Vocation and promise

The special vocation of missionaries "for life" retains all its validity: it is the model of the Church's missionary commitment, which always stands in need of radical and total self-giving, of new and bold endeavors. Therefore the men and women missionaries who have devoted their whole lives to bearing witness to the risen Lord among the nations must not allow themselves to be daunted by doubts, misunderstanding, rejection or persecution. They should revive the grace of their specific charism and courageously press on, preferring - in a spirit of faith, obedience and communion with their pastors - to seek the lowliest and most demanding places.

God’s promise to bless all the “families of the earth,” first given to Abraham 4,000 years ago, is becoming a reality at a pace “you would not believe.” Although some may dispute some of the details, the overall trend is indisputable. Biblical faith is growing and spreading to the ends of the earth as never before in history.

Days of Prophecy, Promise and Hope: The 2014 Canadian Vocation Conference

Willing to give all

What’s the difference between a good idea and a God idea? A good idea will work some of the time; a God idea will work all the time. Scripture warns us not to lean on our own understanding but to trust God wholeheartedly (Proverbs 3:5). When we’re not willing to submit to God’s leadership and authority in our lives, God will let us follow our own devices. In following them, we will never experience what God is waiting and wanting to do in us and through us.

In the book of Job, this man with incredible trials in his life, says the simple but profound statement, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.” The same is true of all of us. We came into the world with empty hands, and when we die, we take nothing with us. When you understand this basic truth, then you understand that everything that passes through your control and possession in this life is not about ownership, but about “stewardship”. Picture in your mind the following: your house, your bank account, your cars, your family, your friends, your talents and skills, the months of your life. You’ll notice everything is temporary, everything is limited and everything stays here.

Church planters, whether full-time or bi-vocational, no matter what strategy or model they have chosen, are always in need of financial support for their church’s general budget and material support towards their outreach endeavors. Direct financial support may seem to be the least connected way of encouraging a church planter, but in many ways it is the most important. Often the level of financial support a church planter receives directly effects if they are able to stay on that field or take the next step in their strategy. In center-city or urban centers the living expenses can be astronomical. Bi-vocational work is usually not enough to meet the needs of their families and can be very difficult to secure in this economy. However God calls you to be involved in church planting, we pray that He leads you to directly invest financially in church plants as an offering to Him above your tithes to your local church. Please also consider discussing the possibility of direct financial assistance with your church’s missions committee. Often it is difficult for churches to imagine the need for missions giving beyond their denominational projects or people who have been sent out from their local congregation.

The strength of Christ is found in grace. More grace is released to us when we press in and actually boast how in our infirmities (how powerless we are within our own power – our own abilities, in other words), rather than complain or remain frustrated in them. God says there is sufficient power available for all our trials when we are able to fully surrender in our human weakness to the sufficiency of God’s grace for each particular situation.

KELLY WILLARD Willing Heart PSALM 51 10 12 With Lyrics

A BOY WHO GAVE LIFE

The Story

The Bible begins with the story of creation and ends with a vision of God’s recreation. Peppered generously between alpha and omega are a host of other stories. While stories dominate Scripture, they rarely enter the Christian worker’s strategies. Leland Ryken cogently asks:

Why does the Bible contain so many stories? Is it possible that stories reveal some truths and experiences in a way that no other literary form does—and if so, what are they? What is the difference in our picture of God when we read stories in which God acts, as compared with theological statements about the nature of God? What does the Bible communicate through our imagination that it does not communicate through our reason? If the Bible uses the imagination as one way of communicating truth, should we not show an identical confidence in the power of the imagination to convey religious truth? If so, would a good starting point be to respect the story quality of the Bible in our exposition of it?

