Rev. Randy Felton
Potter's Clay Ministries, 417 NW 42nd St, OKC, OK 73118
Shalom2@cox.net
http://www.haydid.org/potter.htm

Missions, A Mitzvah!

Mitzvah: To appoint, to charge, to command. Is it a commandment to do missions? First I suppose we should define missions. Mission: a sending out or being sent out to perform a special duty. Matthew 28:19 "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Mat 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Does this sound like a mitzvah? I would venture to say that the concept goes back much farther.

Gen 17:11 " And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you."

Circumcision was to be a sign of the covenant. How did you know if someone was counted within the covenant of God? You looked to his circumcision. How will the people of this world know if we are a part of the family of God today? They look for our circumcision, just as in the days of old. However, they are not looking to our flesh, but to the circumcision of our heart. Deuteronomy 10:16, 30:6 and Jeremiah 4:4, all speak about God’s desire that we circumcise our heart. This is what the world wants to see, this is what the world needs to see. We need to show that our hearts are circumcised.

Just what is circumcision? It is the cutting away of the foreskin. It removes the covering or boundary and opens us to sensitivity. It also makes us clean. A recent study as reported in our local paper states that in Africa, AIDS is rampant among the young men who are not circumcised. There is a correlation between the removal of the foreskin and disease. The same is true of our hearts. If we keep our hearts circumcised, we are more sensitive and open to the cleansing from sin. A hard heart covered with a shroud, does not feel as readily and is not as easily cleansed. A circumcised heart will be open to feeling the pain of others and will cry out for cleanliness. Circumcise therefore your hearts! Jesus/Yeshua, is the one who can and will do this for us. Complete submission to Him will bring this about. If you have any concern that your heart is not circumcised, now is the time to stop and pray. Ask God to come in and cut away the hardness of your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh, the very breath of God, to blow away all semblance of uncleanness from your heart.

Now that we are circumcised of the heart, how do we show the world? How do we let the world see our circumcision?

Zec 7:9 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother:

Zec 7:10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

John 21:15-17, Jesus tells us to "Feed My sheep".

John 13:35, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

There are many more scriptures I could pull out to reinforce the concept, but I think you get the point. What I am going to suggest is somewhat radical for most of us. It is much more comfortable to seek out, those of like faith, those who are from similar culture and economic backgrounds. We are not to stand circled around one another and pat each other on the back. We are to go out into a lost and dying world and show, not just tell, them about the love of God.

My ministry is primarily to the "Church". While I go into churches, and I speak at conferences and home gatherings and Bible studies, I notice one common thing. I see people who show up consistently who are eager to learn. What I do not see is the same people going out and doing anything with their learning. Now I know that there are those who do go and share what they have learned and they reach out to others. I know that there are those who do. I also know those who do not. Week after week, they sit in the pew of the church, travel to conferences, go to meetings and spend a great deal to hear this speaker or that speaker and gather up the books and tapes….then, nothing. These are the people I want to address. Not to scold you or belittle you or condemn you, but to charge you. Go! Reach outside yourself and do something for someone you don’t know and probably will never see again. Do something for someone who cannot possibly repay you for your action. This may be as close as the inner city of the place where you live, or as far away as the middle of a tea plantation in Africa. Or, it may be somewhere in-between. It may be donating your finances to someone who is going. It may be donating your time and talent to a ministry who is going or sending someone to go. OK, I will say it. This is a works issue.

James 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

James 2:15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,

James 2:16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

James 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

James 2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.

James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

James 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

James 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

James 2:22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

The point is this; if you have true faith in God, then works will be a natural result of that faith. The works will occur naturally. If there are no works, then I would have to question the faith. Do works save you? NO, they in and of themselves, do not.

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

The concept is that works will be the natural result of salvation. Works follows salvation, but does not create it.

What we need to determine to do are some good works. How do we go about it, if we have not been led into this particular walk? You pray and look around for those who are doing something. Once you have found them, join in and help them. You say you can’t find anyone who is doing something that you can participate in? Well, you are looking at someone. You want works? I can show you works. Come with me to Mexico. It is not too far and it is not too difficult. At least twice a year and sometimes more, I take groups into Mexico to help people. You can join me in Juarez, Mexico and help build a house for a family that lives in a card board shack. Or, you can come and go with me to Aldama, Mexico where we will go into villages in the interior of Mexico and share the Good News of the Gospel with people who have never heard it clearly. Either trip will take a week of your time and some of your money…….what you will leave behind will be priceless. Have I offended you? You don’t like the way I look or talk? You would not walk across the street with me? That is OK, I can direct you to others who are more or less polished and not nearly so offensive, and you can go with them. Just GO! For the sake of God the Father and Yeshua His Son and for your own sake, JUST GO!

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