Missions Ambition

[lightbox full=”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/paul_s_missionary_journeys-e1358033832355.jpg” thumb=”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/paul_s_missionary_journeys-e1358033832355.jpg” title=”Paul’s Missionary Journeys” /]

Missions Ambition

 
Romans 15:20 I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation,

Often times we think of raw, unchecked ambition in a negative connotation but Paul was not shy in stating that he had a holy ambition… a missions ambition… and we should have it too.

If God has saved us and made us His own, be assured, it was not just so we could sit back and relax. He saved us and has called every single one of us to join Him in His mission to save the rest of the world. Missions isn’t just the job of a few hyperactive Christians in the church. Missions is each of our calling.

I love how Matthew Barnett says it,

[quote]
“When you were born, God instilled many things within you. One of them was a great CAUSE that He wants you to embrace. In His unique grandeur, He created a universe in which the cumulative effect of all people faithfully pursuing the cause within them would result in a transformed world – one in which everyone’s needs would be met and every servant’s heart would be filled with the joy of blessing others. Unfortunately, we live in a traumatized world – in part because so many people fail to identify and pursue the cause He has given them. Even though it would provide the happiness and fulfillment they have been seeking, they have failed to build their lives around that cause.” – Matthew Barnett
[/quote]

God has more for us to do and to be a part of than we have dared to dream. We need to get a holy ambition to impact the world.

[quote]
“If your vision doesn’t scare you, then both your vision and your God are too small.” – Brother Andrew
[/quote]

So why does the great majority of church going, faith professing, Christians live lives that don’t reflect this kind of raging ambition? Somehow we have been lulled into the thought that impacting the world for Christ is a calling reserved for a radical few. We have traded God’s plan for the Christian life for one of our own making.
[quote]
“We tend to drift away from God’s bold vision, replacing it with a safer, tamer vision of our own.” – Richard Stearns
[/quote]

Many of us at some point in our lives get an inkling that something isn’t right. We read the book of Acts and wonder… “Why doesn’t God work the same way today?” For a moment we wonder if we aren’t supposed to be doing more for God and experiencing more of His power and seeing more transformation in the world. We wonder if we shouldn’t break from the norms of our culture and give ourselves to the work of God completely. Then fear strikes. “We can’t just give up everything. I mean we can’t all be gospel agents can we? Somebody has to be average American Christians.” We look around and notice that no one else seems disturbed with the disparity between the Bible and our lives and so we shrug, assuming that we have just experienced a brief lapse in reality. After all, “we must submit to the demands of our society. How can we provide for ourselves and our family if we don’t stay in the rat race? Radical ministry must be for someone with less responsibilities and encumbrances than me. Some of us are made for big dreams but not me.” I’m tempted to believe it but then I read quotes like…
[quote]
“We need to dream big dreams because it keeps us on our knees in raw dependence. Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. “ – Mark Batterson
[/quote]
or like…
[quote]
“God loves with a great love the man whose heart is bursting with a passion for the impossible.” -William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
[/quote]
And I know that I can’t quit. It’s why I love to keep quotes like these around me. Because the enemy is always trying to lull me back to sleep but the future generations of the Bullen family can’t afford for me to get distracted. The hundreds of orphans our ministry serves can’t afford for me to get distracted. The young ministers and missionaries whom I have the joy of mentoring and encouraging can’t afford for me to get distracted. The seasoned saints who have invested in me over the decades can’t afford for me to get distracted and squander their spiritual investment. The lives that I will touch with my simple obedience can’t afford for me to get distracted. My own soul and my joy and my happiness can’t afford for me to get distracted. I am addicted to the mission of God and I can’t live without it. My mind and soul having been stretched to know this amazing life can never retract back to their original smallness. I must press on. I have a mission ambition to push out the boundaries of His kingdom until all know Him and worship Him. I’ve read and believed quotes like the ones below and they have stretched my heart beyond the point of no return. I’m hopelessly consumed with an ambition… a mission ambition…
[quote]
“One of the reasons that we are often not as happy as we should be and could be is that our vision of what our life is about is too small. We try to find happiness in our work, our family, and our friends. He wants the whole world to be embraced by His saving glory in Jesus Christ and He wants you and me to be involved in this. Our hearts can expand with joy in God as we watch Him triumph in the world. One of the reasons that missions is so advancing to our happiness is because you are engaged in something that not only is God very excited about but that cannot fail… we are linking our lives to something global, something absolutely indomitable, and something absolutely eternal and when you are linked to big things, strong things, sure things like that your joy is deeper, stronger, and bigger.” – John Piper
[/quote]

[quote]”‘Not called!’ did you say?
‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say.”
— William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
[/quote]

[quote]
“I pray that the Lord might give you a dare-devil spirit, consuming you with a passion that is called by the cultured citizen of Christendom ‘fanaticism’, but known to God as that saint-ly madness that led His Son through bloody sweat and hot tears to agony on a rude Cross—and Glory!” – Jim Elliot
[/quote]

So, will you take up the challenge? What Holy Ambition is God stirring in your heart even now?