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How can I describe what this summer was like? To answer the most popular question: yes. I loved the California weather! But in fact, I might have had an equally good experience in a ring of tents on the Alaskan tundra. What counted was that God changed my heart. Let me tell you how.
I won’t forget the way milk looks washing down over a black stone, filmy and shimmering white. Three weeks ago I saw it, sitting cross-legged on the floor of a Hindu temple, peering into an inner chamber where a seven-foot tall stone idol was dimly lit. Our group observed worship that day as guests of the Hindu devotees, normal people like you an I—mothers and children, old men and women, fathers and teens. The entering worshippers withdrew gallons of milk and bunches of bananas from plastic shopping bags and passed them to the front. Two priests wrapped in bath towels waist-down began to chant, and poured pitcher after pitcher of milk over the head and shoulders of their idol, ceremonially bathing their god. Every drop of milk brought that day, I’d say 40 gallons, splashed off the stone and ran out the gutter. The sad news is not wasted milk, but that these people loved by God believe their sacrifices to Vishnu will bring blessing and prosperity. And if they know enough, have done enough, have been devoted enough, they can hope to be reincarnated into a higher position in life.
The purpose of our temple visits and seminars was to become acquainted with the major world religions, most of which are predominate in places where people have never heard the Gospel. (See map on separate sheet). I learned that the country of India alone contains 2,300 distinct “people groups, ” out of which over 2,000 have no practical access to a Christian witness. The world is home to 10,000 distinct language/culture groups. A political nation-state is not a single group of alike people, but a collage of languages, histories, religions, affinities. Of the 10,000, over 4,000 have not heard the news of Jesus. These are the “nations” the Bible speaks of, that God will bless with redemption. Each will see Jesus through their own cultural eyes and worship him in their own tongue!
In all their many stripes, the religions of the world have much in common: Muslims, by living up to the Five Pillars of Islam, rest on the faith that in the end their good deeds will balance out the bad. Hare Krishna devotees renounce the material world and recite the names of Krishna at least 1725 times daily to experience a higher existence. Millions in Africa, South America, and Asia live with animistic worldviews, fearing the demonic and taking their chances to manipulate spirits for protection or power. These are manmade distractions from the problem of sin that we are helpless by our own strength to overcome. They share the hope that somehow, through mantras, through goodness, through knowledge, we might change ourselves—we might even get to know the Divine. But these billions do not know the One God who made the universe, or His Son, who died in their place to free them from the hopelessness of sin and the hypocrisy of self-help (as he needs to no less for us). They don’t yet know the Jesus who can heal their families, cast out their demons, and give them a new heart of love and hope. I learned this summer how astonishingly little the Western Church as used its vast resources to reach the unreached. Instead, we have often added the Gospel to the American Dream and pursued comfort and security. We are no less needy for the Gospel. The only difference is we have heard it.
But here’s the enlivening news: missions is not our concoction. It is the heart of God. He has always had his heart and His promise set on the entire world. We look toward worship in heaven with “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language” (Revelation. 7:9). The Bible reveals that since the creation of language and culture (Genesis 10 & 11) God has been actively reaching the nations. God tells Abraham that he will be blessed so that “all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen. 12:3). The Old Testament bulges at chapter and verse with references to God’s desire for all peoples to know him. Even through Israel’s rocky history the fame of their true God spreads to the surrounding nations. The Psalmist writes “May all the nations be glad and sing for joy. / … God will bless us, / and all the ends of the earth will fear Him” (Psalm 67). Habakkuk paints this picture: “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (2:14). Before Jesus walks the earth, God is clear about what He will accomplish, and the New Testament fulfils what God had promised all along. Two thirds of Jesus’ major miracles were done for non-Jews. And Paul writes, “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles [any non-Jew] through Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:14). The Gospel has always been on its way to somebody else. It didn’t stop with Israel, and it doesn’t stop with America. Jesus tells his disciples how it will end up: “This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Who will take it there?
One of my deepest-set convictions from this summer is that human beings are truly not content without the fulfillment of being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. For some reason, maybe because I’ve grown up with Christ commonplace, that stunned me. He is the longing of the human heart. And God is active in His creation, reaching the lost and giving light to earnest seekers. It’s been estimated that half of all Muslims who place their faith in Christ do so after they have a dream of a man in a white robe saying “follow me.” Another example: a man spoke to us who had worked among a tribal people called the Iteris (ee-teddies) in Papua New Guinea for twenty years, beaming to recount how eager the tribe was to learn the Word of God, and how passionately they knew they needed a sacrifice in their place—before they were even taught about Jesus! Now this tribe has a vibrant, indigenous and growing body of believers.
I have realized that the wealth of knowledge I gained this summer will only fester if I don’t act on it. I must take the Word of God as basis enough to work, believe, and pray that all the nations know Jesus, the one who told his very ordinary, fearful followers “All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
I wish I could say more than what fits in this letter! Thank you once again for supporting me this summer. It was more than a plane ticket and lodging for seven weeks. Be encouraged to know that you are directly involved in not only my growth, but in whatever impact my life makes in the future! I would love to talk with you more, whether in person or long distance, to answer questions, share resources, or hear your thoughts. Just ask!
For God’s glory among the nations,
Tyler Smith
“If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” - C.T. Studd, college student in the 1880s who gave up stardom on the Oxford cricket team, a widowed mother, his father’s fortune, and the family estate to join the China Inland Mission.
Take a look:
www.thetravelingteam.org
The Traveling Team is dedicated to mobilizing college students to fulfill the Great Commission. They coordinated the summer project. Check out “Becoming a World Christian” and “Resources.”
www.perspectives.org
Home site for Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. A class every Christian should take!
www.joshuaproject.net
A wealth of colorful data on all the world’s peoples to inform praying, giving, and going.
