We're concerned for the sinner in China
And the heathen in Mandalay,
But say, do we care, have we offered a prayer
For the neighbor just over the way?

We say we would go with the Gospel
To lighten dark Africa's shore, but
Have we spoken a word in the Name of the Lord
To people who live just next door?

The person who lives down the highway,
Who looks so forbidding and grim;
Do we have no "call" to witness at all
Or speak of the Savior to him?

We'd take the Gospel to savages,
We'd cross the stormy tide;
But we will not "tell out" what the Gospel's about
To the fellow who works by our side!

We'd tell of our wonderful Savior
And His love we have found so sweet
To some far-off lot, but certainly not
To folks we will meet on the street!

Oh, we would be missionaries
And go out the lost ones to seek.
We'll send a preacher to Hindustan
And we'll buy New Testaments for Japan,
But never a word will we speak!

BUT, WHY?

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Comment by T.L. Hawkins on May 15, 2009 at 1:47pm
Thanks Scott.
Comment by Tara Robinson on May 15, 2009 at 1:46pm
Your say-in something there speak the truth holy spirit.
Comment by Scott R. Newman on May 15, 2009 at 1:26pm
Want to give ya'll just a taste of what I speak about to the many churches I'm called to help mobilize them to go cross culturally to impact the Global Harvest. Excuse the long text...:)

Top Line and Bottom Line of Christianity...

Gen 12:1 Now Jehovah said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee:
Gen 12:2 and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing;
Gen 12:3 and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Abram was to be blessed and to be a blessing to every people, tongue, tribe, to every distinct group of people bound by a common culture.

This message was given to Abraham in two simple parts, in what we'll call the "top line" and the "bottom line."

The top line refers to God's blessing of Israel. He wants to bless His people. The bottom lilne responsibility reveals that he wants His people to not only enjoy that blessing, but then to turn around and be a blessing to all families on the face of the earth, resulting in his greater glory.

Look at that bottom line message in Genesis 12:3; in one simple word. God said "all". All of the peples of the earth are to be blessed. That's a very significant word. God wanted to reach every distinct group of people on the face of the earth. This means what we actually have here in Genesis 12:1-3 is the general Great Commission.

Most of us as believers think Jesus first gave the Great Commission. Actually, Jesus reviewed the Great Commission. The Great Commission was given to Abraham several thousand years earlier in Genesis 12. Abraham was commissioned to reach all the nations on the face of the earth, to "go therefore, and make disciples of all nations."

The Great Commission is the foundation for the story of the Bible. Lets move to the New Testament:

The Upper Room Seminar

In the context of Luke 24, Jesus had lived His life on this earth, had died, and had been resurrected from the dead after three days.

Notice that when He returned to His disciples, He wasn't telling them, "I'm alive again! (yippee, where my benz?) Death has no hold on me. Lets praise the Lord together!" Instead, He was giving them th "upper room seminar", a forty day crash course in reviewing the Great Commission. And that's where we find Him in verses 45-48.

Luk 24:45 Then opened he their mind, that they might understand the scriptures;

Catch the significance of all of this. Jesus was about to open up all of Scripture and explain it to His disciples. Don't you wish you had a tape recorder back then! How many themes do you think Jesus would have to address in order to do justice to all of the Scriptures? If I were to quiz you to name a major theme that Jesus would have to address, what would you say? Grace? Mercy? Love? Speaking in tongues? Women's dress below knees? Being slain in the spirit? Two stepping? Women wearing hats or not? And how many major themes would He cover? Ten? Thirty?

Interestingly, Luke tells us that Jesus broke down all the Scriptures into two central themes. Now let's be honest. If Jesus can take the entire Scriptures and break them down into two central themes, you and I need to be intimatately acquainted with those themes, and should be teaching to those around us.

Luk 24:46 and he said unto them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day;

Thats the first theme: suffering, rising from the dead on the third day. He's speaking of the forgivness of sins, about a relationship we can have with our God. And then He explains in verses 47 and 48 that:

Luk 24:47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Luk 24:48 Ye are witnesses of these things.

"Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (home). You are witnesses of these things." The second theme is that His name should go to all the nations on the face of the earth. Sounds a bit familiar, doesn't it?

That He should suffer and rise from the dead on the third day to provide salvation seems to refer to the top line. And that "repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations" refers, of course to the bottom line of the covenant. we can thus say that Jesus broke all the Scriptures down into two central themes: top line and bottom line.

Can this be true? Can you buy that? Lets put it to the test.

The Gospels tell of an expert on the Law who came to test Jesus. He asked Him, "Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" What did Jesus say? "Love the Lord your God with all your heart...soul...mind," referring to the top line. And, even though the questioner didn't ask for it, jesus went on to say that the second is like the first: "Love your neighbor as yourself." This sounds vaguely related to the bottom line. But His answer doesn't have a specifically cross-cultural emphasis.

When the seeker asked, "But, Jesus, who is my neighbor?" What did Jesus bring in? The example of one from another people group, a Samaritan, a cross-cultural emphasis. Again, Jesus broke the Scriptures into two themes: top line and bottom line.

