God is a Missionary God
The Living God Is a Missionary God. This is actually the title of the first lesson in the discipleship course, Perspectives On the World Christian Movement (perspectives.org). God has been on mission since the creation of the world. What is that mission, that purpose? “God is on mission to be loved, served and worshiped by people from all humanity” (Steven Hawthorne). We see this mission of God in the very first chapters of Genesis all the way to last chapters of Revelation. One of the key passages of Scripture that speaks to God’s global mission is Psalm 67:
“1 May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine on us—
2 so that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
3 May the peoples praise you, God;
may all the peoples praise you.
4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples with equity
and guide the nations of the earth.
5 May the peoples praise you, God;
may all the peoples praise you.
6 The land yields its harvest;
God, our God, blesses us.
7 May God bless us still,
so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.”
It isn’t just certain people that God wants to worship Him. It isn’t people of a particular nation, ethnicity, race, political stance, or socio-economic class that God wants to praise Him. “May the peoples praise you, God; may ALL the peoples praise you” (Psalm 67:3). God, the Creator of everything seen and unseen, in heaven and on earth, longs for every single people group of the world to praise Him. And how does God carry out this global mission? We see it in the first verses of this Psalm:
“1 May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine on us—
2 SO THAT your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.”
God, in his infinite wisdom, has chosen to bless a people, to redeem them and transform them into His image, SO THAT his ways may be known on earth and his salvation among every people group. And we know from Scripture that we, as the body of Christ, the Church, are that people. Jesus Christ, through his saving work on the cross, has called us His “chosen people” so that we may “proclaim the mighty acts of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). As God’s Church, we have the immense privilege of getting to partner with Him in His global mission. We, together, are Global Partners with God! May all the people praise you, God!
We encourage you to come to the second Sunday of our Global Partnership Emphasis and discover how we can partner together for His gospel and His mission.