“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Matt. 5:4 A friend recently told me of an encounter he had with an indigenous person on a mission trip we were both on. He said he was sharing the gospel with this man and when he started discussing the fall of man and man losing his perfect relationship with God, the man began to shake and weep uncontrollably. Quite frankly this convicted me. Does sin and its effects on myself and mankind produce that kind of grief in me? At one time, I can remember seeing a map of unreached people groups in South Asia. Each group was represented by a red dot and South Asia looked like someone just colored the whole area solid red. I remember thinking, "those aren't just dots... That represents millions and millions of people who haven't even had the opportunity to hear about Jesus and the salvation he offers." I was broken by that, I balled my eyes out. Where did that brokenness over our fallen world go? I know Matt. 5:4 encompasses so much more than that. I recently read a quote by Charles Spurgeon that said, "O for grace to see our future glory amid present shame! Indeed there is a present glory in our afflictions, if we could but discern it, for it is no mean thing to have fellowship with Christ in his sufferings." There are many things that produce mourning in this broken world we live in. And for those that have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we are promised that we will be comforted. But my prayer is that the things that break the heart of God will break my heart. My prayer is that I will mourn over the sin in my life, that I will mourn over the sin in my family's lives, that I will mourn over the sin in my neighbors life, and that I will mourn over the soul who I have the opportunity to share with. Reflecting on this verse today brought to mind Psalms 126:5-6: "Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! 6 He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him."
Spurgeon said of these verses: "When
a man's heart is so stirred that he weeps over the sins of others, he
is elect to usefulness. Winners of souls are first weepers for souls. As
there is no birth without travail,
so is there no spiritual harvest without painful tillage. When our own
hearts are broken with grief at man's transgression we shall break other
men's hearts: tears of earnestness beget tears of repentance: "deep
calleth unto deep." Lord, forgive me for not being broken over sin. May the things that grieve your heart grieve mine. May the sin of each lost soul that I have the opportunity to share your good news with break my heart and may many be redeemed for your glory!
Am I a spiritual beggar? "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Mt. 5:3. Reading this morning, God wouldn't let me past this verse. I have read it so many times and heard many sermons on it. I decided to dig into it a little more. As I was studying, I came across one of the definitions for the Greek word translated poor and it really challenged me. Ptochos - beggar or reduced to beggary. After being in third world countries where seeing beggars who are desperate and completely dependent upon the mercy of others to even survive the day or not starve, this got my attention. Blessed or "Happy" is the poor in spirit. This seems contradictory. However, it reminded me of the promises we see in Isaiah 55 and Revelations 22. "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” Isaiah 55:1-2 I can only imagine the joy and happiness in the heart of the beggar in South Asia were I to walk up to them and tell them I know a place they can get all the fresh water they want and all the delicious food they want and they DON'T need money! This is the exact thing Jesus offers us! But, do I realize how desperate I am in my spirit? Am I to the point to being a spiritual beggar? Does the living water and bread of life seem so precious to me that I am filled with consistent joy in the Father who provides it to this spiritual beggar? Or am I spending my money and the affections of my spirit on things that are not food and do not satisfy? Lord, show me how needy I am today for You. May I experience even more unspeakable joy than the beggar who is offered free unlimited physical food and drink. May I delight myself in you.
This is a story about two young men, two lives, from two
very different backgrounds.The first
young man was born to a Christian family in the United States.As he grew, his family made sure they raised
him to know about Jesus.He was in
church most times that the doors were open and he had multiple Bibles in his
house.Bottom line is he heard the
Gospel on a regular basis.When he was
around eleven years old he became aware of his sin which separated him from God,
his inability to save himself through his own good works, and realized he
needed Jesus to save him.He accepted
the gift of salvation that Jesus offers at that time, but there was little
growth.The pull of sin and this world
pulled him away in his teen years.However, he now had the spirit of God inside of him and he never could
get comfortable with his way of life.He
continued to hear the Gospel on a regular basis and finally when he turned
twenty one, he rededicated his life to Christ, was discipled, and now seeks to glorify
Jesus Christ throughout the world in all he does.He has been forgiven of all his sin, been
promised eternal life, been rescued from deserved eternal suffering and
separation from the one true God, and been given hope.All this because of the opportunity he had to
hear the greatest story ever told about the greatest person who ever lived –
King Jesus.
