Psalm 96 is an invitation for all the earth to come and
worship the LORD. Whenever we hear the “good news” of God’s salvation
through Jesus Christ and we find forgiveness of sins and experience hope and a
transformed life we have a “new song” to sing! Over the past number of
years this psalm has also become a call to me to encourage and motivate every
believer I possibly can, to become involved in “declaring His glory among
the nations and His wonders among all peoples.”
Jesus last words before He ascended into heaven in Matthew
28:18-20 was a command to “go and make disciples of all the nations”. In
Acts 1:8, Jesus told the disciples that after He was gone that they, in the
power of the Holy Spirit, would be “witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
It is clear from Scripture, that the heart of God is that
everyone would hear and know about the great gift of His salvation through
Jesus Christ! In Matthew 9:35-38 we read that, “Jesus went about all the
cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the
kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But
when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they
were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His
disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His
harvest."
I believe that today Jesus is still moved with compassion
for the unreached millions of the earth that have never heard the “Good News”. Today there are 8.05 billion people on planet
earth. We are told that there is close to 2 billion of these dear precious
souls that have no church, no media, no Bible in their language, no access to
the Gospel.
Paul wrote in Romans 10:12-15 that the Gospel is for
everyone. “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same
Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For "whoever calls on the
name of the LORD shall be saved." “How
then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who
bring glad tidings of good things!"
Shortly after I received Christ as my Lord and Savior in
1971 as a 19-year-old teenager in Cincinnati Ohio, I heard a missionary from
the Philippines, Dr. Bob Hughes, preach a message from Ezekiel 3:15: “Then I
came to the captives at Tel Abib, who dwelt by the River Chebar; and I sat
where they sat, ...” Dr. Hughes made a plea for believers to go and tell the countless
millions of people sitting in the jungles of the world about Jesus. That night
I clearly heard the call of God on my life, and I responded by going forward to
the altar and surrendering my life to go wherever the Lord would send me.
For these past 52 years I have done my best to fulfill my
calling by praying, going, and sharing the Gospel. As a pastor it became my
passion to motivate and facilitate everyone I could to pray, to give, and if
the Lord leads them to go so that the unreached people of the world might hear the
“Good News” of Jesus Christ. Over the years, I have been tremendously blessed
to experience hundreds of believers who have joined us in praying and traveling
overseas to minister to those who have never heard the Gospel.
My plea today from Psalm 96 is that you would join me in
praying for the unreached people of the world. I pray specifically for seven
different unreached people groups every week. I would love to share the specifics
of an unreached people group with you so that you can take them into your heart
and pray that the Lord would send someone to share the Gospel with them. Please
email me at pastormike@pmiministries.org
God bless!
