You are the light of the world.
Matthew 5:16
The church’s mission is to go into the darkness with the light.
It is unfortunate, then, that many Christians live with the mentality of staying as far away from the darkness as possible. This is especially exemplified among American Christians who live in a culture where safety is the reward of living in America. We want to be in our circle, live in safe neighborhoods, stay away from certain cultures, etc…
Safety, however, is not an ideal for servants of Jesus.
Do we as Christians realize that when Jesus called the church to mission, he was calling us into dangerous and dirty work? The darkness is called dark for a reason–it’s evil and dark. Wickedness rules and reigns in the darkness.
It reigns in the bars, it reigns in strip clubs, it reigns in broken and poor neighborhoods, it reigns in countries opposed to the gospel, it reigns in places where Islamic extremists live, it reigns in the slums, darkness reigns everywhere and Christians are called to these places.
God has ordained that the church is the hope of the world. And in order to be the hope, it requires that Christian presence and light be in the dark places.
We need a revolution in Christian mission. We need local churches in America to catch the vision of seeing that their people function as the hope of the world. The dark world is looking for and longing for a savior. The savior, of course as we know, is Jesus. But more specifically, it is Jesus within Christians.
We carry him, therefore we should go.
We are the hope of the world. We cannot live in safety. We must all be ready to die for Jesus.
