According to eastwest.org, more than 3 billion people have never heard of the gift of salvation that is possible through Jesus Christ. Per radical.net, approximately 400,000 Christians are classified as missionaries. Someone is considered a missionary (for the sake of these statistics) if they have moved elsewhere to spread the Gospel. Out of those 400,000, fewer than 13,000 - about 3%—are going to unreached people.
Churches spend approximately 99% of their missions resources (estimated to be 53 billion dollars) in places already reached with the Gospel, leaving about 1% of missions resources to the 3 billion people who haven’t heard the Gospel.
If our napkin math is correct, roughly 17 cents per person is invested in reaching the unreached. For the sake of contrast, It costs a cell phone company about $350 to acquire a new customer. Using that benchmark, just over a trillion dollars would be needed to reach and convert souls to deliverance.
We count ourselves fortunate that we are not part of that pool. We know now that an investment was blindly made by somebody generations before us that formed our moment of conversion. The word of God was translated into a language we could read. Books were printed and distributed. Churches were built. Meals were served. Tracks were printed. Radio and television programs were produced. We heard, we accepted, and we were saved.
Our heart goes out to the group who has lived without hearing the good news. The news that an eternity in heaven can be spent by simply turning our hearts and lives over to a savior that our God gave to a world He loves.
This post explores our response to the gift that was given to us. That gift was bought with money and with blood. This writing caused us to ask how and why we were touched and what we can do to touch others.
We believe God created the heavens, the earth, and everything in them. We believe that our purpose on this earth is to be good stewards of all he has granted us, to love God with all our heart and soul, and to love our neighbors unconditionally.
That being our base, we acknowledge that when it comes to money, we need to remember that we are not the owners of the currency but simply managers. We operate on the premise that God does not need our money and that we need to consider that it should become an extension of our worship. More pointedly, we shouldn’t worship our money; we should use our money to worship Him.
Our epic fail
We are aware of the fact that we fall short of our desired goals. We get caught up in the earthly noise while He listens to the hearts' cries. We tend to invest in stuff while we should be investing in others.
The United States of America was built on debt in a quest for excess. We followed the American dream: we want - we get and defer the obligation to a debtor. We become slaves to debt and worship the means to more money.
We often make choices to invest in our physical and emotional comfort. Things, not beings, become our quest. Souls are traded for junk. We know this, but it keeps happening.
Our prayer is that our perspective shifts and that we can break the self-serving cycle and connect to our true purpose.
His classic cause
As we muddle through life seeking the material to fulfill our quest for harmony, God has delivered ultimate peace, hand-wrapping it and placing it on our hearts. Is it not right are we not called to pass that gift on to others?
The Bible commissions us to invest in spreading the good news in the Book of Matthew, chapter 28, verses 16 through 20:
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This call came at the end of Jesus' earthly ministry. A parting command. His final ask. Note that Jesus did not direct us to get for ourselves but to get for him.
We struggle to place His priority as our priority. We need to make our call more important than our possessions. We need to “go” and show. We must strive to put our money where our hearts should be – to invest our time for His cause, not ours.
This all leaves us feeling short of ultimate peace. We strive for progress, not perfection, in all that we do. Even the disciples questioned, and Jesus answered. And he is answering us today.
There are 3 billion reasons why we should look at our time and resources while considering where progress can be made. We have been given much to support our quest to reach those who need hope and who deserve to hear the Bible's good news.
Is not a soul saved worth more than 17 cents? We pray that we be moved to message to the masses – one soul at a time – being the best stewards of His blessings, investing in His future.
Thoughts and ideas for this blog post were taken and built upon from asweunderstandhim.coffee podcast “Rooted Week 8 "How does God view money?" with Rick … The podcast dropped on 10/1/2023. Click here to hear the podcast.
Photo by Diane Helentjaris on Unsplash
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