Defining "Terms"

I have read and listened about how short-term missions are bad – no, they are good and often lead to long-term. Long – term missions are the way to GO, as long as it’s not too long and burnout happens.  How do we even define long and short – term, I mean, oftentimes short-term missions is a long-term relationship and you go back so many times.  I have read and experienced that adoption is good, it makes a family, no, it tears families apart.  Ministry is good, energizing and gives purpose; no it’s bad and painful and wears a person out.

I can find articles and data to support and criticize all of it, no matter which way or how far you GO or don’t GO. 

  

Here’s my point:

There is no formula!  There is only the greatest and second greatest commandment! 

Matthew 22:37-39  (NLT)

37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

If what we are doing and where we are going helps us to live the greatest commandment in a bigger and better way, we are doing it right whatever the "terms".

 The only "term" is Love God and Love People.

In all this loving we are doing we only have to remember that Jesus has ONE Bride, ONE Body, ONE Church (which is all the same thing said in different ways).

Kinda like Charlie calls me wife, girlfriend, and mother of his children.

Jesus is not a polygamist, He loves His bride and He works within that relationship.

Whatever that looks like for each person might look a bit different,  different body parts have different functions, but I’ve never known a liver to function outside the body, and I’ve never seen a wedding celebration without the Bride.  So whether we are part of a home church or megachurch or anything in between God invites us into the Greatest Commandment thru that relationship.

He loves His Bride, even if we don’t.  He won’t put up with us trying to get around His Bride. 

The last thing we want to do as Jesus followers is to disrespect His Bride.  I don’t think we want to face any loving and protective groom if we don’t think his bride is beautiful, let alone assuming we will show up to the wedding feast of the Great I AM having no regard for His Bride. 

Our trips to Uganda have come at a high price, and so has raising our family, and so has loving our neighbor. It’s always costly to live in this world and follow Jesus.  Love is costly,  and we have gotten out of  it, exactly what Jesus told us we would:

Mark 10:28-30 (NLT)

28 Then Peter began to speak up. “We’ve given up everything to follow you,” he said.

29 “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, 30 will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life.

  We have received more than we could ever ever ever give! It's beyond humbling what we have received in this pursuit of following Jesus and living in LOVE!

Loving God and loving people is a  vicious victorious cycle that gains ground and momentum as it GOes along.

We could never replace the relationships we have gained with all the money or all the fame in all the world.  I would do it all over again, only sooner and give more and go further and more often, not for promotion or for a ministry, but as an honor to be part of the Body; as a Bride who loves God and loves people in that order. 

Nobody is good except the God who is ALL GOOD ALL THE TIME takes over lives that are surrendered to HIM and works in HIS BODY, makes HIS BRIDE beautiful and does really GOOD work.

Let’s roll on, gaining ground and momentum for the Kingdom everywhere we have the privilege of stepping foot or landing!