Click here to view the embedded video.

“Many people don’t know what’s wrong with their souls, and what’s wrong with their souls is that their souls have shrunk to the level of their concerns. They’re not concerned about the nations. We were made to get our arms around the nations, with God. When you pray ‘hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come’, that’s meant to take your heart and make it as big as history and as large as the globe. And that’s a healthy heart.”

Watch the full sermon here, and then part 2 here.

My sister and I did well in school and we were tracking towards  lucrative careers.  We could have done anything.  We could have been incredibly comfortable and recognized.  Between my sister, my 2 brothers-in-law, my wife, and me, we have 15 undergraduate and graduate degrees.  Eleven of the 15 are from Ivy League school including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania.  

Now all 5 of us are either missionaries or heading to the mission field.

When some people hear of this, they think it’s tragic.  Tragic.  

But others see it like the pouring of ridiculously expensive and precious perfume upon the feet of Jesus.

Will those who fast the American Dream regret it in heaven?  

Now fasting the American Dream does not mean neglecting excellence.  I advocate for excellence in missions.  Somehow over the last few decades the idea has developed that missionaries are people who can’t do anything else or people who can’t have a successful ministry in their own country.  

“To those who receive great educations and have every opportunity to live wonderfully comfortable lives”, Francis Xavier says, “Tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the Gospel of Christ!”

-Ben

1. Use this file to install the Google Earth Plugin to run Google Earth objects in your browser (works with any Windows browser).

2. Go here to view the Joshua Project map.  You can click and drag to move around, and use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out.

For more info on Joshua Project, you can check out this video.

-Ben

Tom Carson planted churches in French-speaking Canada, a Roman Catholic stronghold.  His son documents his life, his work, and his struggles.  Struggles through discouragement and controversy and disapproval and loss – and that are meant to be met with utmost assurance that God is in control and knows what he’s doing.  Read and watch Tom do that.

A lot stuck out to me, but I’ll simply give you one journal entry from two weeks after his wife died that gives a glimpse into his theology and priorities and values and view of God:

Monday, Jan. 15, 1990
On my knees I am often crushed.  David said, “My sin is ever before me.”  And mine are ever before me…. My wife was a magnificent woman: she rested utterly in the absolute assurance that God had fully forgiven all her sins: “What need I fear when thou art near / And thinkest, Lord, of me?”  And I found rest in meditating on Psalm 51.

I guess that isn’t how I usually see people described as “magnificent”: “she rested utterly in the absolute assurance that God had fully forgiven all her sins.”

When you’re describing someone as “magnificent” or “awesome” or “amazing”, what do you mean?  What should you mean?

“The only word that comes to mind here for me is the word: PRIVILEGE”

-Ben

It’s hard to describe the impact it had on me, but I’ll try.

1. I went into the week a bit expectant but with a bit of cloud hanging over everything.  Many people had dropped out of the trip, and some of them were commenting on the fact – “I wonder what God’s protecting us from.”  That rattled me needlessly.  The trip was awesome.  God was real to us, He was faithful to us, He was breaking down sin in our lives that kept us from seeing Him and loving others.

2. I went into the week skeptical of VBS.  I built myself a theological framework that basically said that God “shouldn’t” save the children of unbelieving parents.  God destroyed that one real fast – Pastor Frank (who runs the organization we went with) was saved by his children telling him about Jesus.

3. The day we got there (more like the hour we got there) we were brought out to the streets of Kensington to do contact evangelism.  More precisely, we went to the “number one hotspot” intersection in the entire city of Philadelphia – known for its violence, drug dealing, and prostitution.  We went with a group called Raven – “Recovering a Vision and Evangelizing Nations.” It was such an encouragement to pray with them, to listen to them, and to evangelize with them (more often than not simply watching them evangelize while we prayed).  They gave us needed hope to begin our trip – stories and experiences of how people (yes, real live people) got saved doing exactly what we were there to do!

4. Hernando Andreti – this man killed 7 people 31 years ago, was just released from prison a few months ago, and got saved through Raven’s preaching.  Pastor Frank’s been discipling him since then.  He hung out with us often, directing us in our construction, protecting us as we were out on the streets, entertaining us through his stories and guitar playing.  Most importantly, he reminded us of God’s grace – electing grace, saving grace, sanctifying grace, future grace.  He was a constant, visible reminder of the power of the grace of God to call sinners to repentance and grant us new desires to love and pursue Him instead of the pleasures of this world.

5. Nariely - One of the girls at VBS developed a crush on me.   She wrote me some pretty cute notes and made me a few cute drawings.  Sadly, she wasn’t my type – only a few feet tall and couldn’t recognize diagonals when playing Connect 4.  But she did show me that our interaction with these kids is important, and it is personal – not abstract.  In just a few days (we only had 4 with them), it is possible to connect with them and tell them about Jesus (and how they need more Jesus, and less Ben).

