August 31, 2016

Mission Challenge

John 17:11-19

As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

—  John 17:18

Jesus prays to the Father, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” We are sent into the world as ambassadors for God’s kingdom. And just as Jesus came to live among us as a human being and to share God’s love, so we are called to come alongside people in their settings and share Christ’s love and good news with them.

In our going “into the world”—whether it’s in our own community, far away, or somewhere in between—we go in the power of God’s name, by which Jesus prays we will be kept safe.

This mission brings restoration to people who are broken, healing to those who are sick, and hope to those without hope. Jesus’ followers help to educate children and adults so that they can be equipped to serve and share Jesus everywhere in this world.

Over the centuries, so many ambassadors of Christ have blessed the world. Christians have shown God’s love by caring for the poor and by advocating for the oppressed. Preachers and translators have helped to bring God’s Word to millions in hundreds of languages. Christian development organizations have helped people work together to grow crops, improve health conditions, and recover from disasters. God’s love has shone in many other ways as well.

Is God’s love showing through you, where you are, today?

Father, thank you for Jesus and his love. May your love flow through us to accomplish your purposes in this world. Amen.

About the author — John Kuperus

Since he was young, John Kuperus has had a passion that everyone would know Jesus. Spreading the good news that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15) is very important to him. To be better equipped for missions, John attended Reformed Bible College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He applied these skills with marketplace evangelism in a business he started in Sussex, New Jersey. This calling continued to follow him, so John attended seminary and became a minister in the Christian Reformed Church, serving a church in Ontario for eight years. Currently he serves as a missionary for Youth with a Mission (YWAM). He witnesses Jesus changing lives as people walk out of the darkness into the light. John is married to Helen, and they have seven children.

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