Commanded Reality
I recently read Psalm 119:1-2: “Joyful are the people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord. Joyful are those who obey his laws, and search for him with all their hearts.” Here and in other Psalms, words like “joy,” “happiness,” and “delight” (depending on translation) are correlated with obedience to God’s commandments. I began thinking about this in the context of Jesus’ final words in the Gospel of Matthew, a.k.a. the Great Commission: “Go and make disciples… teaching them to obey everything I’ve commanded you.”
The Psalms, of course, are referring to the commands and laws God gave to Abraham and Moses. This is the foundation upon which Jesus gives His own commands; He said, “I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.” [Matt. 5:17] Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfilled, once and for all time, the requirements of the Law. But while the Old Testament laws are the “do’s and don’ts” of pleasing God, Jesus’ commands pointed to something even greater. In word and deed, Jesus’ commands reveal His worldview or paradigm — the reality of heaven itself. In Jesus this reality becomes accessible to mankind: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” [John 14:6]
Jesus’ reality stands in sharp contrast to the reality of earth. “Love the Lord your God … Love your neighbor as yourself.” “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.” If I wanted to list all of Jesus’ commands, I could simply copy and paste large chunks of the Gospels into this letter. But the point is, Jesus isn’t talking about “doing things better” — He’s talking about doing things completely differently, old nature replaced by new nature. It’s an existence so different that it can only come when one reality gives way to another.
The foundation of Jesus’ reality is His relationship with the Father. The reality of His followers is established by relationship with Jesus and, through Him, the Father. John 15:1-17 is the familiar “vine and the branches” passage where Jesus tells His followers to “abide” or “remain” in Him, in His love, just as He does with the Father. Without this connection, none of Jesus’ commands make any sense, do any good, or are even worth attempting. “Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” [15:5] How do we do this? Jesus says in verse 10, “When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” It’s a cycle: we remain in relationship with Jesus by following His commands, which we can only do… if we remain in Him.
Jesus’ commands are not a new 10-point moral code tacked onto the old one. Nor did Jesus give us a formula for following Him and getting God’s blessing. His commands describe the reality God originally intended for us that was then marred by sin. Commands that are not designed to restrict us, but to free us — and bring us the joy for which we were created. Jesus said, “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” [John 15:11] Right back to what it says in Psalms — and so much more.
Let’s be honest: there’s something about “obedience” that doesn’t sound like fun — nor does it seem like “good marketing” for our cause. At least on the surface. We are called to live and proclaim God’s reality — an eternal kingdom of joyful relationship — which is far better and desirable than the sin-warped reality into which we’re born. The invitation to follow Jesus is an invitation to enter into His reality. The Great Commission mandate of “teaching them to obey everything I’ve commanded” is about helping others enter and mature in Jesus’ reality; His priorities, perceptions, power, and practices becoming those of His followers.
As I journey with God, He is continually changing the way I think so that in my heart and mind the world’s reality is ever more replaced with Jesus’ reality. In the face of any circumstance or difficulty — from economic jitters to literal earthquakes, personal challenges to future worries — I can choose to define things in terms of Jesus’ reality instead of mine or anyone else’s. In Jesus’ reality, I can say confidently, “With God, all things are possible.” I can regard “the least of these” as truly worthy and valuable. I can trust “that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God.” And I can celebrate that “nothing can ever separate us from God’s love” — nothing can ever cut me off from Jesus’ reality. [Rom. 12:12; Matt. 19:26, 25:40-45; Rom. 8:28, 8:38]
People worldwide are searching for hope, for meaning… for a different reality. Last year, the Lord allowed Global Media Outreach to tell 67 million people how to enter His reality through faith in Jesus Christ. And 10,502,641people indicated their decision to trust Christ for the first time or renew their commitment. We don’t know what kind of “soil” all these people are — only that they were searching and responding. Yet many of the 1,943,585 people who contacted us by email certainly need to learn the joy and fulfillment of obeying all that Christ commanded.
I can only be truly passionate about that which I’ve truly experienced. The more I know and experience Jesus’ reality, the greater my motivation to tell others about it as well. I trust the same is true for you. Thanks for being part of my mission to help others discover and grow in Jesus’ reality.
Get Involved
I’m continually amazed by the stories I hear about the volunteer Online Missionaries who help answer emails from seekers and new believers around the world. These volunteers range from college students to retirees, homemakers to businesspersons. Some have been using the internet for years, while others have bought their first computer just to be involved in this ministry. There’s even one volunteer who has cerebral palsy and can’t feed herself; yet she spends hours using a special computer to write emails and lead a group of other volunteers.
From their homes, offices, or internet cafes (especially in other countries), these volunteers are an indispensable resource for Global Media Outreach. In many cases, someone will simply contact us to request follow-up after making a decision to follow Christ. This is an opportunity for one of volunteers to personally pray for him or her, point to some of our online follow-up tools, and offer to answer any questions. Other times, though, someone may contact us with a specific spiritual need — personal tragedies, family difficulties, or other emotional or spiritual issues.
In the last year, the number of emails received by GMO has doubled, to over 200,000 each month. Yet the number of volunteers, currently about 3,700 worldwide, has not kept pace. This is why our ministry is urgently trusting God to help us expand to 10,000 online missionaries in the next several months. While we need many more English-speaking volunteers, other language groups — especially Spanish — have even more urgent needs.
