This is delton! We are at the half-way point! Awesome, Awesome, Awesome! If you haven’t read Day 20 in “Why Pray?” do so now - it is an interesting read!
It flows from a section of Luke 10, “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you”
So apparently Jesus didn’t want His missionaries getting meals from all over town – looking for the tastiest apple pie – but rather settling in at the home of “peace” and basing operations in the town from there. I also find it interesting that He didn’t want them talking with people along the road but rather, I assume, being about the business of getting to the next town to find these homes and establishing these bases of missionary operation. Evidently this basic strategy is what John Devries has witnessed in India.
When I was reading this chapter I was reminded of the stories and testimonies I heard while making a trip to India in 2011. They were versions of this kind of strategy at work. A church planter goes into a village, contacts each home with an offer to pray for them, waits to see how God moves in response to those prayers, when a family begins to respond favorably to what God is doing (many times it is a healing in the home) the planter shares Jesus, nurtures a relationship with that family and begins to influence the village from that home base.
How would that work in the US? Austin? Pflugerville, Round Rock, Hutto? Intriguing?
First, I am humbled and moved by the thought that my family and home is a place that the presence of God radiates from casting light on my whole neighborhood! I truly want God to consider my home and family as a ‘base of missionary operation’ for His Spirit to reach my neighborhood.
Secondly, I am jazzed by the idea of your homes being “bases of missionary operation” where the light of Christ radiates to bless your neighbors and people in your circles of influence!
Thirdly, What a cool strategy for our church to move on - establishing home bases of the presence of God in subdivisions, city blocks and neighborhoods all over Greater Austin.
So these are some of my thoughts, inspirations and aspirations! Please share yours! What is God doing with you on this journey? What do you think He is doing with Point of Grace though this journey?