Is it not time for today’s Christian workers to revitalize one of the world’s oldest, most universal and powerful art forms—storytelling? I believe so. I also believe that Christian workers, with training and practice, can effectively communicate the finished story of Jesus Christ and connect it to the target audience’s unfinished story. Presenting an overview of Old and New Testament stories that unveils the history of redemption will highlight for the listeners the Storyline (Jesus Christ) of the sacred Storybook (Bible). Should this happen, the gospel will be much more easily understood, and more frequently communicated to family and friends.

Mission through history

Christians throughout history have been excellent in their discoveries of messianic passages in Scripture but have been almost blind to the obvious missional characteristics of the Messiah! The missional nature of Messiah as Suffering Servant flows out of the whole Grand Narrative of Scripture. “Was it not necessary that the Messiah must suffer . . . and that repentance resulting in forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the peoples” (Lk. 24:26,46-47). The doctrines of the pre-existent triune God, His creation, man’s Fall in Adam, the redemption in Christ, and the coming consummation are all inextricably missional.  God has called His people to be a missional people, who participate in God’s very own mission. The Lord has planned that all the clans and peoples of earth will be impacted and transformed by God’s very own mission, in which His people participate.

 

In the Old Testament Jesus reveals His Father’s mission. The Father chose Abraham’s

family—the people of Israel as a people involved in God’s mission. This mission in turn leads

to Him as Messiah and from Him to mission for the new covenant children of Abraham, including

both Jews and the gentilic peoples, in Christ.

The goal of the mission of God is that all peoples become joyous and delighted worshippers of our Father through Christ our Lord.

 

 

 

The Greatest Story Ever Told

'The Greatest Story Ever Told' is more than just a cliche. God has gone to great lengths to rescue lost and hurting people. That is what the Story is all about: the story of the Bible, God's great love affair with humanity.  The Bible allows its stories, poems, and teachings to come together in a single, compelling read. The Story sweeps you into the unfolding grand narrative of the Scriptures, and like any good story, it is filled with intrigue, drama, conflict, romance, and redemption.  This book tells the grandest, most compelling story of all time: the story of a true God who loves His children, who established for them a way of salvation and provided a route to eternity. Each story  reveals the God of grace---the God who speaks; the God who acts; the God who listens; the God whose love for His people culminated in His sacrifice of Jesus, His only Son, to atone for the sins of humanity.

 

[Glory - the manifestation of God's presence

 

Worship - OT - to "...prostrate (in homage to royalty or God): - bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship".  NT - to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence; by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or make supplication.]

 

The Bible is the astounding drama of God’s love drawing the worship of the nations. Remember the basic thesis: God reveals His glory to all peoples so that He may receive glory from all creation.  This double dimension of glory can help make sense out of an apparent jumble of ancient stories.

 

For all of Abraham's failings, he did the most missionary thing he could have done when he first arrived in the new land;  his first act was to establish ongoing public worship of God.  

God's name is the body of truth about Himself which He has displayed and declared in the long-unfolding story of the Bible.

God did more for His name than to gain early worship from Abraham.  God went global in a big way  in the Exodus.

The conquest of Canaan should be seen in the same light of God winning to Himself a single, holy people of worship.

Consider God’s declaration of purpose for the temple: “to establish His name there for His dwelling.” God wanted to do two things in this special place. First, He wanted to reveal Himself by “His name.” It would be a place of revelation as worshipers continually exalt His character and voice the stories and songs about His working. Second, God desired a place of encounter, of relationship, of dwelling.

The story also includes times of prolonged up-and-down struggle with idolatry.  Various episodes revive fidelity to God’s worship, but are followed by stunning new lows of profaning God’s name. The upper-most issue throughout the generations is God’s glory by Israel’s worship. At times the people disregarded the worship of God so greatly that generations would pass without the slightest attention to the simple regimens by which God had invited Israel to meet with Him (the ordinances for worship in the books of Moses). The words of some of the prophets show that even when worship patterns were followed, they were performed superficially.  The prophets exposed perfunctory worship, showing that it perversely lacked the justice and the kindness which was supposed to have thrived behind every offering and prayer to God.

