I, Paul, am a prisoner of Christ Jesus because of my continued preaching to you Gentiles. As you may already know, God has given me this special ministry of announcing his favor to the Gentiles....God did not reveal this favor to previous generations, but now he has revealed it by his Holy Spirit through the apostles and prophets. And here is the secret plan: The Gentiles have an equal share with the Jews in all the riches inherited by God’s children....By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the wonderful privilege of serving him through spreading this Good News. Just think! Though I didn’t deserve it, and though I am inferior to all other Christians, I was chosen for this special joy of telling the Gentiles about the unending treasures available to them in Christ!! Ephesians 3:1-8 (Konkomba-to-English paraphrase)
So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and outsiders. You are citizens along with all of us as God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family and are built with us, like a house, upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And the cornerstone of this spiritual house is Christ Jesus himself. Ephesians 2:19-20 (Konkomba-to-English paraphrase)
Greetings, dear friends and members of God’s own family! I would like to share with you in these lines a little of what God has been speaking to us recently during an extended study of the book of Ephesians. We have been spending much of our Bible reading time lately focused on repetitively reading this book, as we are studying it along with the other leaders in the Konkomba churches here. I have found that many portions of scripture have come alive in a new way now that I’m reading them in a missionary setting, and the verses above are no exception. Through study of these verses on my own in English and with Matthew (my translator) in the Konkomba Bible, a beautiful truth has unfolded to our view and has inspired us tremendously in our work here. I have taken the liberty to paraphrase the above verses (some of which is the Konkomba bible translated back into English,) in order to make very simple and clear ‘The wonderful privilege of gospel-spreading’ in the way that is has captivated us in the last weeks.
In order to help you to see this from the perspective that I have viewed it from, I would like to recount to you a scene which Christy and I observed several times at the American Embassy in Accra, which is the capital city of Ghana. We spent several days there in January working through the paperwork to get a passport, etc. for our little Abigail, and were struck by this sight every time we saw it. God connected this scene with the verses above and has deeply impressed its truth upon our hearts.
Impressions from an American Embassy
The American Embassy in Accra is not only the location where American citizens go to do their government paperwork, renew passports, etc. It is a little slice of America, and never in my life have I felt the powers of being a citizen like I did there. Upon showing an American passport to the guards posted at the door, we were treated almost like royalty! We were taken around the lines, through the tightly barred doors, and in a matter of 2 minutes were in an air-conditioned office face to face with someone who could answer our questions. I must say that it felt a bit odd to walk by all of the lines of hopeful people, many of which had probably been waiting in the hot sun for hours before I arrived. I felt the longing, almost jealous eyes of others as I was taken to the front of the lines, but I am an American citizen, and that citizenship brings with it certain rights and blessings, though I was a bit uncomfortable accepting them.
The American Embassy is also the place where every Ghanaian who would like to travel or emigrate to the United States comes to make his or her request. Though we may consider it a sad attraction, many people in poorer countries view America with longing, and they would give almost anything to get there, because in their own words, “America is heaven”! We know that American makes a mighty poor heaven, but if you look at it from their perspective and compare it with their daily fight for survival, it surely does seem like a paradise indeed! And so.... every day the embassy is literally flooded with people desiring a visa to travel to the U.S. The embassy becomes the gathering point for the multiplied lifetimes of hopes and dreams of the thousands who throng her doors seeking entrance and a positive answer to their request. It was these masses that we met every time we entered the embassy compound, waiting in long lines for a chance to speak to one of the embassy staff. The majority of them held as their deepest desire only one thing, namely CITIZENSHIP! and all of the blessings that come with it. It is the unenviable job of the embassy officials to pick and choose the few out of the many who will be allowed to set foot on American land, and explain to the hundreds who remain why they cannot be included. I found myself pitying both the waiting multitude and the staff who would have to turn them away one by one.
Now, with this in mind, think with me what it would be like if one day, on a whim of benevolence, the American Government told the ambassador to make immediate citizenship available to everyone who was waiting at the embassy at that time. Imagine what a marvelous, joyful assignment that would be!! Oh, the thrill to come down to the waiting crowd and be the one to announce to them the good news that they are also included in the rights and privileges of American citizens! Oh, the joy to take them by the hand and lead them through that door that they had looked at with such longing, marked ‘citizens only’, to go through it and into the experience of being a fellow-citizen of the United States! Would it be a chore? No, indeed! It would be considered an honor and I can imagine the officials fighting over who should get the opportunity after so many days of telling people ‘no’.
Honored Ambassadors of the Open Door in Jesus
Well, my dear fellow believers, we have been given just that job, only it is made even grander by the wonderful kingdom into which we have been given the chance to welcome anyone and everyone who is willing! Do you see it? There are many ways of viewing what it means to become a Christian, but one possibility focuses on the aspect of taking up a citizenship in God’s family, and it is clear that this is Paul’s focus as he writes to his Gentile audience. Then, couple that with the role we Christians have been given as ambassadors from God’s kingdom to the world, and you have exactly the scenario that I described above! We have been given the ‘special joy’, as Paul calls it, of announcing to the world the fact that there is room in the citizenship of God’s kingdom for them!
