“In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”
~ Luke 14:33
Hi James and Ellen,
How would you like to become a missionary? Do you know how a guy or gal becomes a missionary? Your grandmaa and grandpaa are missionaries. A meaning for missionary is disciple. Another meaning for missionary is follower. Still another meaning for missionary is messenger. Your grandpaa believes that a missionary is a guy or gal who got a call from God to pursue a missionary vocation. Your grandpaa believes that a missionary is a guy or gal who has been sent to another country and/or culture by a Christ-follower community. Because a husband and his wife – like your grandmaa and grandpaa, because they are married are to be thought of and seen as being as one, the wife – like your grandmaa, can get a call from God to be a missionary through her husband if her husband – like your grandpaa, has gotten a call from God to be a missionary. Your grandpaa does not believe that God will call a guy or gal to be a missionary if the guy or gal has not become a Christ-follower through having made a decision of faith to accept God the Son – Jesus Christ, as his or her Lord and Savior. A guy or gal who is a Christ-follower will innately want to learn from and to walk in the ways of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Your grandpaa does not believe that God will call a guy or gal to be a missionary if He has not been impressing on the guy or gal to invest his or her time and energy in being a proactive Christ-follower. If a guy or gal is a true born again Christ-follower, the guy or gal will have an inherit desire to follow the same life steps that Jesus did as He walked on planet Earth – including a willingness to give up his or her life for Jesus’ sake. Your grandpaa does not believe that a guy or gal will get a call from God to be a missionary if the guy or gal is not first sold out on being a messenger of the Good News as was first taught and exampled by God as His Son – Jesus Christ. If God calls you to be a missionary – like He did with your grandmaa and grandpaa, God will ask you to leave your family to go to another country and/or to another culture. If God calls you to be a missionary, God will have the Christ-follower community that you are actively participating in send you as a disciple/follower/messenger to another country and/or to another culture.
Not long after your grandmaa and grandpaa relocated to Aberdeen, South Dakota – where your grandpaa had been asked to be the manager of the Beneficial Finance office that is in Aberdeen, your grandmaa and grandpaa began attending the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) Church that is in Aberdeen. Your grandmaa and grandpaa quickly found themselves very involved in the Aberdeen C&MA Church. The Aberdeen C&MA Church each year has a missions conference. The Aberdeen C&MA Church each year will have a C&MA missionary as their special speaker during their annual missions conference. Your grandpaa had always enjoyed listening to a missionary speak but . . . your grandpaa had never ever thought about becoming a missionary. Rev. Larry Wright was the Aberdeen C&MA Church’s 1973 missions conference special speaker. Your grandpaa would always sit in the same pew during an Aberdeen C&MA Church church service – which was on the very back bench in the church. At the end of his message one evening, Rev. Wright asked that dads and mas stand up to show their kid or kids that if their kid or one of their kids were to ever get a call from God to be a missionary that they would support their kid in every way for their kid to fulfill God’s call to be a missionary. Rev. Wright said that oftentimes after a kid has heard God’s call for him or her to be a missionary that other kids or his or her ma and/or dad will tell the kid that he or she should wait until he or she is older before . . . when your grandpaa did not stand up, your grandmaa did not stand up either. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were about the only guy and gal in the church who had kids who did not stand up at that time – which was to show their kid or any of their kids that they would encourage them to follow the call that God had given to them to be a missionary. Your grandmaa was not happy at all that your grandpaa did not stand up as . . . your grandmaa really wanted to stand up but she did not want to stand up before your grandpaa stood up. As your grandpaa was thinking about standing up, a still, quiet voice told your grandpaa ‘why stand up to show your kids that you will help them however way possible to be missionaries to another country when you are still young enough yourself to take your kids to another country.’ Your grandpaa had gotten at that moment a call from God to be a missionary to another country and/or to another culture. Just seconds before getting the call from God to be a missionary, your grandpaa had never ever considered, thought or dreamed about being a missionary. Someday your grandpaa hopes that you will ask your grandmaa what went through her mind when your grandpaa told her about the call that God had given them to be missionaries.
Jesus in Luke 14 explains to guys and gals who were following Him what a call to be one of His followers is to be like. Jesus tells the story of a guy who fixed a feast for some acquaintances. When the guy sent his servant to the homes of his acquaintances with the request that they join him for a banquet that he had prepared, the guys and gals who he sent his servant to all gave excuses why they could not come to his banquet. The banquet that Jesus reveals here is the one that every guy, gal and kid will go to who has made a decision of faith to believe in Him and what every guy, gal and kid who will not make a decision of faith to believe in Him will have excuses not to go. Jesus tells His followers in verse 33, “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” Have you heard God’s voice asking you to follow Him to sit with His followers at His table of salvation?
Luke 14 (231)