Personal Mission Field

We have learned these things, without room for doubt, from people who knew the facts in every district, wherever the same thing happened, with the same miracle.

  - Adomnan, Life of Columba (Irish, 7th century)

O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old...

  - Psalm 44.1

Adomnan was the ninth bishop of Iona, the monastic school founded by Columba in the middle of the 6th century. He was writing his account of the great saint's life around 100 years after Columba's death.

To prepare for this undertaking, Adomnan sought out reputable sources, people who had long connection with Iona and who knew those who had known Columba personally. His account is filled with miracles and prophesies which seem to us difficult to believe.

Yet, over and over, Adomnan pauses in the middle of some account, essentially to relate, "I'm not makin' this stuff up. Lots of people related this story, from various places." Sometimes he found "a hundred or more" witnesses to verify some extraordinary work of the saint.

But still, we sniff and think, "Not likely." Christians today are so locked into the presuppositions and protocols of our materialist age that we can't imagine a time in Church history when miracles and prophesies were, if not common, at least present in a few chosen saints.

Do we suppose the God Who worked in such ways throughout the pages of Scripture suddenly took a new tack once the canon was closed? Some, I know, do believe that.

I don't. And I think we are impoverished in working our Personal Mission Fields because we believe in a God Who only works in ways familiar to us and agreeable to our secular, postmodern times. We don't really believe that He is at work within us, willing and doing according to His good pleasure. We believe the Bible says that, but we don't believe it in practice. We also believe the Bible says that His power in us is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think. But we wouldn't dare ask or think it. Thus we limit the power of God.

Recall that Jesus, at one point, was not able to do many mighty works because of the unbelief of those among whom He was ministering. Is our unbelief - in God's power, in His ability to do miraculous works, to give us prophetic insights and words - hampering our witness for Christ?

Adomnan must have been something of a prophet himself. He seems to have looked down the long years of history until he could see into our age, with our paltry faith and our timid trust. And to us he writes, over and over again, "I know this sounds unlikely, incredible, and exaggerated. But trust me, we know. We've seen it. We believe it. And we're passing it on to you, just in case you need to have your own faith bolstered by the remarkable witness of those who have gone before."

Are we listening? For what miracle of grace, what prophetic word of converting power, are you going to trust the Lord today?

Today at The Fellowship of Ailbe

ReVision - Meddling in economics today. Is capitalism Christian? Yes. And no.

I Will Be Your God - If our faith were as big as God's promises, we'd have no trouble believing Adomnan when he tells us about the life of one of Celtic Christianity's greatest saints. Get this book, and learn the promises of God all over again.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.