What is a Missionary?

Jesus said to them again, ’. . . As the Father has sent Me, I also send you’ —John 20:21

A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the inspiration out in front— to sweep everything together in front of us and make it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be true to Him— to carry out His plans.

Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God’s call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ— “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . .” (Matthew 28:19).

When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency is to say, “What wonderfully keen and intelligent wisdom they had, and how perfectly they understood all that God wanted!” But the keen and intelligent mind behind them was the mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the divine guidance of God being exhibited through childlike people who were “foolish” enough to trust God’s wisdom and His supernatural equipment.

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宣教士是什麼？

"父怎樣差遣了我，我也照樣差遣你們。"約20：21

宣教士是被耶穌所差遣的人，正如耶穌被神差遣一樣。最重要的不是人的需要，而是耶穌的命令。激勵我們為神工作的根源是在後面，而不是在前面。今日的趨勢是將激勵放在前面，把每一件事帶到我們面前，使其達到我們對勝利的看法。在新約裡面，激勵是放在我們後頭，就是主耶穌。目標是向他真誠，實現他的事業。

一定不可以忽視個人對主耶穌和他的觀點的忠誠。在宣教事業中，最大的危險是神的呼召被人的需要逐漸削弱，以致人的同情心絕對的壓倒了被耶穌差遣的意義。需要是如此巨大，環境是如此令人困惑，以致我們心思裡的所有力量都動搖和失敗。我們忘記了在所有宣教事業背後最大的原因首先不是人的高尚，不是人的教育，也不是滿足他們的需要；居首位的和最重要的是耶穌基督的命令－－"所以，你們要去，使萬民作我的門徒。"（太28： 19）

當回過頭來看屬神的男女的生平，趨向說－－"他們有何等奇妙機敏的智慧！他們如此完全的明白神的旨意！"其實這機敏的心思乃是神的心思，根本不是人的智慧。我們本當信任神的屬天指引的時候，我們卻信任人的智慧；神藉著小孩子一樣的人來引導我們，他們是"愚拙"而完全信靠神的智慧和他超自然才能的人。

祈禱◆主啊，求你今天在我的禱告、敬拜和工作中，以你的靈重新膏抹我，以致在一切事情上，你都可以得居優越的位置。