America has long been called the land of opportunity. Perhaps nowhere is this truer than when it comes to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are free from restrictions when it comes to sharing our faith. There is no consequence to be feared for gathering together for fellowship and church gatherings. Our prisons are not filled with those incarcerated for sharing literature or resources about Jesus. In short, Americans are free to discuss, teach, evangelize, and even sell materials and programs to help deepen your faith and devotion to God.
This is indeed the land of opportunity. What scares me is I’m afraid we are squandering the very opportunity with which we are blessed. With so much freedom, we must be at the forefront of spreading the hope and love of Christ to every people-group on the planet. How do you think we’re doing?
I am not aware of any statistics measuring which countries are doing the most to spread the gospel around the world, and I don’t even begin to understand how one would even go about measuring something like this. So, I’m relying on anecdotal evidence and a healthy dose of my own observation and opinion here. It seems to me the sheer wealth of our nation says we should be able to fund ample resources in every language for every people. The truth is we’ve only translated the Bible into about half of the spoken languages in the world. Granted, this effort takes resources beyond mere dollars, but it feels like we should be further along than we are.
People are starving all over the world. Even more have no access to clean drinking water. We have the means and the technology to fix this. There are organizations doing amazing work in this area. Greed has entered the equation on both the giving and receiving ends to complicate the eradication of hunger and thirst. But blessed as we are, we should be able to overcome these problems.
Beyond financial resources, we have the technology and lifestyle to permit travel to virtually anywhere in the world. Short and Mid-term mission trips coordinated by experienced and knowledgeable organizations can do much to build relationships and spread the gospel to a vast number of people. We lack the will to go. We lack the desire to leave our safety and comfort. We relish our land of opportunity, as long as it benefits us, but balk when it might be used to benefit others.
When it’s all said and done, will we look back and realize we squandered the advantages of living in the land of opportunity? This window will not last forever. Already we are seeing the significant destruction of our moral codes and freedom to express our religious beliefs. For now, we are still free. We still have the opportunity and responsibility to leverage our freedom to spread the gospel of Christ. With all the resources available to us, we can reach more, send more, give more, serve more. Let’s not squander what we’ve been given in this land of opportunity. Let’s take the blessings entrusted to us and scatter them among the Nations. Opportunity is knocking. How will you respond?