The closer a person gets to retiring, the more focused he is on making good investments.  All investment decisions are important–including those associated with faith and missions.

The findings of Gil Anger, concerning the work of Christian missionaries, shed some light on this question (Statistic Brain Research Institute):

• There are 419,000 people who are classified as foreign missionaries.
• There are 26 countries that do not allow missionaries.
• 629 Billion people have never been evangelized.
• $250,000,000 is spent annually on Christian foreign missionary work.

The four points above are focused on demographics and dollars.   Is this an accurate reflection on the high cost of faith?  I don’t think so.  To understand the value of sharing the faith, you need to think of more than just the cost of an arm and a leg—you need to consider the sacrifice of a life.

When he wrote to the church at Corinth, Paul reminded them: “You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”  The high cost of faith is seen in the immeasurable love of God for you.

When you begin to comprehend the full meaning of being “bought at a price,” I hope you will also grasp the fact that in return you are to “glorify God in your body.”    Paul may have had this in mind when he said:

My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.