There was a time not too long ago when people thought the oceans extended without end and the world was flat. Now we know the exact extent of the surface of the oceans, and it is still magnificent to us in it’s scope. But it is limited. The oceans have shores, and those shores were created by our God. God has measured out not only the waters of the earth, but His entire creation.
God measures our gifts with a measure different from that of the world. He is not impressed with large numbers. Rather, He measures according to (1) the giver’s capacity (because He knows what we possess) and (2) the giver’s attitude (because He knows the state of our hearts). Jesus spoke to this question directly when He compared the temple gifts of the rich men with the gift of the poor widow (Luke 21:1-4). By Jesus’ reckoning, the widow gave more than the others because she gave all she had to live on. Her capacity was prohibitively little, but her attitude was extravagant. The rich, on the other hand, had so much wealth that even large gifts required little devotion of them. Biblical generosity is not any given dollar amount. Nor it is even just a given percentage rate (although percentage of assets is an important indicator of attitude, which is of great importance to God.) To be biblically generous is to recognize God’s infinite beneficence toward us in Christ, and to give extravagantly in worship to Him, relative to what one has. To put it differently, biblical generosity is best gauged by asking not, “How much am I giving to God?” but, “How much am I keeping for myself?”
The world is growing at an extremely rapid pace, and we are charged with preaching the gospel to the whole world. When a missionary goes into a new region, their primary goal is to develop their converts to become effective ministers to their own people, who know the culture, the language and pathways to the heart of people in their own culture, things that would take many years to teach an outsider. Western youth culture needs young men and women who understand the cultural language through a Biblical perspective and can effectively speak enticingly to that culture about the impact of the gospel.
Evangelism, of course, is a legitimate name and a legitimate endeavor. It is the work of the Church to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in order to bring souls into the Kingdom of God. True evangelism follows the spreading of the pure Gospel with the planting churches and the discipling of believers that will guard the biblical truths and practices vital to sustaining a viable relationship between individual believers and the Lord Jesus Christ.
"The Bible gives us plenty of proof that God uses all types of personalities. Peter was a sanguine. Paul was a choleric. Jeremiah was a melancholy. When you look at the personality differences in the twelve disciples, it is easy to see why they sometimes had interpersonal conflict. There is no 'right’ or 'wrong’ temperament for ministry" (The Purpose Driven Life p. 245).
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