Your Corner of the World

By Brenda Boen
October 16, 2008

Imagine if you will, an area with a church on just about every corner, many Christians in the area enjoying fellowship with each other and the freedom to speak openly about God.  People are happy and secure because they have hope in a future in Heaven.  The only problems that arise are how big to construct the next church add-on building, what color the carpet should be and how to spend all the excess tithe money.  People go to work and make an impact on their co-workers for Christ.  Children sing Sunday school songs at recess and others join in.  Teens meet at the flagpole and boldly pray for their school.  Churches pop up all other the place and quickly get filled.

Sound too good to be true?  Well, it is happening in America and it is wonderful.  But what about the rest of the world?  Take China for instance.  They have a population of 1.3 billion and 1.2 billion of them are lost and don’t know God or have even heard about Him.  In May the Sichuan earthquake resulted in 80,000 deaths, destroyed 5 million homes (that’s 5 million homeless families), and left 5,500 children orphaned.  Of the dead, the vast majority entered eternity lost.  How sad.  The good news is that there are Christians there trying to get the Word out.  They have monumental task before them just reaching the vast number of people in the most populated place in the world.  Very few of the Chinese people have even seen a Bible.

Even though China is so much larger than America or even Lone Oak, the contrast I am making here is that at times we get caught up in our own little comfort zone.  We go day to day without much care about others around us.  Some of our big issues at times are where are we going to go to eat, sadness over missing our favorite TV show and bad mouthing the car that passes us on the road.  There are far more important issues at stake.  The workers in China strive to reach 1.2 million lost people.  For us, the lost are right here in our own country, our own state, our own community, even in our own church.

We need to develop an attitude like Christ and seek the lost and tell them the Good News. 

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”  Luke 19:10

Don’t assume that someone knows the Lord because they are nice or do good things.  Reach out to everyone and let them know they have value in God’s eyes and that you care.  Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone.  Jesus went to the house of sinners, talked to the lepers, talked to harlots and even went to a tax collectors house.  He went to the lost, to those who needed Him the most.  We should do the same.  God loves everyone and wants them to have a transformed life.  We can be His hands and feet on earth.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the every end of the age.”  Matthew 28:19-20

Will you go?  You don’t have to go to China, but you can go next door, down the street, to the gas station or the local grocery store and make an impact on lives right here where you live. 

One on one we can make a difference.