21 days to go yesterday...

I have been reading the pre-reading recommended by MIST; the cross-cultural course I'm going to in Adelaide soon, "The Living God is a Missionary God" by John R.W. Stott and I wanted to share some of it with you.

An Old Testament (pre-Jesus) Perspective-
Looking back in the Old Testament of the Bible, it all starts in Genesis. Zooming in on Genesis 12, the world has gone through The flood (Noah's ark), a time where the world was a broken mess of people living life the way they wanted to and not listening to God, it was corrupt and full of violence (sounds like parts of our world). Here we meet Noah's grandson Abraham. God said to him

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

 This promise God made with Abraham was a promise that relates to people from every nation and race, to those who believe. How?? You'll see. It was a promise of posterity (descendents/family), land and blessing and it has a triple fulfillement in the past, present and future.
Historically we see time and time again the promise fufilled to those who lived for God (to name a few...Exodus 1:7, 2:24, 3:6, 32:13 & 19:3-6; Jeremiah 33:22; Hosea 1:10) promises of posterity, land and blessing, with God bringing his people out of exile to their promised land.

Ok but what does that mean for us now?

A New Testament (Jesus) Perspective-
The promises made by God have their ultimate fulfillment through the Messiah (anointed One of God) Jesus Christ! God is faithful to his word and steadfast in love for his us.
"...all peoples on the earth will be blessed through you" the 'you' is directed to Abraham regarding a descendant or Seed of his (see geneology in Matthew 1), these are words spoken 2000 years previous to Jesus' birth but words that are made clear by what Jesus' death on the cross and afterwards when he rose from the dead three days later.

There are many prophecies regarding One who would come and remove pain and suffering, who would bring blessing and perfection (Isaiah 42:1-4, 6; 49:6; 53; Micah 5 to name a few) to this broken world and Jesus is the fulfillment of that  (see Luke 1:45-55, 67-75). This blessing is for all people who trust in him (1 Peter 2:9-10; Romans 9:25-26).

Christ was sinless, he never rejected God and so did not deserve to die, but he was like a lamb sacrifices and took on our sins for us, died our death and defeated it, shown in his resurrection, so that all who believe in him may have eternal life a relationship with God. In Galatians 3 the writer reiterates this by repeating that Abraham was justified (made 'right'/righteous with/to God) by faith (not by his status symbol or race but by faith first) and then continues "So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham."

We are 'descendents' of Abraham because of faith in Jesus and therefore we recieve God's promise of blessing that he promised back in Genesis 12, the blessing of salvation, entry into heaven, a joint inheretance with Christ of the universe (1 Cor 3:21-23).
"Many will come from the east and west and sit at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom (physical descendants/Jews) will be thrown into the outer darkness"

Why is the Living God a missionary God? Because people around the world, from every nation and tongue can recieve God's blessing of salvation, they just need one thing: trust/reliance on him alone and for them to trust in Saviour they need to know about him.

Mission is part of God's will and plain purpose. The mission field for you may be outside your bedroom, or outside your house or across the world, but as John Stott says ' "all the families of the earth (Acts 2:39)" need to be written on our hearts and any petty parochialism and narrow nationalism, or racial pride (whether white or black), our condescending paternalism and arrogant imperialism stripped away. We need to become global Christians with a global vision, for we have a global God."