God's name is the body of truth about Himself which He displayed and declared in the long-unfolding story of the Bible.

 
 

 

 

Related articles

• Song Of The Day
• Hymn. O Worship The LORD In The Beauty Of Holiness

What does it mean to be a blessing?

Steven Hawthorne shares these thoughts --

If our only source were the book of Genesis, we would still learn a great deal about the idea of blessing. In Genesis, the word “blessing” is used to describe a pronouncement or endowment of blessing. It is an act in which a future destiny or goodness is spoken, and thus bestowed upon the person or entity being blessed. The term blessing is used to describe the fulfillment of what was promised, whether material or otherwise. God pronounced blessing at creation, empowering animal life and humanity to fulfill the mandate He had given, to “be fruitful and multiply and fill” their respective domains. Throughout the rest of Scripture, when blessing is fulfilled in creatures, people, households or nations, they are enabled to flourish and to move toward their intended fullness and destiny.

In Genesis we also see clear references to how the promise of blessing was fulfilled in tangible ways. Near the close of Abraham’s life we read that God “had blessed Abraham in every way” (24:1). What exactly were these diverse ways that Abraham had been blessed?

We can find three broad categories of blessing in the Genesis story. First, we see blessing as material wealth and fruitfulness (24:35, 30:27, 30). Second, we see blessing as favored relationship with God and the experience of His presence (14:19-20, 21:22, 26:22). And third, we see blessing bringing about a measure of peace amidst families and peoples (21:22-23, 26:18-29).

Most Christians have been taught well about Jesus Christ coming to provide a way for people to be adopted as sons and daughters into the family of God. In the book of Galatians, Paul says that “when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son… that we might receive” adoption as children of God (Gal 4:4-5). But a few verses earlier in the same book Paul says that those who believe in Christ have been joined with Christ in such a way that they become part of Abraham’s family. “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:29).
The way the promise was given to Abraham, blessing would be fulfilled in the “seed” of Abraham. This word is often used as a “collective singular,” speaking of many seeds. Thus, the term can refer to one descendant or to a multitude of descendants. Which is it?

Paul answers the question this way: Both are true. There is one pre-eminent son of Abraham: “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as referring to many, but rather to one, ‘And to your seed,’ that is, Christ” (Gal 3:29). Christ is the one seed of Abraham, but Paul also declares that since people become sons and daughters of Abraham’s family by faith, the promise is being fulfilled by their faith as those who inherit the promise:
“It is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, ‘All the nations will be blessed in you.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham” (Gal 3:7-9).

Christ has now ended the curse and opened the family of God. Now people from every family on earth can be part of Abraham’s family by faith in Christ. They inherit the full family heritage of being blessed in order to be a blessing to the nations.

God’s promise to bless the nations through Abraham’s descendants carries mandate force for all who have been joined with Christ by faith. The promise so clearly reveals God’s purpose, that Christians rightly consider it to convey God’s mandate to serve as His agents of blessing among all the peoples of the earth. We are blessed in Christ in order to bring forth the blessing of Christ among all the nations. But what are we hoping for? What does it mean for the nations to be blessed? And how are we to pursue it? The promise of blessing shapes and integrates our mission in two important ways.

The greatest blessing imaginable is the privilege of belonging to God’s people, and therefore, belonging to God as His children. Christ has opened Abraham’s family to all. We now participate in bringing people from every people, tribe and clan to be joined with Christ by faith and enfolded into the people of God. Extending the invitation to belong to God’s family is the greater part of what it means to bring blessing to the nations. We cannot consider that the Abrahamic blessing has visited a people today if the gospel of Jesus Christ has not yet been clearly conveyed to them.

What will it look like when this aspect of God’s blessing is fulfilled? We can look forward to the day when we will see at least some from every people on earth trusting and following Christ. The blessing of the nations means much more than evangelism, but it certainly can mean no less than the evangelization of every people.

