Feeding sheep

Wow my church was amazing today, I definitely need to make some changes in my life that's for sure! Our pastor was talking about one of the life expressions of our church, which is that we are passionately committed to the missional enterprise of the church. He was mentioning that this does not mean that we can allow mission boards and other committees to departmentalize the Great Commission in we allow them to do the work of the Great Commission and we can just sit back and hope that someone else will tell others about Jesus Christ because maybe I don't feel like I have the gift of evangelism or that I'm not called to be this and that....but really mission boards and other committees are there to facilitate our getting involved in missions and the Great Commission - whether we're called to go some other country or whether we haven't felt that call and so our mission field is the community we live in or the job we have or the school we go to.

I was so challenged in that our pastor was asking if people know me as a student or a nurse, or if they know that I am a student or nurse who's main passion in life is to see others come to Jesus Christ, whose goal is to disciple people who don't yet have a relationship with Christ until they do. He was saying that so often we sit around and talk about Jesus with other Christians and talk in depth about what God is teaching us and how He is leading us, and that's important too, to build up fellow Christians, but that what Jesus was calling the disciples to do in Matthew 28:16-20 was to go out and make disciples of all nations, which means people who have not yet come to know Jesus as their Saviour and Lord.

God has called me to impact the world in which I live, to actually go and talk to people and tell them about how much Jesus loves them - why do I find this so hard to do? Sometimes I make excuses for myself and say that they can see it in how I live, but I sometimes I need to actually speak the words from my mouth and just tell people about the greatest thing that could ever happen to them. I have been going to school this past year, and if I see the same people day after day and they don't know Jesus, and if I never even tell them about Christ...yeah I don't even want to think about what that could mean.

The Jesus movement would have died in the New Testament if the disciples would have just stayed comfortable in their own circles and encouraged and built each other up; if they would not have preached the Word to others, it would not have spread in the same way it did. And so I need to daily move out of my comfort zone and realize what Jesus did for me on the cross and out of that understanding and relationhsip with Jesus, knowing that my life is not my own and living in the grace that I have received in Christ, I need to move out and take a hold of the strength and boldness and power that is mine in Christ Jesus and to work with Him to further His kingdom and to love people with His love.

Do I passionately love Jesus? Then just as Jesus said to Peter in John 21:15-17, I must go and feed His sheep, I must tell people about Jesus....for if I just sit back with all this teaching in my head and knowledge about Jesus that I've received from church, I become over-fed and stay in my comfort zone (just like at Christmas time when you eat so much and then don't feel like doing anything). Are there any spiritual avalances being started around me in the same way they were when Peter and the other disciples went out and told people about Jesus, even if they were persecuted? Why do some church members die before leading someone to the Lord? I want to be constantly aware of what Jesus has called me to do, to impact my world for Him. Do I passionately love Jesus?