Send

You, who are greatly loved by God, have been given a holy calling - to enter into relationship with
Christ and to produce fruit for His glory through obedience. In John 20, we see this:
19 Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you."
20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
21 So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."
22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit...

There you have it - Jesus is alive and He is alive in us!  We have been invited to follow Him and called to love Him and love others.  He has sent us to represent our Heavenly Father, so that He may be glorified, and we can be bringers of hope to people who need to know our Savior.  And, in verse 22, Jesus refers to the power source, the Holy Spirit, who comes into our lives when we accept Jesus as the Lord of our lives and enter into salvation.  We know that God walks with us as we seek to obey Him.

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Jesus has called each of us to magnify His name, to "make Him famous," as it's been said - we have been sent and empowered for His purposes.  In John 9, we can read a story of Jesus healing a blind man:
1 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.
2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3 Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.
4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.
5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
6 When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.
7 And He said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

Sometimes God will call us out of our comfort zones and take us to new frontiers of ministry.  And, we can be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as He calls us to follow Him, with confidence that He will produce fruit for His Kingdom.

We can carefully pray about how He might use us in new works, new ministries, taking advantage of unique opportunities, inspired by Him.

I was reading recently about a ministry based in the United Kingdom called Siloam Christian Ministries.  The website, Christian Today, reported that the ministry recently conducted a Bible camp for the very first time in Peru, and it concentrated...

...on underprivileged youths living in Comas, a district of capital city Lima that has tried hard to leave its slum origins behind.

In total, 66 children came from around the district to take part in the Bible camp. They were aged between 12 and 16 and in addition to playing games and enjoying craft activities, the youngsters took part in Bible studies and worship time together.

Siloam said that most of the youths taking part were from one-parent or dysfunctional families and this was taken into consideration by the local partners who helped run the camp.

Out of the 66 children who came, 27 made a "decision for Christ."  The camp was devoted to children in an impoverished area, and their economic background and broken family structures contributed to the potential for spiritual poverty.  The story stated:

Camp director Margot Alzamora said the Bible teachers were specially trained to engage in discussions with the youths during the camp about the challenges they face in their day-to-day lives.

'It takes about three days for youngsters to really express how they feel about themselves and their difficult home situations,' said Mrs Alzamora. 'Our caring teachers and counsellors are trained to engage with the children and the issues they face.'

Richard Norton, director of Siloam UK, is quoted as saying: "Our ethos is to reach out with the Gospel wherever needed most," adding, "That is why we chose to partner with local believers for our first-ever Bible Camp in Peru."

I like that compound word, "first-ever."  It reminds us of newness, of freshness, of the beginning or expansion of an approach to ministry.  We should shun the phrase, "we've never done it that way before," and be open to new opportunities to which the Lord may be directing us.

We can be challenged to expand our horizons, and to do that in the right way for the right reasons. You're trying to be the biggest, but to be obedient to God.  If an effort grows, give glory to Him.  But, none of us should be trying to be the greatest; remember, Jesus had something to say to His disciples who argued about who the greatest in the Kingdom would be.

We can also view ourselves as people who deliver hope.  And, hope enables a person to rise above his or her circumstances.  And, we acknowledge that internal hope is stronger than external hardship.

By the way, the ministry's name, Siloam, comes from a Hebrew word.  I Googled the name and came up with this, from Dictionary.com:

Siloam. pool and spring outside Jerusalem (John ix:7), from Late Latin, from New Testament Greek, from Hebrew shiloach , literally "sending forth," from shalach "to send."

It was there where Jesus healed a blind man.  We are people who have been called, sent, and equipped by God to glorify His name, to honor Him in obedience.