We have seen in the book of Genesis that God displayed evidence of His dynamic presence with His people. God will be no less present amidst the peoples of the earth as groups of obedient followers of Christ emerge and grow among the nations. As in the book of Genesis, the presence of God with His people in our day is the beginning of all of the more tangible aspects of blessing that God brought about. This means that evangelization has a special priority (in order, not importance). God’s promise to bless the nations is the framework in which Christ’s commission makes sense. This same promise authorizes Christ’s followers to hope and to work for God’s life to abound in every people.

We can expect the blessing of belonging to God to become a reality amidst every people. But we can look forward to so much more! We can expect to see significant displays of the abundance of God’s life. We should not expect a utopian perfection. But we can work and pray with a strong hope, partly informed by what we see in the book of Genesis, that God will be with His people to bring forth significant measures of blessing among the nations.

And so we ask again, what will the fulfillment of God’s promise to bless the nations look like? Of course, it will be different in every place and people, but we should expect God to bring forth every kind of blessing, such as economies that flourish with justice and righteousness, agricultures and industries that abound with plenty for all, and peace throughout communities and between peoples and races. We can expect that God will enable His people to wage war with disease, to break the vicious cycles of poverty, to provide water in desert lands, and to be present with healing in the midst of catastrophe.

We should expect that some of Abraham’s children by faith will be used by God to preserve life after the example of Joseph. We are probably seeing now in many cities an answer to Abraham’s prayer for the city of Sodom in Genesis 18. In that prayer God said that an entire city would be spared the immediate consequences of their sin because of the righteousness of a few. In Abraham’s day there were less than ten. Now there are millions of his faith family spread throughout many of the cities of the earth.

Recently the term “transformation” has helped many express hope that Christian mission can be directed beyond successful evangelism to also seek lasting changes in society which reflect the justice and character of Christ. The biblical ground for integrating evangelism with social action is usually found in numerous biblical texts dealing with the hope and reality of the kingdom of God. It could be that we have been overlooking another body of biblical truth that supports a robust and strategic holism. God’s ancient promise of blessing provides a vivid, rich and powerful framework for integrating the pursuit of societal transformation and the completion of world evangelization.

We find in the Genesis account a remarkably clear prophetic sketch of the broad scope of God’s purpose for His people. Since God’s promise to Abraham embodies His purpose and our mission, then we are right to expect that our mission will lead to social and material change or transformation. But the main lesson to be learned is not that God’s mission includes concerns for social and physical issues. The greatest lessons we may find are those which show us how to co-work with God to bring forth His blessing. To be God’s blessing among all the peoples will require our utmost effort somehow blended with the exertion of God’s miraculous, life-giving power.

As God continues the fulfillment of His promise in our day, we can learn important lessons about how we can co-work with God from the lives of Abraham’s family. Perhaps the person in Genesis that best exemplifies the mystery of God at work with His people to bring forth blessing is Abraham’s great-grandson Joseph.

Related articles

• Blessing as a theme
• Genesis 12 - Key to the Old Testament?

Blessing as a theme

Satan became proud of his beauty and intelligence. He forgot that everything he had was a gift from God, and instead of being thankful for the multitude of blessings God had given him, he wanted more and more. He even became dissatisfied with the second position in heaven; he wanted the first. But the only position above Satan’s was God’s. Yes, he wanted God’s position, God’s authority, and God’s power.

He was the most beautiful and the most intelligent being that God ever created. Human eyes have never beheld an angel in all his glory, and when Satan walks the streets of the cities and towns of earth, performing miracles and claiming to be Christ, practically the entire world will fall down and worship him. Satan will raise his hands in blessing the people, and the people will prostrate themselves before him, worshiping him, believing that he is Christ. Almost everyone will be hypnotized by the overwhelming glory, beauty, and power which the devil will display. He will repeat in a soft, comforting voice many of the words which Jesus spoke when He was on earth. He will heal the sick and perform other miracles and great works, claiming that he is Jesus Christ. His demonstration will be thoroughly convincing to virtually everyone on earth.

