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Hey Jesus, will you be attending tomorrow’s media focus meeting? We have a few issues needing your input. No biggie if you can’t – we are well-versed (guffaw!) in what needs to be done – but might be nice if you showed your face to the troops on the ground … the personal touch always makes a difference.
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Here in the UK we are in the middle of the latest election campaign. All the main parties are making all the usual pledges and plans and “promises”. All of which may or may not be acted upon come the result and the future “plans, pledges and promises” once the dust settles.
I remember the amazement when Trump acted upon the pre-election rhetoric of “The Wall”. WOW! A politician who’s actually doing what he said he would do! Revolutionary!
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And that other conversation – if Jesus was around today would he be using social media to get the message out? Would he – like Trump – spend his evenings/early mornings not in prayer, but in twitting. Firing out policy and process to a global audience well-trained to salivate at each bunch of limited characters. An audience trained to applaud or puke. But whatever your response – we’re all are in awe of “the reach”! The numbers. The size of the audience. The absence of anonymity. Of our inability to ignore the man and his pronouncements.
God would had to have had some of that (we say with envy)!
Make disciples of all nations?
Jesus would have done that in a heartbeat if we had twitter back then! Imagine all the Insta feeds! All those “little children” pics and storyline! That would have got the message out …. Instead of the dusty peeps we would have the techno peeps! All heads-down with micro-targeting! Bringing the message in just the right way to just the right people! Just like pyramid-selling … One disciple makes XXX believers … XXX believers make XX disciples … makes XXXX believers … makes XXX disciples makes …
Numbers are so much easier to work with than all that “campaign-trail-anecdotal-stuff” (we call the Gospels today).
I am not so convinced Jesus would have.
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My reasoning?
If the Son of God picked the perfect time to walk the walk, talk the talk, and be The Man amongst his creations … why then? Why not now?
Why NOT hold back the eternity of infinity for another 2000 years – a mere drop in the ocean of time that is eternity? Why then when even “reading and writing” was a biggie … when even carrier pigeons hadn’t been invented … when civil rights – human rights – were not on the agenda … when social housing and social equality – inclusion and inclusivity – were not even a pipe-dream …
Why THEN?
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If that was the perfect time – then I accept that was the perfect time.
Which implies big numbers … big data … global reach … all that “Great Commission” logistics “stuff” run by money even today … perhaps that is not “it”.
Perhaps it’s not “how many I bring” to Him. Perhaps it’s something else.
Perhaps it’s all about me – who I am – what I am – who I have become – who I can become – who I choose to be – what I choose to be. Perhaps my one insignificant drop in this vast ocean of humanity (over all eternity) does matter.
Perhaps I am the reason for all of this.
Not in what I tweet, not in what I preach, not in how many I bring (or don’t) … but in MY journey – MY choices – MY decisions – MY relationships – MY living and MY loving.
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Because the “campaign trail” notes (we call the Gospels) that I read are not about global reach – but about those who sought-out (rather than those who were sought-after).
So I question whether Jesus today would reach for his smartphone in the dead of night and fire off some “global reach” message. I think we would find him as we journeyed our own lives one day at a time – one bumping into one someone at a time. And come to think about …
That’s pretty much how it still happens today.
(isn’t it?)
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Do you have a profound desire to go on a mission trip to another country? Neither do I.
We don’t need to travel to spread the gospel. Our “there” is where ever we are. Our “there” is our home, our car, our friend’s house, our workplace, our school, our neighborhood, our gym, our coffee shop, our restaurant, our grocery store, our hardware store, our nightclub, our jail cell, (the dmv, the airport) our social media hangout. It’s how we speak and act when we are “there.”
Church Set Free 