Mere Missions

C onclusion • 199

The epigraph for this booklet, Mere Missions: Moving Forward to Multiply , is “. . . not of those who shrink back.” I sign all my emails with this short quotation from Hebrews 10. I do not do it for the recipient of my email. I do it for me. The temptation to shrink back is there. To abandon missions is a confrontation I have faced many times and expect to face until I depart this spiritual “war zone” that is occupied and led by the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2.2). This little discipline reminds me to, “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10.5). It strengthens me to stand; to keep moving forward; to endure. It’s taken from a longer passage found in Hebrews 10.35-39: Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. According to these verses, we apparently have an option. If we are admonished to “not throw away” then it must mean, we can “throw away.” The throwing away or keeping is an action on our part. But what is it that we are not to throw away? What are we not to abandon? It is our confidence. And what is our confidence? “The coming one will come and not delay.” This is our hope. We are not to abandon our hope for “hope that is seen is not hope.