Victor Chininin Buele

I have not made time to write. Perhaps it is because people don’t read. Perhaps it is because I don’t know how to write.

The world burns. I’ve been watching forest fires from a distance for several weeks. A fireman is powerless against the rapid and devastating advance of a line of fire. But it doesn’t mean that he gets to quit. And the fireman is faced with a big question: will he call for help or will he give up? And, while he waits for help, will he fight with all he has?

Four years ago, I am reminded by Facebook, I made a big mistake. I made a decision that changed my family’s trajectory. What was that decision? What I can tell you is that I was tired. A lot of bad choices start with that. I chose to be lazy. I said, I have reasons to trust this one person, so I am going to check out my brain at the door and just go with the flow. I was tired of fighting evil, and I just wanted to sit back and rest. I wanted somebody else to do the fighting for a while. I wanted to follow.

That was a terrible thing to do.

That is most definitely not Great Commission thinking. The Kingdom of heaven is not like that, a man who felt secure in the world but spiritually beaten up, gave up on the idea of doing what His Lord called him to do: make disciples. He checked out his brain at the door and embracing pragmatism and his own fleshly desire for convenience did what the others were doing.

What is Great Commission following and thinking?

[18] And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

It means that we follow Jesus and not man.
It means that all authority is His, not man’s.
It means that all authority is derivative. If it doesn’t find its origin, purpose, calling, and empowerment in Christ, it is not legitimate authority.
It means that His authority is over everything. That I am not the Lord of my choices and my calling.
It means that making disciples is the goal, not studying the Lord and His Word as if it were an intellectual hobby or merely as an academic pursuit. It means reflecting on how to help disciples know the Lord, not just turn on the firehose of an expository sermon at them without regard for whether they are living and loving the Word and the Lord revealed in that Word. It means not equating “healthy doctrine” with healthy discipleship. You can say the right words but be in great sin.
It means that we actually have to evangelize and proclaim the truth of the gospel, not manipulate emotions and desires to produce baptisms as if changing the heart is something we can do with the right prayer or the right argument.
It means actually going. How much of Christianity today is about staying put, using the Word as an excuse and reason to not obey the Great Commission. About seeking our on comfort and goals, our own interests and pleasures. About not being uncomfortable.
It means teaching all that Jesus taught us. And to teach without hypocrisy, we actually have to do these things ourselves.
It means resting in the Lord who has promised the gift of His presence with the believer. Who else is going to be with you when persecution comes, when things get harder instead of easier, when loss for His name strikes.

[15] And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15).

It means that going into all the world is not a question. It means we are not to shelter in the safety of our homes, groups, or church buildings. It means we cannot be ingrown, using Jack Miller’s accurate description of many churches.
It means that we go out with a message: the gospel. In Mark that message is taken back to 1:15. The Kingdom of heaven has come near to us. What do we do with that? We repent and believe the gospel.
It means we must live repentance. Repentance is the tune of the life of the believer. Imagine if our churches would smell like repentance.

[46] and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, [47] and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. [48] You are witnesses of these things (Luke 24:46-48).

It means that suffering is in store for us. Our Savior suffered to give us eternal life. Why do we treat the Christian life as the preservation of comfort and the delusion of our security?
It means that it is resurrection life. We were bought back from the dead. We were dead in our sins of trespasses. We want others to also be free. And we must never subject ourselves to slavery to sin again.
It means not only that our lives are to be constantly full of repentance but that we proclaim this repentance to the world. This would go a long way in destroying these cultures of permissiveness and secrecy, self-protection and deceit, that we talk ourselves into saying that we are protecting the reputation of Christ when we are actually protecting our own.
It means that we are witnesses of Christ. It means I must tell the truth. It means I must tell you that even as I was writing this, I needed to repent of sin and ask for forgiveness.

What a Savior!