Look also at the Ten Commandments. The first four deal with your relationship to God--top line stuff! The next six deal with your relationshp to man--the bottom line of the covenant.

Our purpose is to make Him known to all nations, a horizontal relationship cross culturally. Its been there the whole time, bur short of God's desire to reach all nations, just our little 2 block radius, which we aren't really zealous about that either.

We who are Christians in this country are merely just top linie Christians. Focusing only on the top line covenant in saying, "I repent and receive the blessings of salvation, so God bless me, God bless us, God bless my family, God bless our little half filled church, God bless my community, God bless my dog, God bless my car, Pastor can you bless our home? I've missed half of Christianity. The other half of Christianity is turning around with that blessing and reching out cross culturally to the world!

Imagine God telling Abraham, "Look Abe, I want to bless you so that ou can be a blessing. Period." What would that mean? It woulod mean that all Abraham would have to do is reach out to people in his own culture, his own community, his own ethnic group, and God would be pleased. But God did not say "share this blessing with your family, with your neighbors, with people who are like you and share the same melanin as you." He said, "Through you all peoples on earth shall be BLESSED"!

We believers are to have a cross cultural impact in reaching all the nations to fulfill the promise God made to Abraham some 4,000 years ago.

Where do you think Jesus turned to in the Old Testament to prove that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached to "all nations"? Well the text doesn't tell us, but we can make an educated guess that it was Genesis 12:3. How? Because now all of the disciples begin to quote Genesis 12:3, the original source jesus must have highlighted in the Old Testament scrolls called the Torah. Here it goes and buckle your seat belt.

Act 3:25 Ye are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Act 3:26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Servant, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.

He didn't quote the first part of the verse, because he knew they knew that God wanted to bless them. But he knew they were unaware that God wanted them to be a blessing cross-culturally. Paul writing to the Galatians (A Gentle people) also quotes Genesis 12:3 in Galatians 3:8

Gal 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed.

The writer to the Hebrews quotes Genesis 12:2 in Hebrews 6:13-17

Heb 6:13 For when God made promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he sware by himself,
Heb 6:14 saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
Heb 6:15 And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
Heb 6:16 For men swear by the greater: and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation.
Heb 6:17 Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath;

What are they doing? They're quoting the original source that Jesus gave in that Upper-Room Seminar. It was as if He took out a pink flourescent highlighter and went over the verse again and again! That's why they remembered it and quoted it first.

Jesus never gave the Great Commission, He reviewed the Great Commission of Genesis 12, and the disciples quoted that original mandate in their writings. Because Jesus turned to the Torah to prove that the Gospel was to go out to all nations, missions had to be firmly embedded in the Old Testament...That's why it forms the story of the Bible.

Why we must read the Bible as ONE BOOK, with one INTRODUCTION, ONE STORY, ONE CONCLUSION. Discover a unifying theme woven throughout the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation unveiling Gods purpose for you and me and for all of us in a fresh new way! Global missions is not just a side ministry, it is the MINISTRY!

How does Jesus even come back unless as He said until every creature and people and tribe and nation has heard of His first coming. How will Rev. 5:9 be fulfilled unless everyone on the globe has the same oppurtunity that we do to accept or to reject the simple Gospel of Christ?

Rev 5:9 And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou was slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,

Such a key song will probably be sung over and over and over again, so if you haven't memorized the song yet, you ought to memorize it before you go to be with the Lord.

Listen to the song. Imagine the melody. Try to picture the setting: The elders and the living creatures are gathered around the throne singing, "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from just abut every tongue, tribe, people and nation."

The plan God laid out in Genesis 12 to reach every distinct ethnic group on earth with His offer of redemption is finished. The story ends; He fulfills His promise to Abraham.

You will not be like a doubting Thomas and be able to say, "Stop the music, stop the singing, hold everything! How do we know this Lamb has redeemed people from every tongue and tribe and nations? How do we know He's worthy?"

What's Abraham going to do? Is he going to walk hastily over to Thomas and say, "Look Tom, you blew it down there on Earth; don't blow it up here in heaven. Just keep quiet"? No, He's more likely to put his arm around Thomas and say, "look, Tom, go down through the clouds twenty miles and take a left." "Then you'll hit a thunderstorm. Take a right at the thunderstorm and there you will find a library. Walk in past three aisles and on the left you'll find a book called the Register of the Peoples. Look under the listing of every distinct ethnic group that ever existed on the face of the earth and see if you do not find at least a few individuals who are represented here from each group.

