… that we should go unto the heathen …  -Galatians 2:9

It is a wonderful thing to know your calling.

Paul had a clear sense of mission and the church confirmed that mission.  Some would go here and others would go there. Paul's purpose in life was to take the gospel to the Gentiles. That did not mean that He would never share Jesus with a Jew. It meant that He had a focus and nothing would deter Him from that focus.

What is your calling, your purpose, and your focus?

And who are the heathen?

For Paul, in his day, they were certainly not uncivilized, uneducated, or downtrodden. Some were. Many were slaves, but, as a collective, they were a part of a powerful, elite, sophisticated, and wealthy empire with rich culture and well-established philosophy.

They were the oppressed and the oppressors.

They needed some good news – the good news.

There are easier places to serve than on the mission fields of the world and of our own nation. There are easier people to reach than the "clueless" masses who have no knowledge of God – But God calls some of His servants to make that their focus. Paul was a man driven to serve in the hard places because he saw in them, the potential for harvest.

I have preached revivals where the Spirit of God was present and I was prepared, but no one got saved. It wasn't because the message was not clear and compelling; it was because there were no lost people present. The people had not cultivated them and brought them to the meeting. Evangelism is not possible in place where only the redeemed are present.

The fact was that God sent both Peter and Paul to the lost – just to different cultures. Peter was sent primarily to a culture familiar to him and Paul to those that would be strange to Peter. God had prepared Paul uniquely for cross-cultural missions and evangelism.

Are there no Pauls today? Are there no Pauline churches whose principle focus is to reach the "clueless" masses?  Are there not those among us who have been called to leave our comfort zones and venture forth into strange cultures and far away places for the cause of Christ? Or are we simply not hearing and heeding the call?