Bible Text: Isaiah 6:8 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” Isaiah 6:8

The 19th century world of John Ruskin (1819-1900) was vastly different from the world today. Long before Edison discovered the incandescent globe in 1881, John Ruskin, then a little boy, was said to have been sitting at the window of his home one evening as the lamplighter slowly worked his way up the hill, putting his ladder against each lamppost, slowly climbing it, lighting the gas lamp. Ruskin followed his progress as he moved up the hill, then jabbing the air with his finger exclaimed, “Look, he’s punching holes in the darkness.”

For 2000 years, that’s been the story of world missions. Seven centuries before Christ came, Isaiah wrote, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:6). Paul wrote of what Jesus did, saying, “He has delivered us from the kingdom of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear son” (Colossians 1:13).

The reality is that most resources of both churches and those who are part of them stay at home, rather than reaching into dark corners of the world. Less than 1% of the money given for missions goes toward reaching the unreached. Yet, God has given us capable means of reaching the unreached. Such as what? Consider the following.

Planting churches in areas of the world where there are none reaches the unreached. Our Guidelines’ commentary in Russian has been released in cooperation with the Far East Broadcasting Company in the Russian Far East where there are 500 cities having a post office and a settlement with no churches. The same thing is true in vast areas of the Middle East.

Bible translation also reaches the unreached! In our generation Bible translation has made great strides, even to the point where groups such as Wycliffe Bible translators believe that at the present time a translator is alive somewhere who may be the one who translates the Bible into the last major dialect or language in our world. Yet of some 16,000 people groups in the world today, according to the Joshua Project and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, over 6,000 major people groups are yet unreached.

Medical missions also reaches the unreached! When someone is suffering, they first want medication; and caring, gentle hands that can bring healing can also bring the news of God’s love and care.

Over a period of many years we at Guidelines have discovered that the printed page is also a great means of reaching the unreached. I never cease to be amazed hearing from someone in a distant corner of our world who read something my wife or I have written and the Holy Spirit used that to bring the reader to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Friendship evangelism has been used by God to reach the unreached as well—“business as ministry” is the concept where you first win the confidence of those with whom you do business, and your life as well as your witness speaks of the grace of God.

A final question that wraps up today’s commentary: What is in your hand? Take inventory of your skills and resources. You possess one of three things: 1. time, 2. resources, and 3, unique abilities. Are you willing to be the one God can use to reach the unreached? Your skill may be that of a doctor or nurse, a computer expert, a mechanic or builder, a linguist, or simply someone who can hold an orphaned baby or put a soothing cloth on a fevered brow. Reaching the unreached is your responsibility as a follower of Jesus Christ. You can do it with God’s help.

Resource reading: Colossians 4