Go Into All the World

Go Into All the World

Lottie Moon left her comfortable life in Virginia in 1873 to serve as a missionary in China, where she spent forty years. She learned Mandarin, adopted Chinese dress and customs, and shared the gospel village by village. During a famine she gave away most of her food to the Chinese people around her and died of malnutrition on a ship taking her home. Her sacrifice inspired an annual Christmas offering that bears her name — the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering — which has raised billions of dollars for international missions over more than a century. One woman's going has funded thousands more. The 'all the world' is large enough for one life's complete offering.

Mark 16:15 is addressed to the eleven disciples who had just encountered the risen Jesus. 'Go into all the world' (hapanta ton kosmon) is both sweeping in scope and specific in direction. All the world means no place is excluded from the missional mandate. For most of us, this will not mean relocating to another continent — though for some it will. 'All the world' begins with our immediate sphere of influence: our family, our neighborhood, our workplace. Mission is not a department of the church reserved for the professionally religious. It is the calling of every believer. What portion of 'all the world' has God entrusted to you? Are you going there?