Responsibility

As we grow, our list of responsibilities grow with us. From the teen being handed the car keys for the first time—to the mother holding a newborn babe—it is both a freedom (power) and a burden. A privilege and an undeserved gift that seems daunting.

Am I really qualified to raise a human being??

Our responsibilities and our ability to keep them are vital….marriage, jobs, upholding laws/rules, protecting our freedoms, caring for our children, paying our dues….

…Saving the lost?

Knowledge is also a responsibility in that it requires a response from us. Every time we are made “aware” of some injustice we respond (make a choice).

Do we take responsibility? Or do we pass the baton to someone else? In many ways we are really choosing between either accepting the responsibility to change an injustice or accepting the injustice.

The church has shied from many such responsibilities, namely evangelism—quite forgetting (or denying) that there is no one else to fulfill the job title of reaching the lost. We were the only ones commissioned to do this task and carry this burden….

I say this from a point of conviction because most if not all of my ministry has been focused on those already saved and within our church body instead of the lost outside its walls.

In fact, I was relieved of the burden of evangelism when I was falsely taught that it was an ability, a spiritual gift, that some of us had and others didn’t.

Granted—there are those who are particularly called to an evangelical life (missionaries namely who serve in the very trenches of the darkest regions of the world). But that does not mean we aren’t also called to evangelize in our day-to-day lives.

The great commission was directed toward ALL believers, not a specific sect that has a natural knack for it.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” ^{(Matthew 28:18-20)}

I’m not denying that ministry within the church body is vital as well. Raising up disciples must come hand-in-hand with salvation (baptism/reaching the lost), otherwise, we haven’t truly fulfilled the Lord’s commission.

Many who give their lives to God after hearing a fiery message at a revival, eventually fall away because they then had no one to show them how or what it means to follow Jesus. The devil quickly devours those young sheep who were left in the wilderness un-shepherded.

I no longer wish to deny that which is also my calling. I no longer wish to see people slip through my fingers that I could have shared the truth with. Our job isn’t to do the saving but to plant the seed in which the Lord could move in their lives. Because once they know the truth—they too must respond and take responsibility for it.

And so I ask myself…what am I responsible for? What responsibilities have I placed aside? What have I ignored or denied? And how can I begin to fulfill them again?

I’m not saying you have to be everyone’s hero. But God has placed things/issues/people on your heart throughout your life…what have you done with all of that? Those inner stirrings of the Holy Spirit…do you know you are responsible for them as well?

Truly…I’m convicted….truly, I have been irresponsible and must take up my cross again.

I am an evangelist. An ambassador of the Most High God.

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