Daily Devotional For Friday, June 14, 2024
Well, congratulations. You made it Fabulous Friday. We are looking at questions asked in the Bible either by people or God. Today we come to a question asked by God to the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 6:8a, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (ESV). I love the prophet Isaiah’s answer in Isaiah 6:8b, “Then I said, `Here I am! Send me’” (ESV). Unfortunately for many Christians when God asks them the same question He asked Isaiah, their response is, “Here I am — but send someone else.”
Many times preachers and other Christians use Isaiah 6:8 as a verse to push international missions, but the context of this verse was not God asking Isaiah did he know anyone God could send to the other side of the world. God was asking Isaiah who would be willing to deliver His message to the Israelites right there where Isaiah lived. God wanted Isaiah to share God’s truth with the people he rubbed shoulders with every day — his neighbors, his friends, his family, and his relatives.
It has been my observation that at times that some people in the church will get so excited and will raise all kinds of money to travel half-way around the world on a mission trip when they have a mission field in their own neighborhoods. To His disciples, Jesus commanded them to start sharing the Gospel first right where they lived. Look at Acts 1:8, Jesus said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (ESV).
Did you notice where His witnesses were to start at that moment? Right there in Jerusalem where they were when Jesus said this to them. Jesus didn’t tell them to start in Rome, Italy, the capital of the Roman Empire. He commanded them to start in the town they were already living — Jerusalem. In fact, the word that is translated as “witnesses” is the Greek New Testament word [μάρτυς, martus], where we get our English word martyr. And even with that in the back of their minds, these early Christians took Jesus' command and did it with their lives and did not think of their martyrdom.
Many “Christians” won’t even climb out of bed to come to church, let alone go on a mission trip. While they make their excuses, people are dying and going to hell every day and the blood of those who have died and gone to hell will be on the hands of those who refused to take the Gospel to their neighbors and friends. In the first century, Greek writers understood martyrs as a legal term describing one who testified in court about something he or she had personally seen. No one can tell what God has done for you more effectively than you can and no one can refute your testimony either as long as it is the truth.
Isaiah volunteered to go for God to his own people. You and I have the greatest opportunity to help lost people come to Christ by simply sharing what Christ has done for us. The best person to help someone going through the death of a child is someone who has lost a child. The best person to help someone going through divorce, is someone who has gone through divorce. The best person to help someone facing a life-threatening illness is a Christian who has faced it themselves. God loves to use our pain and our problems to help others.
Questions To Consider
- Will you be willing to accept God’s invitation to go help lost people come to Christ? Why or why not?
- What God asked Isaiah, He is asking you also. If you are afraid of what you would say, trust Jesus’ words in Mark 13:11, where Jesus says the Holy Spirit will speak through you. Do you trust Jesus enough to make yourself available? Why or why not? His Holy Spirit is available if you are.
- Why do you think some Christians get more excited about traveling halfway around the world on a mission trip than they do doing missions in their own town?
Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 28:19, “As you are going, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” (PAR).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, please forgive me for being a reluctant witness for You. You have promised me power from the Holy Spirit and you have promised me to speak through me. Help me to say to You what Isaiah did, `Here I am Lord. Send me.’ In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside!—Pastor Kelly