The lollards were disciples who took up the vision of Christ to preach the gospel to all men as Wycliffe activated the movement

Rome that he was able to finish translating the English Bible. As a result he was able to send missionaries in groups of two each based on the vision of Jesus who sent 70 men into the different villages of Israel (Luke 10:1-9).

“Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them two and two ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;

therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. “Go your ways; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. “

Carry no purse, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way. “And whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ ” And if a man of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him;

but if not, it will return to you. “And stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house. “

And whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat what is set before you; and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them,’ The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ (Luke 10:1-9)

This pattern of sending missionaries with two men each on a particular house and village has not failed to produce a fruit and convert. It was only recent that missions came to be known as burden instead of the joy and adventure that it truly is. Most churches today are consumed by a disease that is eating away their resources, platitude and wrong investment. This is a terrible delusion.

No one can be adequate enough for the work of God, those who do think this way will never even launch a vision which they have. Because they have been deluded that to do great things for God, He calls us to be adequate by our abilities and finances alone. What blindness, what delusion! History points otherwise that no church became adequate enough before really launching out into the missions. God’s work must be done God’s way and it will never fail to get heaven’s support. This I suppose is the slogan for the bold, the dastardly and the cowboys of Christianity. If we wait for the right time, the right feelings and the right moment, we will always be forever waiting.

In Physics, you can only change the direction of a moving object but the stationary object remains pinned down unless an outside force is applied to it. True to this principle, the most successful missionary endeavours such as by Paul and Barnabas, the Moravians, David Livingstone, George Muller, Hudson Taylor, Bill Bright and Loren Cunningham including many unnamed others show us that God spoke and provided as needed and as they obeyed His voice. Those who waited to be nudged into action will have to wait forever. God is a God of movement and momentum. Thus, even nature shows to us how much movement and action are taking place everyday just to speak that the idle and passive disciple, is no disciple at all. One cannot remain sitting forever in the sidelines if His Word has truly penetrated our hearts.

I would have to find one scriptural verse saying that Jesus sit idly. If He was a down-to-earth pray-er, teacher, worker, worshipper and healer, should we remain as pew warmers every Sunday? No destiny, no adventure and no challenge at all? Think for one moment, if this was the Christianity that we are called to live as challenged by the life of Christ. Chemistry provides us another sense of illustration in that calibration is an important word. Every time we use chemicals in our experiments, we have to calibrate that with the desired amount as compared to the original. Likewise, in this life, those who are successful in the pursuit of God are those who also mostly followed His ways. I was talking one time with a friend and minister who has sent a team of people to the Mangyans of Mindoro and successfully established a model farm and community of believers in that region. When asked about missions he blurted, “missions is failure unless the congregation gives a helping hand.” I could not agree more. The Lord highlights this fact by saying in the Scriptures, How can they be sent unless someone sends them, or how can they preach unless someone supports them?

This is made more clear in Romans 10:14-15, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” (NIV). Without volunteers willing to be sent, and people willing to pay for their expenses, missions cannot be a sustainable enterprise. When my wife and I visited the home of Martin Luther in Wittenberg, we were actually surprised by the prudence of the couple to have built a poultry and piggery near their home as an added insurance to the cold. Apparently, Luther’s income could not keep up with their large household, which keeps a number of itinerant students and disciples inside their own lodging. Yet the Lord kept them and provided well for them so that he never had to beg for money in his entire ministry. Neither did Jesus or Paul begged or coerced anyone to support them.

Money and God’s works

Even if we are blessed with money, it is to be used for the works of the Lord. It baffled me to think how Warren Buffet who is said to be the richest man in 2008 and the “Oracle of Omaha” pledged to give 85% of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is obviously keen in seeing those who are truly wise stewards of resources. If he could have heard that there was a more trustworthy man, church or organization, he could have given it too. In a similar instance, the recent works of ABS-CBN and its stars particularly touched the Ambassador of Bahrain so that he dole out 25 million pesos for the Sagip Kapamilya cause.

