“To lead his spiritual movement Jesus chose twelve prideful souls, because it wasn't like there were other kinds from which to choose. He worked patiently for months to change them into humble disciples... Not everyone who serves is humble. But everyone who is humble will be a servant.”

p.84, The Prideful Soul’s Guide to Humility, Fontenot/Jones

MISSIO DEI

Discipleship Point

Today we focus on part two of:
Why was and is the MISSIO DEI (sending of God) needed?

Beginning with Adam and Eve, everyone has rebelled against God. Everyone has broken the relationship with Him and has been filled with wickedness and disobedience. Mankind sinned and continues to sin against God’s will. We are all guilty and deserve punishment. Because of the reality of sin and its consequence, we all deserve eternal damnation. Our broken relationship with God also manifests itself in broken relationships between one another in society, in families, and in the Christian family, the visible church. Mankind and the church urgently needed and still needs the great sending of God for rescue and redemption, and for the restoration of relationships!

The church needs the Missio Dei itself to exist for others. Only when God’s great sending lives within us can we go into the world for Him. We do not live for ourselves while we wait for others to recognize God’s gifts; we cannot embody a “come to us” attitude and continue on with our own lives. Instead, Christ calls us into the world as apostolates, sending us always beyond and outside of ourselves.

See the following Scriptures in your bible or on pp. 253-254 of The Great Sending book: Romans 3:9-20 (For further study, see “The Ten Commandments” and “Close of the Commandments,” Luther’s Small Catechism.)