Rev. Bob Gilberg, Olive Branch Community Church of Firebaugh
Contributing Writer
I hope your Christmas and New Year holidays were meaningful and blessed. For some, your gatherings may have been small and intimate. For others, they may have been large and extravagant. Christmas blessings come in many packages.
For me, it is about the gatherings, large or small. It is about the people you are with, the joy of gathering around a table and sharing the hope and joy of Christ.
It is this joy that my wife and I look forward to as we prepare to head to the nations to share the gospel. We have completed our training, our documents are in order, and we are ready to go.
From the Gospel of John 4:37, Jesus encourages us this way: “The saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
We pray that the Lord will use us to plant seeds where the ground is barren and gather the harvest where seeds have been sown.
We have been prepared to go out into the streets of the nation we will serve according to the model in Luke 10 when Jesus sent out 72 of his disciples. Jesus instructs them to carry no extra money or food and greet no one on the road lest they be waylaid on their journey.
He instructed his disciples, saying, “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’” It’s important to note that Jesus did not say “if you enter a house” but “when you enter a house.”
As part of going to the nations, we have been trained to enter into the houses of people we have been sent to so they might experience God’s peace in their homes.
In the Middle East, people are eager to invite you into their homes. It is part of their culture. They consider it a blessing from God.
Our leader has taught us ways to enter the local people’s homes. The most common way is simple. When you walk in the villages, bathrooms are not readily available.
So if you want to be invited into someone’s home, you do the dance. This is a body language everyone understands. Do the dance—enter the house.
When you use the restroom, stay for 20 minutes. While your friends wait, the family will offer them something to drink because you’re standing there for so long.
The following person then uses the restroom for 20 minutes. Now you’ve been there a long, so they offer you something to eat. Before long, they offer you a place to sleep. This is the missionary model.
The opportunity to share the gospel arises once you are gathered in the home around a shared meal. This is when the sowing and the gathering happens. I confess this is well beyond my comfort zone, for I have never done anything like this.
This is where faith enters. If we agree to act according to God’s word, our faith will be multiplied within and through us. I can honestly say that I have never experienced significant growth in my life except when I was willing to stretch my comfort zone.
In the same way, I have never grown in my faith apart from acting in obedience to God. God does not call those equipped for ministry—he equips those he has called.
We are grateful for this opportunity to bring the gospel to those desperate for good news. We are thankful for our church, which is committed to sending people to the nations: how can they call on God unless they believe?
How can they hear unless someone tells them, and how can we tell of God’s wondrous ways unless we go? Rom 10:14-15 says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the Good News!”
Our prayers are for God to create unity within our team. They will help us be of one heart, mind, body and spirit for God to prepare the hearts and minds of those to whom we are sent.
God will lead us to those whose hearts he has prepared. Lord, let your will be done! Amen.
