“(You) shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Acts 1:8

(*This week I am blessed to have an opportunity to speak to the students of the ‘Followers of Jesus School' in Brooklyn, New York about the Compassion ministry…I covet your prayers).

This Bible passage from Acts is going to be my leaping-off point for our discussion and I wanted to air it out (so to speak) here first. Personally, I don’t believe that we can consider any ‘ends-of-the-earth’ ministry until we have an understanding of the Jerusalems, Judeas, and Samarias in our lives.

J. J. and S.

So where are our Jerusalems, Judeas, and Samarias? Well in Jesus’ time, Jerusalem was home base, the Judeans were the ‘friendly’ neighbors, and the Samaritans were the not-so-friendly neighbors. Knowing that makes the application easy for us.

Jerusalem Is Home

Sharing the faith must begin in the home. “If you can’t talk about Jesus in your home you won’t be able to do it anywhere else, ” is a lie—I know people who are doing this and doing it effectively. The point Jesus makes is that we must not neglect those in our homes. And for the record, your home is a relative term and it might include (but is not limited to) your school, your job, or the golf course.

Judean Neighbors

Judea is any place where there is a friendly face--It might be across the street or it might be across town. Odd as it might seem that like our family, these folks are often neglected as well. Jesus would remind us that this should not be so. And so we’re clear (and since I didn’t mention it while we were in Jerusalem), we are not talking about success (people accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior), but obedience in regard to sharing the Gospel message.

Ah Samaria

Your Samaria could be as close as your next-door neighbor or it could be that street you would never drive down, or that part of town you would never be caught dead in. I was about to say that it takes guts to go to Samaria, but that isn’t the truth—it takes Jesus to go to Samaria.

The End (of the Earth)

The Lord does not value one person over another; the truth is that He desires that no one should perish; He desires that our mission field be balanced in order that all might be reached.

Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, But a just weight is His delight. Proverbs 11:1



COMPASSION dave