1 Chronicles 16:23-23 Sing to the Lord, all the earth;
    proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
    his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

This chapter collects several of David’s Psalms, and I can’t read it without musical settings coming into my mind and heart. That’s not a bad thing! When you read it with an open mind, it’s remarkable how evangelistic, even missionary, the Old Testament is. We generally think of evangelism as a strictly New Testament thing, but again and again we run into passages like this one, that speak of “among the nations” and “among the peoples.” Just yesterday I was watching a video from Jews for Jesus of an encounter in Israel between one of their leaders and a very earnest young Jewish man. The young man was saying, “One difference between Jews and other religions is that we don’t want everyone to become Jewish.” I’d say he wasn’t very familiar with his own Bible! From the very first, when God called Abraham to be His agent, God said, “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.” (Genesis 18:18) That thought is repeated several times, in Genesis and later. God chose Abraham and his descendants to demonstrate and share His truth to all the world, but they messed that commission up repeatedly, and the young man in the video didn’t recognize it at all. Sadly, the same phenomenon can be seen in many churches today. Despite Jesus having said explicitly, “Go and make disciples of all nations,” (Matthew 28:19) they have little to no interest in anything or anyone outside of their own immediate circle. How sad! Selfishness, self-centeredness, is never the way to fulfillment and genuine happiness. God is the Creator of all the universe, and He loves all mankind enough to send His Son to die for us. That news is far too wonderful to fail to share it with all who will receive it.

Obviously, since my parents were missionaries, I was raised with a strong awareness that the Gospel wasn’t an “inside secret.” I don’t feel personally gifted as an evangelist, but I am deeply aware of the evangelistic imperative. The Great Commission wasn’t just a suggestion! That doesn’t mean that every believer is to go to far-off lands as a missionary, but it does mean that every believer is to be earnest about making disciples of everyone they encounter. Not everyone will accept the Gospel as applying to them, and we can’t force them to do so, but we are accountable to give them the opportunity. Some are indeed called to far-off lands, but that doesn’t mean to ignore your next-door neighbor! It is very significant that America, which has been the greatest missionary-sending nation in history, is currently receiving missionaries from many nations that were once thought of as just mission fields. Many Americans, even, don’t really know the Gospel, and that it applies to them. Of course, that applies in spades to me, since I live in a nation that is no more than 2% Christian, according to government statistics. I think every missionary in Japan is at risk of burnout and overload, because there is always so much more we could be doing, or so we think. The biggest challenge, as I think it is in most countries, is in getting all believers to recognize their own part in communicating the Gospel to their friends and neighbors. We can’t do it effectively on our own, but God is ready and waiting to do it through us, if we will make ourselves available to Him.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the BBQ we have planned for tomorrow, as an outreach to the neighborhood. Thank You for the neighbors who have indicated they will attend. May we indeed share Your love and grace with them in ways they can receive it, making them hungry for more spiritual food even as we are pleasing them with physical food, so that they may repent and believe for their salvation. Thank You. Hallelujah!