to Mike Pence have brought incredible blessings to the world in the forms of human inspiration, the flourishing of art and science, civil rights, religious liberty, social progress, humanitarian aid, economic prosperity, and eternal life and hope found in Jesus.
We’re all on a mission.
Is yours a blessing like Mike Pence’s, or does it fall short of God’s plan?
My View of the World–2018
It’s interesting how many people divide life into sacred and secular–as if “reality”” can be parceled into two different sectors.
For example, many writers on politics and world affairs rarely mention God, His principles or His purposes. They talk about political parties, issues, national affairs, and “worldly stuff” (secular)–as if God and His Kingdom don’t exist.
Others write about missions, prayer, world evangelism etc. and never seem to mention the things that are happening in the “world” that greatly affect these thrusts.
Here’s my perspective on the world–2018–from both a political and spiritual perspective. You can’t understand one without the other.
Why the Resurrection Matters
I have believed for many years that the most important week in world history is Holy Week–the seven day period when Jesus of Nazareth arrived to fanfare in Jerusalem, died on a Roman cross of torture, and three days later was raised to life.
Of those seven days, Good Friday stands as the centerpiece–the day God substituted the death of His own Son in the place of humanity’s sin to bring forgiveness to all who believe. Good Friday was a day of atonement–a “covering” of our rebellion by the agonizing love of God.
Recently I’ve been thinking more about the Resurrection. It wasn’t the day of redemption. It didn’t have anything to do forgiving our sins.
But the Resurrection matters.
Deeply.
Here’s why.
The two most widely read articles I’ve written over the past few years describe the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and his unparalleled impact on world history. If you want some inspirational thoughts this week, here’s where you can find them.
The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ.
How Easter Changed the World–and Can Do It Again.
Yet, the Resurrection of Jesus confused me for a while because I kept finding Scriptures that indicated that Jesus was the first to rise from the dead (Acts 26:23). The idea was that because he was first, then the rest of us would follow. He was the first-fruits of a general resurrection of both the redeemed and unredeemed (1 Corinthians 15:20).
But I also knew that, in one sense, Jesus was not the first person to come back to life. Elijah performed that miracle on a young boy in the Old Testament (1 Kings 17:17-24) and his prophetic heir, Elisha, did the same thing (2 Kings 4:18-37).
I assume there were others.
In the New Testament, we have at least two stories of Jesus Himself resurrecting people. First was the young man in Nain who got up off his burial bed when Jesus gave the command (Luke 7:11-17). Even more impressive was the resurrection of Lazarus (John 11:1-44). He’d been in a tomb for four days and it was presumed that he was well rotted and the stench would be terrible (John 11:39).
But Jesus shouted for Lazarus to “Come Forth” out of the tomb (John 11:43). Apparently, whatever had been decayed was made whole, his spirit returned, and he walked out of the cave still wrapped in grave clothers.
So it’s pretty clear from both Old and New Testaments that, in the sense of those stories, Jesus was definitely not the first human being to be brought back to life (resusitated or resurrected).
So what makes his resurrection on Easter Sunday “first” or important?
Let’s go a little deeper.
Jesus was the first resurrected person that never had to die again. His resurrection was permanent, eternal. All others who experienced resurrection ended up dying once more. The young boy in Nain lived out his life and then died gain. Lazarus enjoyed more years with Mary and Martha, but then passed away a second time.
Jesus rose never to die again. It even appears that He was given a different body that could pass through walls (Luke 24:36), appeared different to the disciples (Luke 24:16), and ascended into heaven (Luke 24:51). His resurrection body seemed to be made from “different stuff” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).
That resurrection–the first of its kind–signaled a change in the eternal order of things. From now on, those who put their trust in God’s atonement and were born again by his Spirit would join his permanent resurrection when they passed from this life.
Those who believed in Him “would never die” (John 11:25). Just like Jesus, we will be raised to a permanent resurrection.
But there’s one more reason for the greatness of the Resurrection:
It was the final PROOF that Jesus was God, not man, and that His promises are true.
Other people have sacrificed their lives. Some people have claimed to know God or be the way to God. But only ONE backed up that claim by rising from the dead.
Jesus Christ.
There is no other.
Let the remarkable words of Scripture speak for themselves:
“Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.”
“But the angel answered and said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he is risen as he said. Come see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold I have told you.’”
“So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold Jesus met them saying, ‘Rejoice!’ So they came and held him by the feet and worshipped Him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. God and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.’”
“Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted.”
“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and makes disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”
(Matthew 28:1-10, 6-20).
Jesus Christ, the wondrously unique God/man, died for the sins for the world and rose from the dead to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt he was more than a human being. Resurrection served as the final witness in his trial for credibility.
Josh McDowell devotes eighty-five pages of his classic work, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, to the historical, logical and literary proofs for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. His risen life remains one of the most provable events of ancient times.
He points out that human beings living since the death and resurrection of Jesus are faced with only three choices relating to the Son of God. Either he was a lunatic who made crazy claims—a liar who has deceived billions—or the Lord of life that he claimed to be.
Number three is the most logical choice.
G.B. Hardy exclaims: “Here is the record. Confucius tomb – occupied. Buddha’s tomb – occupied. Mohammed’s tomb – occupied. Jesus’ tomb — EMPTY. The decision is yours to make; the evidence speaks for itself. It says very clearly—Christ is risen indeed!”
The proof is in. Once for all sacrifice for sin. Permanent first resurrection. Those who believe follow.
Happy Easter.
Rejoice!