I now commend my soul to my most trustworthy God, Whose ambassador I am, in spite of my obscurity.

  - Patrick, Confession (British, 5th century)

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

  - 2 Corinthians 5.20

I'm sure it must have seemed to Patrick, for all his great success in ministry, that he was laboring in an obscure part of the world, and no one would take much thought for his labors after he was gone.

He was unlettered - a high school dropout who learned the work of ministry "on-the-job." He ministered among people who could not read or write, and he was opposed by jealous rulers and pagan spiritual leaders. He received no support from his church in Britain; quite the contrary, they distrusted and tried to undermine him.

So he must have felt like a pretty obscure ambassador.

Perhaps like you might feel sometimes?

There are no obscure ambassadors. Only faithful or unfaithful ones. Each of us has been assigned a Personal Mission Field from the Lord, and it has been populated with people who need to know Him, or to know Him better. You have been sent to that field to represent our risen King Jesus, to proclaim and embody His Kingdom, to declare His eternal glory, to radiate His living presence, to show by your life and words that He is truly alive!

Nothing obscure about that, my friends.

Who knows how many lives we might affect for Christ if only we are resolved, like Patrick was, to be faithful day by day in our witness for Him? What legacy of praise to God might we leave for the generations to come if only we were more intentional and consistent at showing Jesus to the people around us each day?

Yes, there will be opposition. And, no, you won't always have all the answers. And, of course, you will look out on your Personal Mission Field and be tempted to believe that your contribution is so obscure and unimportant that it doesn't matter whether you're faithful at it or not.

But it does. You cannot know how God might use you in someone else's life. But you can know this: Nothing positive for the Kingdom and glory of God can come from your silence, your failing to take seriously Jesus' declaration, "As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you" (Jn. 20.21).

You and I are ambassadors for Jesus Christ! Agents of the Kingdom! Witnesses to His resurrection power! Lights for the world!

Light up your Personal Mission Field for Christ, and watch how the Lord of glory drives back the obscurity of darkness to reveal the reality of the New Day through you.

And if you need some further equipping for this work, why not check out the offerings at The Ailbe Seminary? Great resources, free of charge, equipping you for ministry.

We hope you'll take us up on it.

T. M. Moore, Principal

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