Missions Saturday

My church's Youth Fellowship is observing the Missions Month. So far, it has been a blessing, a time for all of us to be reminded of Jesus' Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20.

Last week, we had JF Salazar, youth leader of Word International (WIN) Ministries - Marikina, as guest speaker. He spoke on the sovereignty of God in missions and evangelism.

He defined sovereignty ("God is in control") and then pointed different implications of what this means for the believer. Because God is in control, we must be bold and confident in proclaiming the good news to people. The results don't lie in our hands. Although we are God's mouth piece, converting a man's heart of stone to that of a flesh is supernatural, to be accomplished by the Lord alone.

JF was quick to establish that God's sovereignty doesn't take away man's responsibility. The correct response, he said, must be to work hard to spread the gospel, carefully entrusting the results to God. He cited Paul as an example. The apostle was a staunch believer of God's sovereignty, and yet spent he practically his entire life telling people about Christ.

Young and brimming with excitement, JF gave wonderful analogies, offered Biblically-saturated insights, and served as an encouragement to all of us there.

During the program, brethren from WIN sang a song based on Ecclesiastes 12:1. How the lyrics of the song—even the funny chorus—moved us! We then had snacks where we munched marshmallows dipped in the creamy fluid coming out of the chocolate fountain.

May we live out the truth of Jesus Christ daily.