Part of this need can be met by telling more and more individuals about our ministry. But the greater growth will likely come through our increasing number of partnerships with churches in the US and beyond. Many churches already offer short-term international mission trips. By partnering with GMO, churches can give their members an international ministry opportunity everyday — including those who would otherwise be unable to travel.
I’ve recorded video interviews with several of our online missionaries, including my recent trip to Brazil. It’s exciting to hear how a person’s faith and vision for global missions expands through their involvement in GMO. This is a great opportunity for any believer to be actively involved in helping to fulfill the Great Commission.
This post comes with a challenge (maybe you saw this coming): have you considered becoming an online missionary with GMO? In just a few minutes a day, you can help people you’ve never met — in places you may never visit — grow closer to God. What about your church? There are people all around you on Sunday morning who would be thrilled to become more involved in God’s work.
To get started as an online missionary, just go to www.GMOjoinus.com and click “volunteer.” Be prepared to provide one spiritual reference and briefly describe how you became a Christian. And if you do sign up, please let me know — I would be excited to know you are involved! I would also welcome the opportunity to talk to you, your pastor, or missions committee about partnering with GMO.
GMO Brazil
Brazil is the largest country in South America, the sixth-largest economy in the world, and home to the largest group of Global Media Outreach volunteers outside the United States. Last month I was privileged to spend eight days visiting our GMO co-laborers in Campinas, Brazil — about a two-hour bus ride from the airport in São Paulo.
My trip to Brazil had two purposes. The first was to produce GMO’s basic evangelism and discipleship web video content in Brazilian Portuguese. The other purpose was to record several interviews and gather other footage to create a video documenting the model that has emerged with GMO’s partnership in Brazil. We would like to launch similar partnership in other countries.
The GMO Brazil story began in 2006 when some former missionaries, Brad and Victoria Myers, learned about GMO through their church in California. They realized the potential for this ministry in Brazil, a country where internet access is increasingly common. They then asked our leadership if they could help facilitate training and recruiting volunteer online missionaries in Brazil.
Brad and Victoria went to Brazil and presented the GMO vision and strategy to their friend, Pastor Marcos, and others in Campinas. The pastor’s church, Igreja Baptista El Shaddai, provided a small office space and some funds to help get things started. One of the church’s members, Paulo, began the task of translating GMO’s email response system and training materials into Portuguese. Paulo is now one of our “super volunteers” and helping GMO recruit online missionaries in other Latin American countries.
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God’s supernatural blessing, working through the commitment of our partners, has transformed a handful of volunteers into a movement of over 500 online missionaries spread across Brazil. In addition to their own country, these believers are having a global impact by responding to Portuguese-speaking people around the world: Portugal, Angola, the United States, and many other places.
From the start, the GMO Brazil partnership has included several other pastors and churches. Today, over 100 churches from multiple denominations have joined the effort: Baptist, Nazarene, Presbyterian, Assemblies of God, Foursquare, and more. Besides involving their members in global ministry, this provides a natural and solid link for those being reached online in Brazil to connect with a local church — a key goal of our ministry.
Victoria Myers met up with me in Brazil and helped organize a celebration for GMO Brazil. (She also helped interpret both the language and culture for me.) On Saturday, September 26, one hundred twenty people gathered at a hotel in Campinas to celebrate what God had done through this ministry partnership. Some flew in from 1000 kilometers away, while others drove 5 or 6 hours to be there.
It’s impossible to put into words the great joy and blessing it was for me to be with them — to witness the spiritual kinship and unity of purpose they shared with other GMO partners in the US and around the world. With my friend Paulo as the interpreter, I had the privilege of telling the group about some of GMO’s future plans and announce some new web sites being launched in Portuguese.
Even though I had practiced with some with Spanish-speaking volunteers in Orlando, doing interviews in Portuguese was quite intense. I would ask a question, which was then interpreted, the interviewee would respond, and then I would get a quick interpretation of what he or she said. But I ended up with some great material from Pastor Marcos, Paulo, three other pastors involved with GMO, several of our online missionaries… and a couple who came to Christ through one of our web sites!
Since I also needed to capture some other footage of Brazil, I spent a day shooting in São Paulo — it’s the fourth largest city in the world and, of course, has some world-class traffic jams! I was accompanied by my interpreter and two men from Pastor Marco’s church as my guides and security guards. Even though I saw just a sliver, I was struck by the tremendous diversity of people in this city of 20 million — there’s even a “Japan-town.”
I was able to master a few basic words and phrases in Portuguese. And, of course, I had to sample some of the local cuisine… including a “Brazilian hot dog” which is hard to describe, and was kind of tasty (but later required several tablets of antacid). You can see a photo of this “delicacy” and other pictures on my web site.
I’m so thankful for the opportunity to spend time with our GMO partners in Brazil. I was blessed by Pastor Marcos’ heart for reaching his city and, through GMO, the world. The members of his church gave me a very warm welcome and it was a unique pleasure to fellowship with them. I’m humbled to be part of a ministry that is involving so many other committed believers around the world in fulfilling the Great Commission. And I’m all the more thankful for my own team of partners who make my ministry possible.
On my last night in Brazil, many of my new friends asked when I would be coming back. I simply replied, “When God allows” — which I truly hope will be sometime soon!
