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Wednesday, May 9, 2001

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Acts 12:24—13:5
Psalm 67
John 12:44-50

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all christians are missionaries

"May the peoples praise You, O God; may all the peoples praise You!" —Psalm 67:6

Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He commanded us to "make disciples of all the nations" (Mt 28:19) and to be His witnesses "even to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). When the Holy Spirit spoke to the church of Antioch, He commanded it to set apart Barnabas and Saul to go on the first missionary journey (Acts 13:2).

God has made it clear that every Christian by definition is a missionary. We are ruined if we don't preach the gospel (1 Cor 9:16). We make ourselves the slaves "of all so as to win over as many as possible" (1 Cor 9:19). We make ourselves "all things to all men in order to save at least some of them" (1 Cor 9:22). In fact, we do all that we "do for the sake of the gospel" (1 Cor 9:23). With Jesus, we "have come to light a fire on the earth. How" we "wish the blaze were ignited!" (Lk 12:49)

Missionary of Jesus Christ, complete your mission. Jesus is waiting for the good news of His kingdom to "be proclaimed throughout the world" (Mt 24:14). Then He will come back to earth and take His missionaries with Him.

Prayer:  Father, give me missionary zeal.

Promise:  "I have come to the world as its Light, to keep anyone who believes in Me from remaining in the dark." —Jn 12:46

Praise:  Agatha used bumper stickers and her CB radio to evangelize truckers during her travels.

Reference:  (To learn more about the Bible and to be a more fruitful missionary, we have several series of teachings on audio tape. One is forty tapes on the New Testament. To start, order the four tapes covering the whole gospel of Matthew, audio tapes #700, 701, 702 and 703. Another series is a thirty tape series, an introduction to each book of the Bible. To start, order the tape covering Matthew and Mark, audio tape AV 21-1.)

Nihil Obstat:  Reverend Ralph J. Lawrence, December 9, 2000


Imprimatur:  †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, December 12, 2000