Jon Davis Jr.

Missions

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The Transforming Power of Hospitality

Where I found this picture: Cedar Point Church
Where I found this picture: CedarPointChurch.org

I have been all over the world, and I have often been the recipient of hospitality in my ministry travels. On more than one occasion I have been blown away by the generosity of others.

One of my passions is to spread the ideas of a Biblical Christian Worldview. As I have studied the Bible about this, I have been pleasantly surprised about how many real and practical things can be lived out in day to day life to see the Kingdom of God advanced in the earth!

One of those areas is hospitality!

You might not think you can do much to advance the gospel, but you never know how much is happening when you simply share your life, your home, and basic Christian hospitality with your neighbors.

You might desire to be a great evangelist. You want to see lives changed by the Love of God.

Start with a cup of cold water, a few minutes sitting in your living room over snacks with a neighbor, helping someone carry in their groceries.

A Christian Transformational Worldview starts with the little things!

My heart cry to God:

“Father, I need your heart for my neighbors! I need your heart to have a more open home and a more sharing heart!”

I was inspired to think about this today by this article at AmericanVision.org:

“What if I told you that Christian hospitality was a necessary key to reclaiming our culture for Christ? It may sound a bit extreme, but if you think about it for a minute it makes sense. Influence flows over time to those who serve. As Christians more effectively show hospitality by opening their lives to and serving others they will begin to affect their surrounding communities and culture at a very fundamental level.”  [Read More]

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The Right Way to Receive the Bible

Greetings Friend!

Ways Our Culture Sometimes Receives the Bible:

  • Indifference
  • Mockery and Scoffing
  • Criticism
  • Laziness

Let these wonderful Kimyal people show you the right way to receive the Bible:


Watch on Youtube

This reminds me of when the people of Israel discovered the Book of the Law after their exile as told in the book of Nehemiah. (Nehemiah 8:1-12)

They started with weeping:

“…all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law…”

And ended with rejoicing:

“And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them…”

Lord, let me be this hungry for Your Word!

As you contemplate Thanksgiving Season, consider being Thankful for the Bible, God’s Word Revealed To Us! He didn’t leave us in darkness, but gave us light.

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The “They Need Me” Delusion

Greg Younger Flicker CC
Greg Younger Flicker CC

I spent a number of years in the world of Short Term Mission Trips. I don’t regret it. We worked with a long term focus, and in spite of many “learning” moments I trust that the Kingdom of God was advanced in the earth.

But I did have the opportunity to observe many interesting things about how Americans tend to view “the lost” and “the poor” and “the needy” in the world.

I remember preaching the Gospel of Jesus in an Indian village. The temptation was there to see the beautiful people in that village as helpless lost people that needed me to bring Jesus and save them.

I chose a different path. I chose to see each person whose eyes met mine as a brother or sister human being, equal to me in every way. I was just a Messenger. A Servant. I am not the Savior.

We Americans sometimes like to be “missionary tourists.” We like to go out and save those poor wretches in the rest of the world.

This little rant was inspired in general by my life experience and in the moment by this article over at TheVeryWorstMissionary.com:

“I want to fill a rental van marked “Tourist” with unbelievably rich people and then I want to bring them to your middle-class neighborhood to take pictures of you and your kids and your house and your cars.”  [Read More]

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The Golden City

I wrote this little story back in 2007 and posted it on my old blog. I thought about revising it and working out some of the little problems but I decided instead to post it exactly as I wrote it then.

Be Blessed!

 
Once upon a time there was a young boy who lived in a village at the foot of the Mountains. One day he wandered off into the forest above his father’s hut.

While wandering in the woods the boy discovered a gold mine!

A gold mine!

For the first time in his life he had hope that his poor father could stop fixing pots and pans for a living, and his village could escape generations of devastating poverty.

He ran back to his father’s hut as quickly as he could!

When he arrived he was crushed by what happened.

“Son” said his father, “this village has been the way it has for untold centuries, why are you trying to bring change now? Don’t you see the beauty of our way of life?”

“But Dad” replied the boy “If we go get the gold you can stop fixing these pots and pans and we can build a better hut for Mom and Sister. Maybe we would even be able to journey to The City to buy medicine for Grandpa! And think of how we could help Widow Lady!”

“Son, don’t be proud! Who do you think you are coming here with all of this nonsense?”

In great distress the boy ran from hut to hut telling everyone he knew about the gold mine.

Finally, an angry village gathered together at the Chief’s Lodge in the central dirt-filled square for a meeting.

“Boy” they said “You have become so proud. Who do you think you are? Why do you think your way is better than our way? We’ve done this for time and forever. Stop judging us. Stop trying to change us.”

“But we wouldn’t have to change all of our traditions” cried the boy. “We just don’t have to be poor and sick and wretched any more! I mean, we’d have to get rid of some things to make room for the gold, but we could still be Us.”

The villagers became so angry that they ran the boy out of the village that very night. The Village Elders got together and made a new decree for all.

The Decree: “From this time and forever more we will not accept anyone trying to tell us there is a gold mine in those hills. Anyone claiming that there is a better way than Our Way will be branded with a Great Brown ‘A’ on their forehead for ‘Arrogant’. All ways will be accepted in this Village. All ways, that is, except the way that claims to have found True Gold. Our customs are not to be challenged. Everything we have is “Like Gold” anyway. Who is to say that the Boy’s gold is better than anything we have?”

The news went out into all the land and everyone agreed. The Decree became The Universal Law of Cultural and Religious Tolerance and even the King Himself signed it!

Everyone agreed except a few. Every now and then someone who was a little extra poor or extra sick or extra sad would wonder out into the Hills because they heard about the Boy and his Gold Mine.

Rumors say that in the Mountains there is a city called Zion where there are no more tears and where evil has been banished.

To this very day the Villages of the Realm have had to establish Fences because Once in a Great While Wanderers bearing brown ‘A’s on their foreheads would come down from the Mountains claiming that “in those Hills lies a Golden City. Leave behind your poverty and wretchedness and Join Us!”

Long Live Jesus Christ – King of the Golden City!

Previously published at Freedomthirst.com

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Inspiring, Discipling, and Mobilizing the Next Generation of Christian Leaders

The Lordship of Jesus Applies to All of Life!
The Lordship of Jesus Applies to All of Life!
In 2000 I wrote a vision statement for my life. It was both a description of what I had been doing in ministry for the 8 years prior to that as well as a statement of intention about the future.

I have modified it very slightly over the years and say it in a few different ways, but here is the essence:

“My vision is to inspire, disciple, and mobilize the next generation of Christian leaders to fall in love with God and then find and fulfill their roles in Worldwide Awakening.”

Underneath that I wrote that I would do this by:

“Teaching in churches, schools, and ministries, running effective discipleship programs, writing books and tracts, and inspiring young people to live out the Bible in every area of society and life.”

I never anticipated at the time how much I would be in to web pages 12 years later!

Web content has been a hobby of mine for some time now.

So to this vision I dedicate my new website: www.jondavisjr.com.

I titled this site “The Gospel of Everything” because I am increasingly convinced that the Christian View of the World is meant for every area of life; so in a very real way this site is about everything. I want to work to see Jesus and His Thoughts and Ways applied to every area of life and society.

So let this site be like a new sword in the Hand of the Holy Spirit to see the Kingdom of God come on the earth and in eternity.