You can check, Thomas, but I guarantee you He's been found worthy." The Registrar of the Peoples is a written testimony of what He has done.
Comment by John on May 15, 2009 at 12:13pm
Say what? Just kidding! LOL
Comment by T.L. Hawkins on May 15, 2009 at 12:09pm
Scott...actually I don't. That's how YOU interpret it, and that's fine. This post is plain and simple. We should be ZEALOUS all over the world...period.
Those that have an ear...let THEM hear!
Comment by John on May 15, 2009 at 11:29am
I feel your zeal Brother Newman and always pleased for one that has zeal for God's Word. I think you are misunderstanding some that say talk to those close at home. Sister Tarmeque never meant (and she stated that) that we shouldn't go out to the world. I mean Christ told His disciples as He ascended in Matthew. We all know this and agree with you. No one is disagreeing nor condemning any one that is going out to the world to do so. Of course there are indegionous peoples all over the world that have never heard of Jesus but there are people in our neighborhoods that may have heard of Jesus but they don't know Him. You don't know anyone just because you have heard their name. You have to draw near to that person to get to know them. One of the problems is that even in church we may draw near but don't try to know Him. That comes from the Holy Spirit revealing His Truths to us in His Word. We have to know Him for ourselves also. I can't know Him just because you do. I have to be shown as you suggest and allow the Holy Spirit to indwell in me by accepting our Lord as my Lord and Saviour and believe He is the Son or our Father in Heaven, Who saved me from certain death by the cleansing of my sins by the washing of His blood. As you say I won't brow beat on anyone as I don't feel Jesus and the Apostles did either. You share the Word and if the Word is not accepted then move on. It's not us that does anything but share the Word. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts. We have no excuses today for we have a completed Canon/Bible and this is our Prophet as far as I'm concerned. We just need evangelists, teachers, preachers, ministers to share His Gospel. They didn't have a completed Bible in the days of the Apostles. God needed to send Prophets/Apostles to speak through them to people. Once again I thank God for the zeal you have and share. There are those that can tell you I have a zeal and some feel maybe over zealous for His Word. Personally it doesn't bother me because I dont' think we are zealous enough for His Word for if we were we wouldn't be hung up on Matthew 7:1 with thinking that exposing false teachers is judging when He says we should judge all things in the spirit. If not how would one know if someone if from God or Satan. How would one know if the spirit before us is of God or not. How would one know if the Word presented to us is of right doctrine or not. God Bless and may God continue to bless you in what He has you do in His Name.
Comment by Scott R. Newman on May 15, 2009 at 11:03am
Tarmeque, I heard you very well as well as others, and you and others make it sound as if we are going to the world where in fact we aren't! Yes it starts at home whlie at the same time we are to be witnesses both at home and at the same time affect the Global world too. That is the scripture of Acts 1:8. Why are we, especially black folk not seeing it? Why are we so blinded? Why can't we hear the call of what burdens God should also burden those who are walking in the spirit? My own father who is not saved and is 77 years old make a statement before I left NJ to come to Florida to get prepared to share the Good News of Christ to those who never heard of Christ in their lives. He said, "I have never met a Christian who is in the world and not of the world" and I responded, "me either"!

What do you think a world or a nation is like without having any idea of who Jesus is or what are these people going through with absolutely no scripture in their language of understanding? Matter of fact, what happens to them when they die while never hearing of the Gospel? I know wino's in Orlando who when mother dies, would say, "I know my momma (hiccup) is looking down from heaven on me". How does a wino in America know that? I'll tell you why, cause America is a Christian country that is based on Christian principles with a church on every corner and someone has told him the simple Gospel of Christ that's why! I know of a African woman in Mali who believes differently when her mother died. She believes her mothers spirit is in a banana and because of that all banana's are forbidden to be eaten, but revered and if not the banana spiit will consume you for all eternity. I know of a tribe in Kenya who believes that if one has twins or triplets their own mother kills them soon as they are born because only cats and dogs have litters. Should I go on? When the Gospel of Peace is not there, there is no hope and the devil has a field day with them as they are heavy laden not knowing that Christ only gives light burdens. Lets not make light about those who are suffering and in no hope to have an abundant life that only Christ can give. I'm tired of talking and preaching to Junebug and them who continue to REJECT Christ! Ain't a negro in America who don't know who Jesus is, they know, they refuse based on pride and ego to submit to the Lordship of Christ! Let them! I'd rather go where I'm looked at as a gift compared to a burden as I dust my feet! I'm so glad the early church didn't act such as this and just stayed "home" and became monk-like and just built monasteries called the church and did the "safe" thing, but instead went as true Apostles (sent ones) who suffered to bring the Good News of the free Gift of Salvation. If Christ is the Good News, what is the Bad News? The Bad news is that apart from Christ they...PERISH! Are we really and truly burdened by that?
Comment by John on May 15, 2009 at 10:53am
Very true!
Comment by T.L. Hawkins on May 15, 2009 at 10:35am
What I'm getting at is this: Most times WE (Christians) tend to think those living in Sin are beneath us. What do I mean? We were living IN sin before we got saved...right? RIGHT! So why is it when we see our fellow brothers and sisters living in sin we tend to ignore it, or pass judgement rather than BE a witness for the kingdom to the individual with the sin sick soul? Especially those closest to us : Family, Friends, Coworkers etc...
Comment by John on May 15, 2009 at 10:23am
I will never argue with you or Sister Tarmeque on what you both have just stated. I definitely agree with those statements. Much love in Christ Jesus my Sister and Brother.

Tarmeque I know that you weren't meaning that and I also know that we will walk by people in our own places and say nothing while we are journeying to a far place to teach and preach.

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