When Abram was wandering around the streets of Ur, do you think he could have thought he would one day be talking to the LORD God Almighty in Canaan?
When Moses was being trained by the scholars of Egypt, do you think he could have imagined that he would leave for Midian and come back one day to set God’s people free?
When young Daniel was captured from Jerusalem, do you think he could have pondered praying in a lions’ den in Babylon 67 years later?
When John came looking for John the Baptist down by the River Jordan, do you think he could have pondered witnessing the end times from the Island of Patmos?
When Andrew introduced his brother Simon to Jesus for the first time, do you think a common fisherman like Simon could have thought he, a Jew, would be leading the cause of Christ to both Jews and Gentiles in the regions of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia?
When Saul was collecting garments at the stoning of Stephen, do you think he could have conceived the idea of traveling around the Mediterranean, starting churches in the name of the same Jesus that Stephen was martyred for?
When studying missions in seminary and Jesus’ prophecy that the apostles would be witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth,” I had a picture in my mind. I pictured the apostles traveling on foot around the city of Jerusalem, across the regions of Judea and Samaria. I envisioned Paul joining them as he went on his missionary journeys around the Mediterranean.
When I was called to come to the small town of Hulett, Wyoming to pastor a church in rural America, I thought I would be reaching out solely to ranchers and struggling to hold a small church together. I never would have thought that I would be sharing the word of God with people around the world. But that is just what happens when we – any disciple of Jesus – preach and teach the word of God online. With the internet, we can be God’s witnesses in our town (Hulett), to the surrounding area (Crook County and Wyoming), across the region (the United States) and even to the end of the earth (to continents like Africa and Europe). Who would have thought?
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8