Going and Telling

According to our Mississippi Baptist Convetion Board 1,200,000 people in Mississippi say they do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. (www.mbcb.org/church_growth/evan/) Jesus tells us in Matthew 28:19-20, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (NASB) Dr. Ken Hemphill says, "Unless we have an established conviction about the plight of persons outside of Christ, we will never be motivated to develop and sustain an ongoing emphasis on evangelism . . . we must believe people without Christ are lost, that hell is their eternal destiny and that Christ alone is the answer. Anything short of this conviction leaves the church without the passion to reach beyond itself" May we yearn for and pray for a "passion to reach beyond ourselves." May we yearn for and pray for a heart that like Isaiah says, "Here am I, send me."