The second young man (let’s call him Raja) was born in a
small village in South Asia.As soon as
he was born, his father whispered the Shahada in his ear declaring their faith,
“There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.”As he grew, he was taught the five things he
must do to be a “good Muslim” – Confess the Shahada from the heart; pray; fast;
give a small percentage of his income; take a hajj (journey to Mecca).He was taught that if he just does more of
these “good things” than bad, he MAY have the opportunity to enter paradise if
Allah wills.As he grows he genuinely
tries to do these good things.When he
is old enough, he is sent to a Madrasah school to learn how to recite and write
the Qur’an in Arabic.He believes this
gains him more favor with Allah.He has
never heard that he is incapable of saving himself from his sin and that Jesus
died and rose again to pay the penalty for his sins and purchase a place for
him in eternity.All he has to do is
accept this gift.But how can he accept
it if he doesn’t know it is being offered?He continues to grow and when he is old enough his father sends him to
the United States to get an education and to make money to help his
family.He is scared.He has been told his whole life to stay away
from Christians.He has seen American TV
and assumes all Christians are immoral, because he assumes all Americans are
Christians.When he arrives in America,
he is alone.He does well in school and
works hard at his job, but Americans aren’t very friendly to him.No one welcomes him to the country, no one
invites him into their homes, and if they do happen to look at him it is
usually with suspicion and disdain.He
finishes up in the United States and heads back home. He is thankful to be back
in his homeland.But in his homeland,
there is no Christian witness and no access to the Gospel.He never heard and may never hear outside of
a miraculous work of God…
The first young man is me.I had every opportunity from an early age to hear the Gospel, understand
it, and respond to it.I had this
opportunity more times than I could count before I even responded to it.Raja could be any one of the millions of
immigrants that are coming to our country every year.The great question is what is the difference
in me and Raja?Why was I born in
America where I had every opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel?Why was he not?There is nothing special about me to deserve
this.I am the same creation of God as Raja.It is purely by the grace of God that He put
me in this situation, allowed me to hear his plan of salvation, and saved
me.An even greater question is what am
I going to do with the salvation I have been blessed with?The Bible tells us we are blessed to be a
blessing.Psalms 67: 1-2, “God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us— Selah.
That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation
among all nations.”In 2012, more
than 165 million people entered the US for one reason or another from every
nation on earth.God is the great mover
of people and He, in His sovereignty, has brought the nations to us in the
United States where we are free to share the Gospel with them.This is something they may never have the
opportunity to hear in their homeland. Oh
what a shame it would be if most immigrants had the same experience as Raja.We must wake up to the opportunity that God
has placed before us!
In 1271, Marco Polo returned from his time in China among
the Mongols.The ruler of all of China
at the time, Kublai Khan, had given Polo a letter to deliver to Pope requesting
100 teachers to teach the Mongols about Christianity.For some reason, this request went
unfulfilled.Some say that the Popes at
the time were more concerned about defending themselves militarily than taking
the Gospel to those who needed to hear it.With the knowledge we have now, some label this as one of the biggest
missed opportunities in church history.For me, the similarities are staggering.Will we, as the American church, be so concerned about our borders,
about possible dangers, about defending ourselves militarily, and about
strangers in our nation that we miss an unprecedented opportunity to take the
Gospel to countless numbers of people from unreached and least reached people
groups that God has sovereignly placed in our reach?Will Christians hundreds of years from now
look back at this as yet another of the biggest missed opportunities in church
history? I am not saying we don't need to pay attention to these things, but an unhealthy fear which derails us from the mission of God could have dire consequences.