The reason that deception exists is because the curse came into effect the day Adam and Eve sinned. They allowed curse into the world, at every level and area. The Bible has to talk about blessing: because God wants to bless the people against this back drop! He wants to make Abraham blessed, to make a distinction between the blessing and the curse.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, so that the blessing of Abraham may come on us. 

What's more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, "All nations will be blessed through you." -- Galatians 3:8 NLT

People—alienated from their Creator, unaware of His love and work—wander off to seek after their own way. By their own efforts, they try to find meaning and purpose in life. They are on a path that leads nowhere. They become corrupt in their thinking and behavior. They exchange a lie for the truth of who they are and why God created them (Romans 2:25).

Humanity’s deepest need is to turn away from seeking after its own way and return to the way of the Creator God.  Returning to God gives us new identity as members of His household.  This identitygives us honor. It gives us value. It also gives us purpose: to connect others to the Great Story.

Related articles

• The Blessing is greater t...

Mandate versus Command

When our Lord presented Himself as Israel’s Messiah, He taught a great deal about the blessings of God. His teaching was radically different from that of the Jewish religious leaders of His day. His teaching was different not as the result of a change in God’s plan, but due to the Jew’s misconceptions concerning God’s promised blessings.

Wolterstorff ties the image of God to the dominion mandate (or blessing). In other words, of all the ways in which human beings might be said to reflect or image God, that set that is “necessary for receiving and exercising the blessing or mandate of dominion” ties together those that are in fact used by ancient Hebrew writers when they expound on the idea of the image of God in man.

Covenantal pledging or promise is then the means whereby one loves what the other loves. Through His promise, God establishes the basis for a loving relationship between Himself and us.

God's promises to Abraham—physical and spiritual—became unconditional. His words, "By Myself have I sworn" (Genesis 22:16), show that the fulfillment of the promise no longer depended on Abraham. The fulfillment of the promise would now depend solely on God Himself. He unconditionally committed Himself to fulfill His promise to Abraham and his descendants.

Revealed Purpose through a Promise

This is an incredible commentary on this very subject - http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/36/Promises-Abraham.htm
You will note that it starts with Abraham and continues to Christ and then to those who follow Him.  A beautifully written piece explaining how precious the promise of God continues to bless us.

God in His sovereign grace has reached down to mankind and revealed Himself and His eternal purpose for all to know Him. He did this by revealing Himself to the prophets in the Old Testament, and by sending His own son, Jesus Christ as recorded in the New Testament. There is a progressive self revelation of God as we begin in the book of Genesis a journey to the fulfillment of all the promises in person and work of Jesus Christ. God does not give a full complete revelation of everything about Himself and His purpose for mankind in one quick brief presentation. The will of God was gradually revealed. An infinite God cannot reveal more than finite men can understand. God is patient. He progressively reveals truths about Himself and His purpose for mankind. Here a little, there some more, like bringing all the pieces of a great puzzle together until we see the complete picture. Each revelation of Himself to men in the Old Testament was true and accurate.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)

The ultimate good is that which manifests God’s glory. For the Christian, “good” includes the blessing of all those who are the called in Jesus Christ. The promised blessings of the Bible are the good which God has purposed and promised. The Christian life should be lived out in the light of the superiority of God’s promised blessings in comparison to the “blessings” an ungodly world holds out to us (Hebrews 11:24-26).

A part of that plan involves God's desire that all nations recognize the stark difference between these two conflicting ways of life. He wants every person to learn that His ways alone can consistently bring true and lasting blessings to all people.

God's promises are important

The Bible gives us our mandate.

