Thursday, March 24

THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2016

Deuteronomy 2:1–3:29

Luke 6:12–38

Psalm 67:1–7

Proverbs 11:27

 

 

“May God be gracious to us and bless us

      and make his face shine upon us,

that your ways may be known on earth,

                your salvation among all nations.

 

May the peoples praise you, O God;

                may all the peoples praise you.” (Psalm 67:1-3)

 

 

In today’s reading, we find Psalm 67, a great hymn to God’s mission of spreading His truth.  Tied to that reading, we also read about Jesus’s selection of the 12 apostles, the “sent ones” who would proclaim the Gospel first to Israel and later to the Gentiles.  From these juxtaposed texts, we feel the loving heart of God and His concern that all would have a chance to join Him in a love-relationship through repentance and faith.

 

In a larger context, missions runs throughout the entire Scriptures.  Pastor John Piper explains that “missions exists where worship does not.”  That is, God brings forth more and more deeply committed worshippers through the spread of the Gospel.  We not only begin our love-relationship through hearing the Gospel, but God also deepen and strengthen as we follow Him in presenting the Good News.  Philemon 6 explains that partnering in the Gospel “may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ.”

 

God places the nations for the very purpose of bringing people to Himself.  In Acts 17:24–28, Paul explained to the Athenians, using the philosophical discourse common to their language and culture:  “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.  From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.  ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’“ (Acts 17:24-28)

 

Throughout the New Testament, we find the disciples molding the transmission of the same message to bring people to Christ.  The truth does not change, just the contextualization.  Missions research has confirmed this idea throughout the centuries, and it has fueled the Bible translation and Jesus film movements of which Duane Troyer spoke during his recent visit.

 

 

This Easter weekend, I encourage you to take a few moments to explain the truth behind Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  You might consider simply sharing with a Christian friend to bring an air of thankfulness.  As we review this life-giving message over and over, it appears that it becomes more and more real – and our desire to share it with others more tangible.  Praise God for the precious Gift of His Son – and the secure hope of resurrection!

 

As a meditation, please consider these wonderful verses that declare our redemption:  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:  The old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:  that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.  And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.   We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf:  Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

 

 

Lord God, thank You for giving us truly good news through the Gospel.  Thank You for Your heart for the nations, including us.  We desperately need You and look to partner with You in sharing Your love with a hurting world.  Help us to speak into people’s lives with the secure hope of resurrection.  To You be all praise, honor, and glory forever!  In Jesus’s Name, amen.

 

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