The Mission
"The aim of our charge is love which issues from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith."
-1 Timothy 1:5
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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, day and night, vegetation, the sun and moon and stars, swimming creatures, creeping creatures, and all this was good; but then, He created man and woman (humanity) "in His own image." This man and woman were unique as creations, because they were designed for relationship with God. This is what they had, but they'd lost it in a grab for power, tempted by one whose demise came in the same manner.
Since then, God has been working to reconcile this relationship. He tried a number of things, He gave us numerous chances, but humanity continued to get in its own way. So God took matters into His own hands and He sent His Son, Jesus—who is also God—the Messiah (the Christ, the Savior) to save us from ourselves and from our deserved demise. That Jesus lived thirty-something years as a "regular" man, and one day started His ministry: ushering in the Kingdom of Heaven. He led this ministry for three years, teaching humanity about the gift to come, proper life on earth, and of a life to come after.
Then, after living a faultless life, completed His work by dying a shameful, undeserved death (one that we deserved) to pay a price that we never could—the price for relationship with God. Jesus died, came back to life, gave a few more lessons and commissions, then He rose back to Heaven leaving in His place the third expression of this person of God (along with the Father and the Son): the Holy Spirit. Jesus had preached about Him before dying, and He told us that this Spirit would come to help us--and that without the Christ's death, He couldn't. So now we who have placed our faith in the Gospel that Jesus, and those he commissioned to teach after Him (the Apostles), preached live with this Holy Spirit inside of us. He guides us, gives us gifts, and He is the mark that we have received the ultimate gift: eternity with God.
There are some folks who disagree on what comes after that, some say that we've got nothing left to do, others teach that nothing is secure unless we have acts to prove this "salvation." I fall somewhere in the middle that believes that the Gospel is a gift that cannot be taken away. Once you put your faith in Jesus, you embark on a lifelong journey of rewiring (a process called "sanctification") and of inviting others to join us in relationship with God, who loves you.
There are many ways for each of us to go about the spreading of this Gospel, I can't tell you what your individual journey is supposed to look like; but I've made it my mission to try and guide you (and myself) in the right direction. The most important tool we have in this mission is the Bible. It's the Word of God, given to us to guide us and to provide context. I've also decided to judge everything I do against the Word, but to keep it simple I've chosen a verse to focus on, one that I believe properly encompasses the commission each of us has been given: 1 Timothy 1:5, emboldened at the top of this page.
Paul, an apostle of Christ (one sent by Christ), taught that "love fulfills the law." That is, love guides us away from sin (shortcoming) and toward Jesus, it leads us to proper living—in which I believe a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith are paramount. Everything we do as believers in Jesus Christ is meant to guide people to Him. Not to ourselves, not any fancy club, nor to a status as "holier than thou." We are to be submitted to God, honoring Him, loving Him, and living life as He's taught us to do so. In that, we may see more of our neighbors, the people around us, come to know Jesus too.
Jesus is King. He is God. And He is the Mission.
Be Blessed.