"And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing." (Gen. 12:2)
When God called Abraham to follow him, He told Him that He would bless him in order for him to in turn be a blessing to all the peoples of the world. Throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament God's heart is for every people group of the world to hear the Good News of Redemption. God always blesses us in order that we be a blessing to others.
In Acts 16, God turned Paul on his second missionary journey toward Europe and the Gospel went west. What if He had sent Paul toward the east and Asia or China had received the Gospel first? Would they have shared with western nations? Would we have prospered so much without the Gospel in our civilization?
I believe hat God blessed Europe for years and blessed the United States for years so that we would in turn be a blessing to the rest of the world. The greatest of the blessings that He gives is the message of Good News to redeem us from our sins. We have a tremendous responsibility to make sure that every people group hears the Gospel message in their heart language. That is not the responsibility of a few carreer missionaries, but the responsibility of every person who knows the Lord Jesus as Savior.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Who Do You Love?
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." (Matt. 13:44)
How important is a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ to you? In this parable Jesus compares knowing God to a man who gave up everything else for that one treasure. I wonder sometimes how many people in the average church value knowing God through Jesus enough to exchange everything for that treasure.
John Piper in God is the Gospel asked a question about heaven and knowing Jesus. I am not going to quote him, but paraphrase his idea. If you could go to heaven and have all the stuff that you value, family, friends, leisure activity you enjoy, good food with no calories, and not have the bad, no sin, no pain, no suffering, no death; that is, you could enjoy heaven for eternity with all the good and not the bad, and yet not have Jesus, would you accept that? Do you truly love Jesus, or do you love the stuff that He does for you?
Is it about knowing God, or is it just not going to hell when we die? Do we truly love Jesus, or do we love the benefits of the Christian journey? Who or what do you love? We need to ask ourselves if we are willing to be like the man in this story and give everything for the joy of knowing God through Christ.
How important is a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ to you? In this parable Jesus compares knowing God to a man who gave up everything else for that one treasure. I wonder sometimes how many people in the average church value knowing God through Jesus enough to exchange everything for that treasure.
John Piper in God is the Gospel asked a question about heaven and knowing Jesus. I am not going to quote him, but paraphrase his idea. If you could go to heaven and have all the stuff that you value, family, friends, leisure activity you enjoy, good food with no calories, and not have the bad, no sin, no pain, no suffering, no death; that is, you could enjoy heaven for eternity with all the good and not the bad, and yet not have Jesus, would you accept that? Do you truly love Jesus, or do you love the stuff that He does for you?
Is it about knowing God, or is it just not going to hell when we die? Do we truly love Jesus, or do we love the benefits of the Christian journey? Who or what do you love? We need to ask ourselves if we are willing to be like the man in this story and give everything for the joy of knowing God through Christ.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
