Or maybe I should ask a different question. Before the foundations of the world, when God knew and established all that would be set free in His Son; out of all of the human race living in this generation, did He love me any more than the billions of individuals who were and are being born in areas of this world that haven't yet been reached with the Gospel?
The obvious response is no. God's love goes out to all mankind and though I will never be able to fathom or even relatively comprehend, I can trust from a Biblical standpoint that God has an infinite love for all who were born of His image.
However, since I am now His child...does He now love me even a little more than say the heathen over in Papua New Guinea? No. His love is infinite for me and for them, which means that it cannot be added to or taken away from.
I feel like many times we in Christian circles can overlook this very important truth. We can dot our I's and cross our T's in the doctrinal stance we hold, yet we can miss the heart of God and His desire to reach the world for Christ.
In our world today there are still well over two billion people with no access to the Gospel. There is a Savior that died and rose again for them, yet they will never know. As a result, men and women will continue to be born, live, and die without ever hearing of the grace and love of our Heavenly Father and will end up in eternal and unquenchable fire because no hope was given to them.
However, if these people were to hear the Gospel of Christ and believe in His name, would they not experience the same eternal blessings and opportunities as I have in Christ? They certainly would. So just because I was born in America and they were not, does God love me more than they? Absolutely not! Absurd! God forbid!
As I am pondering upon these many thought-provoking questions, I am beginning to realize that the only reason I, Cameron Michael Neace, am not going to hell is because somebody brought me the Gospel. Somebody a long time ago devoted their life to Christ by standing unashamed and willing to risk the safety and security of everything they held dear to them in this world in hopes that someday you and I would have the wonderful opportunity of knowing Christ.
God did not appear to us in a glorious light. Nor will He appear to the unreached tribes. He calls us to be senders and goers of His word in hopes to fulfill the Great Commission in this generation and He has chosen to work through people such as you and I.
It is exciting to think that we have this amazing privilege of taking part in what the God of the universe is involved in. Dad wants to work with His kids...so let us spend time with our Father and be used to bring many sons to glory.
A Dream I Had
I was journeying to a far away place. I did not know exactly where I was headed, but I knew I was going to share the good news with people who have never heard. I came to the edge of a wooded area and began to pray.
As I was on my knees I devoted everything to the Lord. I knew I needed to leave everything behind and before I would take the next step, I recognized that I needed God to go before me and bring me to those whom He would have me serve at this time.
I prayed for the people that I did not yet know and then I stood up and began walking into the jungle. After walking quite some time, I passed by some people. The only thing I was holding was my Bible and I was hoping to be able to share it with them but they didn't want it and just ran off.
I kept walking through the jungle and I saw this family running and hiding in the woods. They looked as if they were trying to escape from something. As if someone was chasing them. It kind of reminded me of when slaves would run away from their master's before and during the civil war.
When I saw them I shouted in the only language I knew, which was English. They didn't understand me so they just stopped for a second and glared at me. After a moment of stillness they just kept running.
I shouted again because I knew I had the answer in my hand. I knew that neither of us would be able to understand each other because I did not yet know their language, but I was confident that God was having me pursue these people.
Again they stopped, looked, and then continued on. Finally, I shouted and held up my Bible so that they would see it. I was presenting it as a gift and I knew the man could tell that, but I also knew that he was somewhat fearful since he had never seen a white man before.
I instantly fell on my knees with my face to the ground and arms stretched out as far as I could get them. While in this position, I held God's Word with a loose grasp hoping he would come and receive it.
However, because he was fearful of me and wasn't sure of my exact intentions he ran up really fast, grabbed it from me, and kicked me just to be sure that I wouldn't try and tackle him or something. He then ran back to stand with his family.
When he saw that I didn't move an inch but was still prostrated on the ground he slowly came closer to me. I could tell that he was asking me in his language what this book was, but I didn't know how to respond. I wasn't aware of what language he was speaking, but my hope was that they would allow me to stay with them and learn from them so that someday I would be able to tell them all about the God who loves them.
All I did was point at the book and then up, hoping that he would understand that I meant God. It was challenging because I didn't know the culture. I didn't know if what I was doing was appropriate or if it was even understandable so I just kept trying to make symbols and signs in hopes that he and his family would recognize that I had a message from God.
I wanted them to know that what he was holding was the very Word of God, but I wasn't sure how. Thankfully, he was kind of getting what I was trying to communicate and so he grabbed my shirt and began dragging me along with them.
However, they were no longer running away or hiding. We began walking back in the direction that they had originally come from.
Along the way there seemed to be many obstacles. At different points in our journey wolves and fierce dogs would try and attack us. Thankfully, whenever we needed to fight them off we always had the high ground.
We made our way back to the place they were running from. I found that they were being held captive in a prison in the jungle. After we snuck back in they began showing me how they lived. I did not know exactly why they were forced to remain in slavery, but they allowed me to stay with them until that day when they would know God's talk and furthermore, they would know God!
Conclusion
Is this not reality? Almost two-thousand people groups are living in bondage under the dominion of Satan. They are looking for hope, but they are running away because they fear there is none.
They live in darkness and are slaves of sin. Our heart is to go to these people, learn from them their language and culture, and then teach them the Word of God. The Gospel of Christ has the power to set these people free. We will go...will you send us?
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