6. Stoch - I think that’s how you spell his name.  Friday was our day off – we went wandering around the historical areas of Philly, seeing the sights, ate Philly Cheesesteaks, etc.  God had a bit more serious business for us to take care of there, though.  After we split up into smaller groups to go browse through stores, my group (Ben, John, Paul, Sindri, Amy, Charlene) saw a sign for the Presbyterian Historical Society and went to track it down.  Turns out they were closed for Good Friday, so we kept wandering with a new goal: find a bookstore.  We found one – a liberal anarchist bookstore with a shrine to Noam Chomsky.  The small (30 books) Religion section had zero books on Christianity.  John Sullivan started reading off the titles, and then commented on how there was nothing there about Jesus.  We then hear a voice from the corner – “my theory is that Jesus was a pimp, but that didn’t work out for him so he became a prophet.”   Thus began a long (1.5-2hr) conversation.  We talked about a lot of things, got to share the Gospel with him, and in the end pointed him to Keller’s book The Reason For God.  Pray that he reads it – I think he embodies the center of its target audience.

I keep telling people that this is probably the best missions trip I’ve ever been on.  That’s quite a statement, as it’s the 13th (I think).  Part of the reason would be that now I have a much better theological framework and practical understanding of Christian Hedonism and its implications.  A lot of it has to do with the number of people praying for us, I’m sure.  But what it really comes down to is: I encountered Jesus.  He made each of the things we did (EV, VBS, construction, eating, hanging out, playing, praying, singing) impactful to me in specific ways.  I can agree with Paul and say, “your grace is sufficient for me.”  And I come away with memories of people – people who know Jesus and people who don’t know Jesus – and the confidence that what they really need is the light of the Gospel shining into their hearts to give them new desires.  I don’t think I’ve ever gone into or come out of a trip before this one with a good understanding of the reality that people need Jesus.

For lots more details, storytelling, and pictures, you can check out our trip blog here: http://cornellphilly08.wordpress.com/.

-Ben

Send me I’ll go,
Send me I’ll go,
Send me I’ll go,
Lemme go lemme go!

I seen it with my own two,
There’s no way i can show you
A perfectly poverty stricken people with no view.
And i bet you can’t believe this,
They never heard of jesus.
Heard young butler, lil wayne, and young jeezy.

No one’s signing up to go on missions this summa.
Rather sit at home and watch exibit pimp in a humma
While a nine year old is shot down.
No one’s screaming ’stop now!’
No bridge illustrations for criminals who on lock down.

People deep in africa
Looking for an answer bra’.
In china man,
They’re dieing man,
Until they know who died for sins.
So look what grace did.
Not for us to stay here
Inside our comfort zones
At home in mama’s basement.

Get out on the grind y’all.
Ain’t no better time doll.
I know y’all read the great commission.
Let me just remind y’all:
Make disciples of the nations.
Teach’m to obey the lord.
Have to lead someone to christ before i face the lord.

Send me I’ll go,
Send me I’ll go,
Send me I’ll go,
Lemme go lemme go!

Hey! After, 1,000 years in the west and the churches
Get’n bigger daily without understand’n worship. (say what?)
Some regenerate but a lot ain’t saved.
You walk outside and be surprised cuz the block ain’t changed.
And the numbers they be get’n me.
Something just ain’t hit’n them.
America ain’t Christian they practice’n the ritual.
That’s why we should be missional.
Hey, what you think i’m spit’n for?
The united states is die’n
And in the east is looking pitiful.

Some places if they catch you
They’ll arrest you.
They’ll serve you,
But they still need the word too.
The gospel should be heard too.
We claim we ain’t ashamed,
But we ain’t hit the block up.
Were in our christian bubble,
While our brotha’s get’n locked up.
Lord I wanna stock up,
Pack a bag and walk up
In a country where my faith may get me shot up
Anywhere i go, whether my city or far abroad,
I just wanna show’ christ the risen holy god.

Send me I’ll go,
Send me I’ll go,
Send me I’ll go,
Lemme go lemme go!

I know they’re die’n in the streets over in the middle east.
Some kids sink in piece
Others hold’n up a piece.
If the violence doesn’t cease,
Then at least the deceased
Might know jesus as their savior as their bodies hit the streets.
And i know this is a graphic view.
And i pray that it’s attack’n you.
Track’n you to act and do
What you see in the back illusion.
Mathew twenty-four and fourteen.
We should read it twice
Before we think that life is just a battle
See we free in christ!
Look dawg! Life is more than church work and football!
What if you were dead and seen that christians overlooked y’all!
This is why we leave the couch
And leave the comforts of our house
To show a die’n world a God they’ll probably never read about.

The great commission says make disciples of all nations.
Have we even made them in our own nation?
Come on Christians!
Missions exist because worship doesn’t.
People don’t worship the God who made them.
We’re ambassadors.
Let’s go!

Send me I’ll go,
Send me I’ll go,
Send me I’ll go,
Lemme go lemme go!