Knocking On Doors

Last week, we had our annual "Staff Retreat" also known as 3 days of fishing on the coast and making sure everyone on our team truly understands humility. Pastor brought an old missionary friend, Ralph Hyatt, to do devotions with us each morning. Ralph is 79 years old and has touched thousands of people through his life. He began sharing with us on Thursday morning about the work he did in Argentina as a missionary. When he got to Argentina, he found parts of the country that had never been touched with the Gospel. He talked about going on a boat from island to island, village to village, house to house just telling people who Jesus was. People were saved and Ralph took it as a responsibility to disciple those people and start a church for those people. He told stories about driving a boat and loading it up with people to go to church. He told us of a time he carried 44 people on a medium size boat because he didn't want anyone to miss out on the opportunity to come to church. I immediately felt convicted by his stories.

All to often I find myself stressing over petty things in my church, job, or family. Someone says something about the nursery policies or someone is upset because someone else wrote something on facebook that may or may not have had anything to do with them. It is almost always something small and petty. I still have to be careful because it is those things that keep me from going from island to island, village to village, and hut to hut.

I know I am not called to some country that is full of unsaved people... but I am called to that. I am called to tell as many people as I possibly can that Jesus is alive. I mean think about it. How many people are missing the point of being a Christ follower? How many people do we come in contact with that have no church or even concept of what being a Christian really is? Jesus sent out his 12 and his 72 was that all that was supposed to go? Is that a calling for all of us. I do know this. As a pastor, I have to be very careful that the people in my life aren't all "church" people. I have to be careful that all my friends aren't just Christians. I have to understand that it is my job to knock on doors and tell people that Jesus is coming. It may be while I am at my son's baseball game or at my daughter's ballet class. It may be while I am in the grocery store or sitting at starbucks. It may even be while I am out riding my bike on a Saturday morning. I hope that as I go out of my house, that God sends people to me. So, I can share him.