While working at the auto parts store the other day a number of men were discussing the usual politics, weather, and women. They overheard me telling my boss that I would be out of town for a week while going on a mission into Mexico. Upon hearing this, one of the men asked me what the price of prostitution was in Mexico by now- not because he thought that is what I was going for, but because he enjoys getting a jab at ‘religious’ people. The jab did not turn out as funny as he had hoped and no one laughed. So he continued talking about how, in the past, he had gone to Mexico and what he had done while there. He ended his little monologue by saying that there is no way he would go to Mexico now. It is just too dangerous. At this point I interjected that I would not be going into Mexico either if I did not know that what I had to say and do was vital to those to whom I was going.
A little later I was left alone with the monologue man, my boss had gone to get the mail and everyone else had left. He asked a few questions about Mexico, again stressing the dangers about going into Mexico. I told him some of my experiences in Mexico, again stressing that if I did not have a vital message for the people there I wouldn’t go.
Finally he asked me, “What do you do when you’re down there? You draw pictures, right? But what do you draw and what do you say?” So I told him, and in the telling I also told him something of my Master, Jesus Christ.
Why do I go into Mexico?
I go because Heaven is real and hell is real. I go because there are millions of people dying and going to hell. I go because I know the way to Heaven and I am on it now. I go because the love of Christ constrains me- I cannot sit idly by and let souls slip into a Christless eternity. I must go. I must help others understand that there is one way to Heaven and that way is Jesus Christ. I go because all roads do not lead to Heaven, there is only one way, and that way includes surrendering at the Cross of Jesus Christ. I go because, with Paul, “I have been appointed an apostle, and a preacher, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the which cause I also suffer these things.”
That is why I go into Mexico. I go because when I look into the eyes of a fellow human being my heart longs to know them in Heaven one day.
And because I serve the God of Joseph, Joshua, and Job, I know that I cannot die until God allows it. I know that no evil can befall me unless it passes through His fingers first. I know that He is faithful, and I want to risk everything for Him and for His cause: telling the nations about His Story.
If I was going to fulfill the lusts of the flesh I would be scared. But I am not. I am going so that others can experience the glorious freedom from sin that is available in my Savior, Jesus Christ.