Preaching the gospel is a life of sacrifices
In today world,preaching is assumed to be a minor exercise that can be done easily. We have forgotten so soon that the real client to Evangelism are not staying in comfort zones but hard uncomfortable environment. That is the mountains, hills villages, communities too difficult to penetrate. In the Bible,Gen. Chapter 12 it is recorded as Genesis 12:1 NIV
[1] The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.. where is this place God is describing located. Why must he leave his comfort zone to area so poor and uncomfortable because of the gospel
In appreciation of that call God promise Abram some blessings. Genesis 12:2-3 NIV
[2] “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. [3] I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
From the above it is glaring that a big sacrifice was needed for Abram and his family
What is the purpose of the sacrifice, it is a call for evangelism – preaching the gospel to the unreached who reside in highly dangerous terrain. Today evangelism we rest in urban areas while many are tasty for the gospel in rural communities. Church leaders hardly go out for evangelism. They like to remain in the church compound and send others to go and preach the gospel. This is not the general pattern but few do apply this method which to my limited knowledge is not good enough. We are expected to go to mission fields where there is no church, no mosques, no Jesus, they have not hard of the word Jesus . We are to take the gospel to these places and harvest souls for Christ. Go to Borgu local Government of kwara state around kayama side in kwara state,the Nok trip of Gongola area of Taraba state,no Jesus there, go to the hill tribes no Jesus. In Africa alot of areas are still in darkness about Jesus,no enough mission fields in Tanzania, south Africa and East Africa. I can see why Evangelist Rayhard Bonkey focused his ministry on Africa. There is no mission fields there but the people needed Jesus in their life. They don’t know any thing about Jesus but take any thing they see around them. The mystery of creation becomes their idol they worship. That is why we have different gods today. The god of mountain, the gods of river,the god of thunder etc where is the actual God in their heart,not seen,not heard, not known in any where around them. We really need to make sacrifice to reach out to the unreached. In my 62 years of existence l have never gone out for any evangelism.l was in one of the churches around my residence,for mid week program and the pastor announced that today we will all go out for evangelism. I ask myself have l ever go out on mission field. My response is no. Can l try it, yes was my heart response. So l collected two copies of Evangelism papers shared. I came out of the church with my Bible in my hand.. l first met two young men and l stopped them, exchange greetings and l ask them if they are Christian. They affirm they are Christians and l now ask why are they not in their churches to worship God? Their response was conflicting. I then start to tell them the need to serve Jesus, work for Jesus,believe in Jesus and trust more in Jesus. After much said and done l request them to join any living Christian church and serve God always. I told them Jesus is waiting for them there to address their problems. One of them thanked me and promise to be committed to God as all things of the world has failed humanity. The only solution is to return back to God our creator. He observed that if old man like me can go out to serve God he too should be able to apply Paulo freire approach of each one teach one and win a soul for Christ. We exchange pleasantries and l left for another group who are working about freely. We shared experiences and ended up accepting the Lordship of Jesus Christ. To preach the gospel is a required sacrifice for Christians to make heaven. We must sacrifice our energy, resources and time to reach out to places,communities and people who have no access to the word of God. As Rayhard Bonkey opined there is no alternative to accepting Jesus. You either accept Jesus as Lord of lords and live or reject Jesus and go to hell. Hell is not a place we pray we visit so our option is to go to heaven. Dear brothers let us not be like the worldly Christians but heavenly Christians who will soon join the saints and angels to sing an endless Hallelujah. May we all be present at the feast of the lamb. Good morning.