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Reaching the World-In Your Backyard



Mark 5:18-20 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said, "Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." 20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

He has been out of control and broken for so long, his community and home now seem less appealing than the opportunity to go on the road with Jesus. The once demon-possessed man now wants to leave everything and follow Jesus. Isn't that the point? Jesus would continue to teach and heal. The once demon-possessed man could come up and tell his story of darkness and how Jesus healed him. Grown men would cry; others would come to know that whatever they were facing was not a hopeless situation as long as Jesus was around. It would be the perfect ministry!

Only one problem....Jesus refuses to allow the man to go with him! It is almost as if Jesus believes that this man's most significant life move and his greatest witness to the power of God is right in his own back yard! There will always be courageous men and women who sell everything and move to far- away lands to share the love of Christ. Jesus himself commissioned His followers to go and make disciples in all nations. But I sometimes wonder if we have become so enamored with this romantic and noble notion of "missionary" as one who takes the name of Jesus to far- away places that we have forgotten that for most of us.....our most significant opportunity to be a missionary lies right within our own back yard.

Sometimes I have found it much easier to share Christ with a stranger from Uganda than some of my own family members here! Sometimes it seems I am totally focused on my role as a servant when I help build an orphanage in Panama but am oblivious to the opportunity I have to serve the elderly woman that lives across the street! What if you and I woke up this morning and decided to take a mission trip right where we live? What if we prayed for God to open our eyes to places where you live, eat, work, and play every day.....open our eyes to see the hurt, the lost, and the broken?

 The truth is that the majority of us will never sell all and move off to some foreign field of mission but our sovereign God has saved us by His grace and has strategically placed us as mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, work associates, neighbors, friends, acquaintances right in the middle of the most important mission field of all....our own back yard...our own home....our own neighborhoods, schools, and places of business!

Jerry Sweat

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