The more I drove, even arriving at my destination... the thought would not leave me. I giggled at the sentiment because there is a bit of truth to it and it had a sting of conviction to it for me. All day long the thought kept at the front of my thoughts and would not let me go. Clearly my spirit was wrestling with something and it went far deeper than bumper sticker theology!
I thought about the clients that I see daily and their heart of restoration for their families. Something inside the depth of my heart challenged the momentary guilt I felt for never having taken the gospel to the "ends of the earth." Then it occurred to me-- maybe the Christians who don't have a passport have genuinely caught the divine revelation of the importance of "Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria!"
I have recently had the great honor to work along side of some very devoted counselors and lay-ministers as we develop a community-wide Celebrate Recovery ministry in the DFW area. I have heard the heart-cry of these home-based missionaries who relate stories of God's deliverance in their lives and how they now walk in freedom from their hurts, habits and hang-ups. A friend asked me the other day why I was so intense and passionate about the ministry of Celebrate Recovery. I told her there are only two things by which we can overcome: 1. the blood of the Lamb and 2. the word of our testimony.
I have seen people dabble with efforts at change and it had effects that lasted about as long as most New year's Resolutions! But I have seen the power of God do amazing things in people's lives in Celebrate Recovery and it has been nothing short of life-changing transformation. It is not for the faint of heart. It is much like Jacob when he wrestled with the Angel of the Lord at Pineal. Jacob said, "I saw God face-to-face and yet my life was spared."
I see these transformed people fighting for their families in heart-wrenching prayer. I see them lay down their worries and anxieties and begin to walk in freedom, trusting that God will keep relentlessly pursuing their loved one's who they pray for. They stopped striving in vanity to change their loved one's and began laying them at the feet of Jesus through travailing prayer.
I watch the devotion of these people to the see the salvation of their loved ones and I what I see are home-land missionaries. They are in every bit of a spiritual warfare for a lost people-group than are those missionaries in the depths of Africa.
And speaking of Africa-- many years ago a missionary from South Africa came to our church and spoke. My immediate assumption was that he was coming to call for more laborers to his country. But I was quickly taken aback at my arrogance when he began telling us how God called him out of Africa to be a missionary to the church in the United States!
There was a moment of deep calling unto deep. A quiet whisper-- turn your heart towards home. It is true that not all Christians are called to be overseas missionaries, but make no mistake-- ALL Christians are called to be missionaries! What is your mission field? Have we failed to see the value of the mission field in our own homes, in our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and our own country?
My clients are just a microcosm of the American church. These are believers in depths of the battle for the health and safety of their families. I would dare say the average church congregations are just as wounded and/or spiritually broken as the people who seek me for counsel. But at least my clients are aware of their need for help. Too often the church is unaware of it's own brokenness and too ashamed to ask for help for fear it would make them look weak.
As I think in term of the homeland mission field, one thought pierces my heart and mind, "God forbid that we would ever replicate disciples in our own brokenness and woundedness!" In fact it is the great commission itself that makes me all the more vigilant to stay home and disciple my own children, the clients God sends to me, the people in my church, the people in our communities in terms of RECOVERY and HEALING and FREEDOM. Then, and only then, are healed and made new in Christ that we could confidently disciple people with the mind of Christ-- not our brokenness. God does not need the church to replicate broken and wounded disciples.
I think the map of priority is right there in black and white--- well, read letters, actually! The mission we have all been given begins at home (Jerusalem) and then to our surrounding community (Judea) and then to those pesky suburbs that may irritate us (Samaria).... and then, only then.... to the ends of the earth. If our priorities are so misaligned that we go out and save the world and then lose the very one's God has placed in our homes and within touching distance--what have we profited? Broken people beget broken people. Hurt people will hurt people. And ultimately-- free people will free people.
I have gotten of the guilt of not having a passport. I have even come to terms with the fact that I may never set a foot in Nicaragua as was my heart's desire for so long. But God has given me an unquenchable passion and desire to help heal the broken-hearted and bind up their wounds and help them cling to Jesus with every fiber of their being--- right here in America.
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