No More Room

Every Christian is “called into the ministry”:  to love neighbors, build up the church, and give an account of our eternal hope.  Every follower of Jesus receives his charge:  “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8).  We’re all on mission.

But even if all Christians on the planet were to share the gospel with every human with whom they can communicate, over 3 billion people would remain completely in the dark—unreached, unengaged, lost.  (See joshuaproject.net.)

That’s because over 3 billion souls are within people groups that won’t hear the message of life in Jesus unless culture-crossing, language-learning missionaries go to them.  People like Paul.

In Romans 15, Paul explains his frontier mission aims:  although he wanted to visit the church at Rome, he’d been delayed due to the priority of taking the gospel to places where Christ had never been named—where there was no foundation of previous Christian witness (v 20).  Paul was a spiritual pioneer.

Then he quotes the Old Testament to show that bringing God’s saving love to all people groups had been the divine purpose from the beginning:  “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand” (Isaiah 52:15).  Let that word “never” reverberate in your heart.

Paul’s frontier mission mindset leaps off the page in 15:23:  he says there’s “no longer any room” for his ministry in the region from Jerusalem to Illyricum (i.e., Croatia).  Just think, that’s a swathe of land the size of the American East Coast from Maine to Georgia.  No room?!  No room for evangelism, outreach?

No.  No room for pioneering witness—because the key cities and language groups had been reached!  So his work was done in that region, and Paul could finally pay a visit to the Roman church—all in the hope that they’d send him on his way to unreached Spain!

Here at Goshen, through Worldlink and many other global partners we support, we’re involved in God’s Grand Redemptive Project of planting his church among the least-reached peoples on earth.  Please pray for our mission partners who are on the front lines of this vital undertaking!

And more:  ask the Lord if he is leading you to step forward to be involved in a vital, personal way in making disciples among the nations—even at the very frontiers of gospel witness!

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:15, quoting Isaiah 52:7)

Jesus says, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14)