"Go therefore 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 observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
"I find it interesting that we don't do this with other words from Jesus. We take Jesus' command in Matthew 28 to make disciples of all nations, and we say, 'That means other people.' But we look at Jesus' command in Matthew 11:28, 'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,' and we say, 'Now, that means me.' We take Jesus' promise in Acts 1:8 that the Spirit will lead us to the ends of the earth, and we say, 'The means some people.' But we take Jesus' promise in John 10:10 that we will have abundant life, and we say, 'That means me.'" (Excerpt from Radical by David Platt)
One man on his second missions trip to Malawi stated, “Some may say I’m not called to do that. But we can’t choose which commands to follow. You may say you haven’t been called, but I say you’ve been commanded. In Matthew 28:19-20 it says, ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations... and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’ God says, ‘Go.’ We are to spread the gospel and change lives. This is a spiritual journey.”
God calls us in His Word to go. I believe that this does not mean we have to go to a foreign land...life should be mission. There are lost people everyone that need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ so go. I'm currently reading a book about peer pressure, codependency, and the fear of man. As the author lists examples of how the fear of people overcomes the fear of God he states, "Does it include you yet? If not, consider just one word: evangelism. Have you ever been too timid to share your faith in Christ because others might think you are an irrational fool?" Look guys, sharing your faith is hard sometimes--it means overcoming any fear of rejection but it also means that you love somebody enough that you don't want them to spend eternity in hell, you want them to find the joy in Christ, find hope, and know God. God calls us to go and that means that we are to share God's love and the gospel of Jesus with everyone and anyone whether in a foreign country or our hometown, whether with a family member, friend, or stranger.God isn't asking you to do A, B, and C and to be "good enough" to get into heaven and He isn't going to reject you if you fail on following His commands--there's grace for that. But, if you want to passionately and radically follow God, He is calling you to go.
I talked a lot about if you feel called or not to a specific mission field but what about feeling called to be in a specific bible study or small group? Perhaps some people feel called to one group and not another. Time usually does not allow us to be involved in every bible study that is available to us. If you feel called to a certain one then go and join them, but if you don't feel called then pray about it and join one because you are commanded to be in community. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Acts 2:44-47, Hebrews 10:24-25. Share testimonies that glorify God, share prayer requests/pray for one another, encourage one another, meet others felt needs, accountability, deep spiritual conversations where others can correct you, mentor others, evangelistic support, transforming the community--bringing the gospel to them.
