Jesus Said, "Go . . ."

The team headed to Gulfport just pulled out of the church driveway. They are responding to many needs on the Gulf coast of Mississippi, as NC Baptists have been for two years since Katrina. I thank God for the 12 men and women headed down there today, many for their second and third times, some even more. I thank God for NC Baptists who have given so much to the entire effort down there. I praise God that He has impressed upon the hearts of His people to go and love their neighbors like we have been loved by Him.
As I think more and more, pray more and more, preach more and more, live more and more, the more I have come to realize that the Great Commission is what it is all about. We are created by God and for God. He gives us our purpose -- carry out His will. His will for His people is the Great Commission. Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
This is the mission of the church. It is why we exist. Not for our own needs and desires, but God is the center. We exist for Him. We gather to worship Him, we go to proclaim Him. The world needs the Lord. Jesus came to us to save us, now He sends us out, to proclaim the message of reconciliation.
It is my prayer that I personally will be a Great Commission Christian. I pray for my church, that we will be a church with a single mission: The Great Commission. May I and we lay aside everything else (my/our pettiness, my/our worldliness, my/our sin that so easily besets us) and DO what God commands us to do, all to His glory and honor. I pray this for our state convention -- which begins meeting today, by the way. May we not get distracted by in-house squabbles, instead may we show this world Jesus Christ and the Gospel. I pray this same thing for our national convention, and for the entire church of Jesus Christ.