It is very actual and relevant in our time. Stott says our mandate is found:

• in the creation of God (because of which all human beings are responsible to Him)
• in the character of God (as outgoing, loving, compassionate, not willing that any should perish, desiring that all should come to repentance)
• in the promises of God (that all nations will be blessed through Abraham's seed and will become the Messiah's inheritance)
• in the Christ of God (now exalted with universal authority, to receive universal acclaim)
• in the Spirit of God (who convicts of sin, witnesses to Christ, and impels the Church to evangelize)
• in the Church of God (which is a multinational, missionary community, under orders to evangelize until

and today's focus • in the promises of God (that all nations will be blessed through Abraham's seed and will become the Messiah's inheritance)

This is how we can tell others that they can begin an intimate relationship with Him right now. You can begin to personally know God in this life on earth, and after death into eternity. Here is God's promise to us:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

Click here for an outline that gives a quick sample of some of God's grand purpose, if possible, summarized quite well.

The church is rooted in the concept of the Missio Dei, which recognizes that there is one mission, and it is God’s mission. The Missio Dei is a Latin theological term that can be translated as “Mission of God.” The word missio literally means sent. The church is not an end in itself; the church is sent into the world to fulfill the mission of God.

http://youtu.be/qSeJzuq95SA

Related articles

• A God of global purpose
• Living the Surrendered Life (Day 20)

A God of global purpose

First things first - the covenant with Abraham discloses God's purpose for every person -

Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:14)

Secondly, God did not create robots. That would have brought very little glory to God. Because His creatures were not robots, there was the risk of a negative choice. But God, by His sovereign will, purpose, and foreknowledge, determined to allow this, indeed, He ordained it by His own eternal wisdom. 

There are inescapable cravings in the core of every human heart that cannot be ignored, denied or pacified: they must be satisfied. When we wake up in the morning, whether we realize it or not, we are being driven by innate desires that demand answers and refuse delay. These longings are inherent to us as human beings. We have longings, yearnings, placed deep within us by God, for the purpose of wooing us into His grace and presence. As we understand their origin in God, we begin to cooperate with these longings in accordance with His will. We find the answer to our longings in the One who put them in us. His master plan extends even into the realm of our emotions.

In order to please God, we need to sacrifice our own lives to God just as Christ did. And how do we live our lives as a sacrifice like Christ did for us? We need to sacrifice our own will to the will of God. We need to stop thinking of what is best for us and think instead of fulfilling God’s larger purpose with the Earth. Jesus’ faithful life of service and willing crucifixion are the perfect living examples of the faith God is calling us to have. It isn’t until we give ourselves fully to God, rather than our own selfish desires, that we will begin to understand what it is God wants from us.

God's purpose for Himself

“In this way, I will make known my holy name among my people of Israel. I will not let anyone bring shame on it. And the nations, too, will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel." (Ezekiel 39:7)

God’s great purpose is to make Himself known. This is the great emphasis of the Bible. God’s program of missions centers upon Himself. God’s great concern is to glorify Himself and to make Himself known to all.

There is little room for God's glory while we fill the earth with violence and oppression and while sin and death remain. A great change is obviously necessary to bring about this wonderful time of blessing, which we read of in many Bible prophecies (Psalm 72; Isaiah 32). However great the change, its realisation is certain! This is the message of the gospel (good news) which is taught throughout the Bible. Few realise that the promise made to Abraham 2,000 years before Christ, is the foundation of the gospel!

In the New Testament, the book of Acts presents the gatherings of the churches that met in homes, rather than at locations built for exclusive religious expression. I Corinthians 14 addresses a great deal about anticipated activities, when the church is gathered for meetings.  There are many listed activities, such as praying, instructing, speaking in tongues, giving thanks and singing hymns. Neither evangelism nor edification of God was the purpose of the gatherings. This passage indicates that the purpose of all these shared activities was to edify one another, the Christians, themselves which brings glory to God. If, however, a non-believer were to be present, although (s)he might not understand what is happening and why, the observations of and testimony of the believers will draw him/her to repent and worship God.

