FROM THE TOP
LELAND ACKER chreporter@mediactr.com
When I entered seminary, my goal was to become a missionary. I wanted to be a modern-day Apostle Paul, going to different places, cities, preaching the Gospel and starting churches.

I dreamed of being a missionary to places like Belize At one time, I even considered being a missionary to Mexico.

I also dreamed about being a church planter in California and working with the impoverished people of Mississippi.

However, my ministry at Denson Springs Missionary Baptist Church near Slocum has reshaped my view of the Great Commission. I have found that people right here in East Texas, the buckle of the Bible Belt, need the same ministry that those in Belize, Mexico, California, and Mississippi need.

There are people in the Deep East Texas Pineywoods who live in similar conditions to those in thirdworld countries.

People are hungry. Children are neglected. There are needs, both spiritual and physical. Those needs need to be met.

Jesus said in John 12:8, "The poor always you have with you."

This teaches us that we can't eliminate poverty, but we should try.

James 1:27 says, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

To visit means more than to stop by for a chat. It means to go and see, for the purpose of helping. So, God wants us to help those in need.

God wants us to help people, but requires that we do more than operate a social assistance agency. He wants us to share the Gospel with them as well.

In Matthew 28:19, Jesus said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations."

To go involves leaving where you are and going somewhere else. In other words, we are to meet those in need where they are. Jesus said, "Go," not "tell them to come."

Not only does He want us to go, but he wants us to teach people to be followers of Christ. This requires the teaching of the Gospel (How Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures.)

All church members are responsible for the going and teaching (Ephesians 4:12.)

You can impact your world for Christ. Over the next few weeks, we'll discuss how we can make that impact by going and teaching, and ministering the Gospel.