Where I've Been Sent

My normal reading plan has me in Ezekiel and I felt like this really spoke to me:

Ezekiel 3:4-6 ESV
(4) And he said to me, "Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them.
(5) For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel--
(6) not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you.

As I'm learning from my friend Mark, God must not have sent Ezekiel to Hungary!

When I read this I feel like it is telling me that I am not called to foreign missions. I feel like there is much for me to do here in the United States. Though if I did feel called to foreign missions I would take this passage as a great encouragement. Of course, this also supposes that I'm not reading something into the text that isn't there. Clearly God called Ezekiel to domestic missions.

Here's another passage from today:

Ezekiel 3:17-21 ESV
(17) "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.
(18) If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.
(19) But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
(20) Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand.
(21) But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul."

I take this to speak to our personal responsibilities to share what the Bible says. This seems so contrary in our culture. Our culture is all about not hurting each other's feelings. But this passage would indicate that we are actually being much more loving when we help someone avoid their iniquity.

Of course, this must be done with graciousness. I've taken this passage as a license to be a spiritual bully, which I don't think is God's intent. But I do know that if someone professes Christ and mentions an area that needs help it is every Christian's job to help as they are able. I realize that I'm not in a position to help someone deal with their recalcitrant teen. I have little idea about how to comfort someone with ailing parents. But I do know how to help someone escape the traps of sexual sin as well as gluttony and laziness. So I'm going to keep following where I think I've been called for right now.

I do know that this is all subject to change. God seems to work that way sometimes.