All these attests to our need to continue to become trustworthy servants in everything we do. If we are called to handle money well, why not propagate, diversify and multiply it? There is nothing wrong with money, it is a neutral object but when this becomes the idol and love of men, that’s the time it becomes the root of all evil. Pastors need money, so are the evangelists and teachers, in fact everyone on earth needs to hold some currency nowadays. The following scriptures however remind us that we can actually live even without money, “Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13).

If this world collapses, and we too collapse with it, then it speaks to which foundation we built our lives into. The wise will build theirs in the Kingdom that cannot be shaken. Even when the world will collapse, no true Christian will become paranoid because of it, because they have learned to live in the Kingdom whose economy and currency cannot be shaken. Only those who have placed their feet on shaky grounds will snap their brows and clunk their chins when this world slips into oblivion. Let us be careful to invest our lives and properties in the Kingdom that will never be shaken. To do that requires everyone to live and seek the Lord’s will for their lives. If we cannot hear His voice during these relative time of calm, who promises us that we will have learned His voice by the time when fires and shakings have come? Invest for your future, but more so invest and discern which way the Lord wants you to go.

The heart of a shepherd

John Wycliffe might probably be the first shepherd-teacher with a heart for the masses to let them know the truth and point them to their true Shepherd. A true shepherd cares for his flock. The Lord restored Peter by asking him three times, “do you love me?”, to which Peter replied “yes” three times. But in each reply the Lord also said, “feed my lambs and feed my sheep” (see John 21:15-18). The lambs here represent the spiritually young, and how can one properly

John Wycliffe (mid-1320s – 31 December 1384) did much to prepare the English people for the Reformation that would later ensue in England

feed the lamb? Except we teach them and reach out in their levels, we cannot delve and change the trajectory of our young men and women. To disciple the youth, we need to stop our tirades and focus on shaping them. We need to teach them how they could expend their energies trapped in their minuscule bodies. Work is the best antidote for the hyper-energized and sometimes mistakenly branded as rebellious cranks.

This is why we need to disciple them fast, teach them basic lessons, and bring them into the fray, let them preach, let them sing, let them write, let them run and above all, teach them how to pray. When I asked the Lord how we could keep the youth in the church, the only answer He gave me is to let them give Him their passion. In fact He told me, that we are to “give them a break, let them give Me their energies.” This is a true observation and it has not failed. Idleness could be defined psychologically as the state of man when his brain yanks and his body craves for the yuck. Passivity is the devils activity. Just as nature works fulltime when God created man, such as the running streams, the rivers that coarse and meander into the oceans, the sun that revolves on its orbit, the planets that rotate on their axis and the stars that twinkle their lights at night, He has designed man to fully use his energy for His honor and glory.

When passivity strikes us, think for one moment and break that spirit of bondage. If ministries will not use their youths fulltime and only does religious exercises every Sunday, we won’t be able to sustain our churches in the coming days because the world will capture them. This is why many youths line up for concerts, symphonies, cinemas, talent search, clean-up activities, packing reliefs and donations, volunteer activities and other organizations they deem are important to them. Youths are imbued with energy, so much that they cannot contain this nor direct it well unless we disciple them, guide them into properly using it for the sake of truth and life.

No true youth wants to be sidelined. Could there be a more adventurous place for the youth than the church? It is called a sanctuary, why shouldn’t it be a sanctuary of bustling activities for youths? Why preserve this religious Sunday exercise? It’s a waste of resource to use only the building one day a week and four times a month, which is why it does not give any return of investment. Shepherds lead their people to feed on the Bread of Life. Unless we are feeding our youths daily, when Sunday comes, they are already emaciated.

Do you know any pastors or priests who are equipping their youths like this? Are there ministries presently doing this? If none, then there is much to be desired and much to learn how to do it. (A personal note from the author: Edison has written two books, The Surpassing Peace of God and the Restorers of the breach that deal in depth about disasters, lawlessness, and terrorism and how such can be repelled. Send your request to his email: edmacusi@gmail.com and he will send it to you free.)