The Lord Jesus taught us to pray to our Father: “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We are to pray for God to be glorified in every place on earth and for people everywhere to serve him with joy.

Related articles

• Teach children the Bible is not about them

  ---

God's purpose is three-fold

When we think of God as a missionary God, we realize that there is a plan, a biblical plan in place. 

Understand that my context is not just identifying God's purpose for our life, but that context is in the form of engaging God's missionary character within that purpose.

- against evil - kingdom victory: The magnificent vision which John saw in Revelations 4-5 will be the main consolation for him and for the struggling Church and an assurance for the final victory. God and Christ are in control of history, and truth and love will prevail, while evil will finally disappear from the world (Rev. 20:10), and a new life will come to the world created and saved by God in Christ (Rev. chs. 21-22)

- for the nations - redemption and blessing: From Abraham on, the pattern is to focus on God’s redemption and blessing. The customs of Genesis often differ considerably from those of our modern day. They must be explained against their ancient Near Eastern background. Each custom must be treated according to the immediate context of the passage before any attempt is made to explain it based on customs recorded in extra biblical sources or even elsewhere in Scripture.


- for God - global glory in worship: Missions is all about GOD who knows the works and thoughts of peoples and has set a time to gather all nations and tongues. Missions is about God who wanted His name to be known and his glory be seen. This God is the One who said,

“Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be.” (Isaiah 66:1)

In other words, The God of Missions is not only all-knowing; He is also all-powerful and all-consuming. He can do everything, He knows everything and He is everywhere. This God cannot be localized - His power unmatchable, His presence universal, His knowledge unlimited. This is the God of Missions and this is the God we serve.

Missions is also about the God who is not only able to do everything but is also sovereign. He is not only able, He is also in control. He said,

“I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” (Isaiah 46:9-10

In other words, He planned everything, He decreed everything and He will accomplish everything. There is nothing He cannot do. In fact, He will do whatever He pleased. “He does everything according to his will and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:35)

The God of Missions is the same God, who said,

“For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. (Isaiah 48:9-11)

In other words, God is not only able to do whatever He pleased; He does everything to please himself. He does everything to glorify himself. The most passionate heart in the whole universe for the glory of God is the heart of God. He said six times in this passage the motive behind his every action: “for my name's sake, for the sake of my praise, for my own sake, for my own sake, how should my name be profaned, My glory I will not give to another.”

Many times, we think Missions is about saving people, planting churches, sending missionaries, rarely we think that Missions is about God who is eager to make Himself known. God is the center of Missions, not souls, not churches, not missionaries, not us. Missions is about God.

This great and sovereign God revealed himself to Abram in a vision, just so He could bless him and his descendants. What grace the LORD shows to His people. Sure Abram had concerns about how this was all going to “pan out”- - he is human. He doesn’t know how this will all come about, but because God has graciously revealed himself to Abram, He knows the LORD is able to keep His promises. In fact, the LORD not only accommodated and stooped to reveal himself to sinful Abram, but was about confirm His promise in an even more astounding manner. What was about to happen, Abram could have never imagined.

In light of His resurrection, Jesus simply restated the Father‟s purpose from the beginning – that all the world‟s peoples know Him as God.

"I was speaking at a Christian conference. But suddenly it hit me. In the folder on my lap was a flyer about a missionary conference with me as the keynote speaker. I did my best not to let the flyer fall out! This incident illustrates the tensions we face. The term “missionary conference” can imply a design for aggressive proselytism, polemical attack’s defaming Muslim culture and history, western colonialism or imperialism. As I sat next to my Muslim acquaintance musing, I thought how much better it would be if the theme of the conference was “blessing the nations.”"

Related articles

• Can anyone save you from evil's power?

  ---

• Would I Accept Torture and Death for Being a Christian?: Meditations on Martyrdom

  ---