This extremely positive outlook on our responsibility to share Christ’s life-changing message with the world has been very stimulating for me to ponder over. It is obvious that Paul saw himself as a blessed man to be the one to herald the message that the gentiles are also included in Christ’s sacrifice and the forgiveness that it purchased. Just look back to the words he uses to describe his ‘duty’. The fulfillment of this responsibility, I beg you to remember, had already sent him to prison and would eventually cost him his life! But hear his words: ‘special ministry, wonderful privilege, special joy’. This was how he viewed his life work.
What a challenge this has been to my own heart! I must confess that it has convicted me, showing me how far below this wonderful example my own outlook is at times. Sometimes amid the daily difficulties of ministering in a foreign land and feeling with our souls the ups and downs of the conflict that is being fought over the souls of our area, our attitude is more one of being a soldier and doing what we know is our God-given duty to do. It is true that it’s better to ‘soldier on’ than to give up, but our desire is to so fully understand our ministry and its possible impact on living souls that we truly and always see our work here as a ministry given to us by God as a special favor! At times it is a duty, but it is only a duty when we do not grasp the honor that it is! Focusing on the wonderful message that we carry to the Konkombas has been a refreshing balm to our spirits which sometimes grow weary of the deeply-entrenched wickedness all around us. We truly are spreading the Gospel, which means Good News!
My hope is that maybe these thoughts will serve as a source of inspiration to some of you who are currently inactive as envoys of God’s great kingdom. It may be that you have lost sight of your own wonderful position as a member of God’s family, or possibly you are weary of doing your duty without seeing immediate fruit. My dear brothers and sisters, let’s lift our eyes first of all to the wonderful place we have as former outcasts now included as citizens with full rights in the heavenly kingdom! “Born of the spirit with life from above, into God’s family divine; Justified fully through Calvary’s love, Oh, what a standing is mine”! Then, with our hearts full of praise and awe at what we have received, let us go out as the love slaves of this our dear master, to carry with excitement the message that the door of salvation and sonship is open to all.
Urgently Needed: Willing Ambassadors
If you will allow me, I feel I must also try to transfer a portion of the burden that these verses have reconfirmed in my heart before I leave you for this month. As I have stated before, my heart pulsed with joy at the thought of the privilege that Paul had, namely, to be the one to announce to a group of people that they are included in God’s plan of redemption and can also be equal partakers at the table of blessings available in Christ. But my mind quickly continued its path to the fact that though the Apostle of the Gentiles began his work almost 2000 years ago, that message of inclusion in God’s redemptive plan has yet to reach many thousands of anxious human souls. To put it into the terminology we have been using here, the lines outside of God’s Embassy are still long, and filled with many hungry souls who wonder if maybe there would be room in God’s Kingdom for them. There are also thousands of towns and villages where the multitudes still wander in a confused mass toward hell, ‘without God and without hope’! In many lands, the majority still spend their lives groping for some glimmer of hope, some assurance of having appeased the gods and thereby securing a positive reception into the next life. Oh, the misery and darkness of a Christless existence! Oh, the fear of an unknown future!
But my dear fellow Christians, all this while the door of mercy is still open wide, and while Christ’s blood still atones for sin! These people are included in the new covenant of mercy purchased by Christ’s blood, but because they don’t know it, they live their lives under the old curse of sin. Do we not have, fellow redeemed ones, a sacred, honored duty to fulfil? Should not these, for whom the way was opened to freedom and full citizenship by the same blood that purchased us, be informed of this marvelous gift, so that they at least have a chance to accept or reject it? Dear friends, let us hasten the gospel message on its way, so that it can complete its path to every ear and heart on earth, for when it does, and only when it does, will we have completed the mandate given to us in Matthew 28. Let us pick up our special privilege as communicators of God’s blessing, and in whatever role we fill, do our part to ensure that the wonderful message that Jesus still saves arrives at earth’s remotest bounds.
I recognize that these lines did little in the way of updating you on the work here, but I trust that this insight into some of what God has been teaching us over the last weeks will encourage your hearts and will challenge you as it has us. We remain firmly committed to doing our part here to see that the Konkomba tribe becomes fully aware of all that is available in Christ, and know that they are included in its provisions. A deeply felt thank you to each one of you who continue to support the work of God in this part of the world. May your gift of time, prayer, or money be a seed that will bear fruit in the future. We know that many of you are deeply committed to this work along with us and we really appreciate your bearing this burden with us in a variety of ways. May God bless and strengthen you!
Undeserving yet privileged to serve,
Daniel, Christy, and Abigail Kenaston
prepared for gospel-spreading!
