The 268 DeclarationSample

Willingness to Shine the Gospel to all People

Worship and Justice have always been two sides of the same coin. They are inextricably linked; where the people of God go, so goes His Spirit and its promptings.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

All over the world, God is seeking worshippers of all peoples to bring Glory to His name through the praises of their lips and the care of their hands. But how will these people bear witness to Jesus? Where will they first see and hear of His character and His sacrifice? How will the power of God move into their communities and cultures, ultimately conforming them to likeness with Jesus as the least among them are looked after and the destitute defended?

He will call and listen for the ones who respond.

"Here am I, Lord, send me!"

We, the carriers of his name, who God's face has shone upon, we will be sent as His witnesses to the ends of the Earth. We who carry His Holy Spirit will learn to do right, to seek justice and defend the oppressed; to take up the cause of the fatherless and plead the case of the widow. The servants of God must not bunker down in the safety of our community and wait for His glorious return, for what will our lives have been if we do? No, it is incumbent upon those who speak the name of Jesus with fear and trembling to move out into the world and across it, a light for all, shining in our words and deeds so that every nation, tribe, and people would hear that same name and be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What will we have been willing to lay down, to surrender, to run to in order to have an impact on the crowded streets of Heaven?

Our chance is here; our Father is calling.

And so we pray: God, kindle in me the desire to go anywhere, at any time, at any cost, to do anything to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.