At this very moment WHBC is actively and practically involved in global mission.
I'm not referring to our ongoing and developing policy of financial support and prayer for those missionaries that we have pledged as a church to support.
I am speaking of two of our members who have not only prayed diligently concerning global mission and under God's leading have given of their finance, but who have also given of their time and physically gone to be involved in short term practical missionary work.
Our Assistant Pastor, Ben Griffin, is now in the Ivory Coast with UFM, and his DIY skills are doubtless being pushed to their limit! Pray for him. Not only do Liz and the children miss him, but WE miss him.
Let's pray that God will use him greatly while he is away from us.
Operation Mobilisation has ministered to millions through the ships that take God's Word around our world. Who keeps them afloat? Not just you and I through our giving, but volunteer missioners like Chris who go and serve short term in practical ways.
For the next two weeks Chris will be in Trogia, Croatia, to help with the modifications to Operation Mobilisation's new ship, the Logos Hope. The ship is now coming to the end of its extended dry docking programme where the major steelwork and new equipment work has been done, and is almost ready for the final phase of work in the New Year.
Pray for Chris!
Do you pray for global missions? We ought to because we have a global gospel. I thought I would share with you an extended quotation from John Piper's excellent book 'Don't Waste Your Life' to stimulate you to prayer and concern.
Not everybody comes ... with a clear and driving passion for the glory of Christ among the unreached peoples of the world. Most of us are pretty parochial and ethnocentric and
narrow, and even sometimes self-centered and racist, in our way of life. We hardly ever even think about the global, multinational, multiethnic, multi-linguistic cause of God, and what God’s passion and purposes are for Guinea and Indonesia and Tanzania and Thailand and Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and Turkey and Czechoslovakia and China and Siberia and Japan and Cameroon and Myanmar and the Somali or the Hmong or the Dakota or the Ojibwa of Minnesota.
So I don’t assume that you come to this chapter with a clear and resounding interest in the really great news of the world— which the media never report—namely, the spread of Christian truth and faith among the peoples of the world on the way to a God-wrought consummation that will make all of world history look like what it really is—a brief prelude to the everlasting, all-glorious kingdom of Christ. I don’t assume you come with your heart enthralled with God’s great global purpose.
So I simply want to let God tell you, in his own words, about his priorities.
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the
nations. (Psalm 22:27-28)
Then there are Old Testament prayers:
Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. (Psalm 67:3-4)
Then there are Old Testament commands:
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! . . . Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.” (Psalm 96:3, 10)
Then there is the great New Testament Commission from the risen Christ:
Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
Then there is the apostle Paul’s great life of utter dedication to this mission:
I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told
of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.” (Romans 15:20-21)
Then there is the magnificent picture of the final outcome of God’s purposes in history:
And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you [O Christ] to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe
and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10)
This is the big picture. Christ came and died and rose again in order to gather a joyful, countless company for his name from all the peoples of the world. This is what every Christian should dream about... There can be no weary resignation, no cowardly retreat, and no merciless contentment among Christ’s people while he is disowned among thousands of unreached peoples. Every Christian (who loves people and honors Christ) must care about this.
May God grant us such hearts.
Posted by Danny at November 21, 2006 11:50 AM | TrackBack