In Numbers 13, the Israelite spies return from spying out the promised land. The majority of the spies let fear rule their decision to report that they could not take the land. Only Joshua and Caleb stand in faith stating of the people of the land, "...the Lord is with us; do not fear them." The decision made in fear had dire consequences for the nation of Israel as they wandered in the desert for 40 more years after that and none of them except for Joshua and Caleb got to enter the land that was promised to them. In the same way, may fear never keep us from carrying out the great commission Jesus gave to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I commanded you..." because just as He was with the Israelites, He has promised us "...and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:19-20)
What is Jesus worth to me?I woke up at 4:00AM one morning and could not escape this question.If someone asked me that question I would
respond with what most Christians would respond with… everything!That is the proper answer, right?In fact, I did a little experiment and asked
Emma and Lola (my 10 and 8 year old girls) what Jesus was worth to them and I got
that exact same answer… everything!But
I think it is too easy to say this and not truly live it.I mean let’s really look at this, which is
more valuable to me if I could only choose one or the other: Jesus or my wife;
Jesus or my children; Jesus or my comfort; Jesus or my money; Jesus or my security?I think in the past, I have been very quick
to give the “church” answer without truly counting the cost.Jesus warns us against this in Luke 14, "For
which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit
down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?"
When I was in college, I read a book by Dr. Jerry Pipes and Victor Lee called Family to Family: Leaving a Lasting Legacy.It discussed the importance of having a
family mission statement.I thought that
it was a really good idea at the time, but with most things in college, I
rapidly moved on to the next thing without putting it into practice.When we recently made the decision to move to
New York to pursue full time mission work, I thought it was important to define our
family’s mission. A mission statement is a statement of
the purpose of a company, organization or person or its reason for existing.So what is our reason for existing? Isaiah 43:7 states, “everyone who is
called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” God
created us for His glory.This is why we
exist.After pondering this, I prayed
that God would show us what He wanted our mission statement to be.The following morning is when I woke up with
that question on my mind.What is Jesus
worth?What is Jesus worth to me?Immediately, Jesus’ parables in Matthew 13
came to mind.
In Matthew 13:44, Jesus tells a parable, “The kingdom of
heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it
again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that
field.”Here we see that this man sold
ALL he had to obtain this precious treasure and he didn’t hold on to one
thing.This treasure was worth more than
ALL he had.He didn’t do it begrudgingly
either.It says he did it with joy!Jesus told another parable a few verses down
in 45-46 that drives home the same point.This guy finds a precious pearl and sells everything he has to obtain
it.The theme is that once these guys
see the worth of what they have found, everything else they had obtained up
until that point in their life was not important to them anymore.Paul put it this way in Philippians.
Everything else is rubbish compared to Jesus.Now Paul is in prison when he is writing
these words, so these words about him losing all for the sake of the Jesus hold some weight.In Phil. 3:7-8, he
writes, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of
Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing
worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I
consider them garbage that I may gain Christ.” Paul had it all, status, education, power, what he thought
was righteousness, but he says what he once considered gain, he now considers
it loss for the sake of Christ.Jesus is
now his only profit. He continues on to say he has lost all things and considers
them garbage, that he may gain Christ.I
like the way the King James puts it that he considers them dung that he may win
Christ.So this is not garbage that
someone might want to go through to pick out some useful items for re-purposing.This is dung compared to Jesus – no one would
want to touch it.And Jesus is the
prize.How much is Jesus worth?Jesus said he was worth everything.Paul said not only is he worth everything,
but everything else is garbage compared to Him.
