Ambassadors for Jesus, Representating Him Well to the World

 I’ll share fun ideas with ambassadors later. First, if your country sent an ambassador to another, & that country insulted yours and demanded money just to let yours talk to them, would you be mad? It happened in real life; the XYZ Affair. President Adams didn’t declare war since the US wasn’t ready militarily. But, there was a quasi-war. (See MrBettsclass on Youtube about it and other cool stuff.)

Believers must represent our home – Heaven - to others. My mom’s good friend had a friend whose granddaughter was very sick after giving birth to twins; she asked me to pray and ask others to - the woman, Samantha, is better but still pray. Prayer is just one of our roles, but a huge one, hence I push prayer so much. Non-believers should want us to pray for them. Sometimes, however, to see how real it is, they need to see us praying for each other as Christians first.

This is just like real ambassadors. If you were in another country, you’d want someone who represents ours, so you can call the embassy for help or questions or something. There are consulates in different citis even outside of the capital in some, where the ambassador for each country works.

Fun story: My office phone is the same as the American consulate in Lyons, France - a different country code, of course. A high school/early college age boy called my office maybe 10 years ago and asked for the consulate – I don’t know why, maybe he lost an ID? He was likely very thankful I explained kindly what he’d done (someone had dialed the American and not French country code once before and left a message; I looked it up so I was ready). We did laugh together as – after guessing correctly that he was on a class trip – I said his friends were going to tease him SO much! Then, I said that was the best part of friendships, laughing and sharing memories; he agreed. I knew he didn’t have much time but I did ask if he knew Jesus as Saviour – he said “yes.” If he only had head knowledge I planted a seed anyway. Either way, I represented God in a unique way.

A good ambassador represents his home in helping others. We represent God through actions and attitude, showing who He is. Why should people care about Heaven? God wants them there someday and wants a relationship with them here. He wants them to be saved from their sin – this world isn’t our final home. Thus, I said when we work for justice, etc., as we should, we must with an eye toward showing God’s love, how He knows we’re all equal, etc.. We should show who Jesus is through our love. That’s how people will know Jesus is real. And, they must, because we have a problem.

Say you represent country A in Country B. Your scientists have proof B is a big volcanic island. One day it’ll explode, and everyone in B will die. Of course, you’d want to help B’s people while it’s here, but it won’t always be. Maybe once, B’s scientists knew this (like more people used to have respect for God), but now they don’t. How do you help?

Of course, this is meant to symbolize our world. This is NOT saying the rapture will come this month or even this year, but we know others feel the rumblings. While we help this world, we must pray we can steer talk toward the Gospel. We need to pray others do in a believable, doctrinally sound way – the ABCs of salvation I’ve mentioned, Admit, Believe, Confess/Choose/Call. Kids are sharing a lot more about Jesus than they used to on social media, pray others get saved through it.

We’ll go over signs – and knowing how to interpret them in light of the Bible - and a bit about Revelation next. For now, think about how ambassadors work and we represent Jesus and Heaven. Don’t have others to play with? Write a story about something in these ideas.

Fun With Ambassadors:

1. Pretend you’re from another country. With a parent/sibling/cousin, make up a culture. It can be really silly – maybe you eat weird stuff or have funny greetings or a language based on something odd. Discuss your countries with each other – how can you help each other? How do you even communicate?

2. One of your citizens has a restaurant chain. She wants to bring it to this other country, but she has lots of good meals with vegetables, and the residents don’t like vegetables. Help her work out a deal, and how to explain to the people the vegetables are good for them.

3. What could get an ambassador fired? Think of how it relates to why Christians must be Christlike in dealing with others. What problems can come if an ambassador lies about their country or acts like they’re better than anyone in that country?

4. Or, come up with your own fun game. Sal and I are praying for you. So long and God bless.

Again, I kept the final greeting as a sign of the fun we had at Youthquake with that game/role play idea, and the fun I tried to encourage when writing youth in 2020.