So I think the question that should be asked is why is Jesus
worth everything to me?Why is he
precious to me?The definition of precious is rare, worth a
lot of money; or too valuable or important to be wasted or used carelessly; or
greatly loved.Peter talks of Christ’s
preciousness in 1 Peter 2, “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious
cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”Now
to you who believe, this stone is precious...” Regarding these verses, John Piper said, “When Peter says, 'To you who believe he is
precious,' he is showing what distinguishes believers from unbelievers. He
is not saying that there are a few really spiritual believers who desire Christ
and feel his preciousness. He is saying that if you are a believer, if you are
saved, for you Christ is precious. If you do not feel his preciousness, if you
do not desire him like a baby desires milk, examine the roots of your faith and
see if they are sucking up life from the precious blood of Christ and the
promises of God, or if they are simply curled around the dry rocks of habit,
tradition, custom, form, peer pressure. Is Christ an allurement to your
affections, or just duty to be performed? Are you moved by desire for him, or
by the expectations of family and church?"
After considering all this, I jotted down our
family mission statement:
Our family will seek to glorify God our Father
by helping people see the incomparable worth of Jesus our Lord and Savior
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
He is worthy and
he is precious.He is precious to me
because He lived a life I could not live and died a death I deserved to die so
that I might be forgiven of my sin and reconciled to the God who made me for
his glory.How much is Jesus worth to me?
All my pride,
power, and position? He is worth it!
All my fear,
failure, and insecurity? He is worth it!
All my money,
toys, and possessions? He is worth it!
All my pain,
suffering, and tears? He is worth it!
He is worth more
than this world could ever offer me or this life could ever throw at me. He is
worth it!
Our desire as we follow
Jesus to New York is to show people what Jesus is really worth.The Bangladeshi Muslims that we will be
reaching out to hold Jesus in high regard as a prophet of Islam, but he
is not of infinite worth to them.By the way, we
do the same thing.We ascribe worth to
Jesus, but then we hold on to things that are no better than garbage or dung
compared to Jesus in reality because deep down they are worth more to us.This is what the rich young ruler did.He wanted Jesus, but he wanted his riches
more.If only he could see that Jesus
was worth infinitely more than any riches he could ever amass.This is what we want all people to see –
Jesus is the ultimate treasure in this life and in His kingdom to come!
About five years ago, God made it clear to us that He was calling us into the mission field full time.We followed that call and Daniel completed seminary at Liberty University.After praying through multiple ministry options, we recently accepted an opportunity to join Global Gates in New York City.Global Gates’ mission is the gospel transforming societies and peoples through ministry, missions mobilization, training, and church planting movements among unreached peoples in our cities and beyond.We really developed a heart for the Bangladeshi people on our short term trips.On Daniel’strip to Bangladesh, he was able to see the great need for the gospel among this unreached people group.
There are approximately 100,000 Bangladeshis living in Metro New York.We will be working in the Parkchester neighborhood in the Bronx.This neighborhood has the 5th largest concentration of Bangladeshis in the city with no church, little to no engagement, and no church planting efforts currently.The majority in this neighborhood are Muslim and have major influence in their home country.Our vision is to reach this neighborhood for Christ by making disciples and reproducible churches so that subsequently the gospel will be advanced in Bangladesh, and ultimately, throughout the world.With many Bangladeshis owning their own business in NYC, we would also like to use Daniel’s business background to serve these unreached people groups by providing business principles that will help their businesses grow.The prayer is that through this ministry, Daniel will be able to create relationships that will transition into discipleship opportunities.
During our first year in New York, we will be attending a missionary training school called EQUIP.This program will help us learn about the DNA of reproducible church planting, cross-cultural ministry, and the gospel while working alongside experienced church planters.This will also be a hands on learning school where we will have the opportunity to start discovery bible studies and churches among internationals and unreached people groups within New York City.
We would love for you to partner with us to be a part of our ministry team.Please pray for us and the unreached people groups in NYC on a regular basis. Contact us if you would like us to send you a prayer card.We would also love to share more about this and our family mission and vision with you. Please contact us if you would like more information at dowen@globalgates.info for Daniel or jowen@globalgates.info for Julia.
