Few things have shaped my understanding of God’s call to go and tell the nations about Christ more than John Piper. And I am sure many other people would say the same thing. Pastor John says that “missions exists because worship doesn’t.” All people worship something. As image bearers of God we are born to be worshippers. Our hearts yearn to be filled and give glory to something. The problem is we worship the wrong thing. Our worship is too small. Missions exists to get worshippers of King Jesus.
Fighting Guilt and Fighting Sin
There are days when the weight of my sin is overwhelming. Do you ever have days like that? Simple prayers and Scripture verses expose the great wickedness in my heart that wants to come out (and unfortunately, often does). In those moments, I don’t even want to show my face to people for fear of exposure—or worse, sinning against them. It is then that I wonder, “Can I really change? Is it really possible?”
Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?
Resurrection Day Reflections
It’s easy on this side of the resurrection to look at the disbelief among those who followed Christ and think, “how could they miss it?” I mean, they had all they needed, Jesus, the very Son of God, told them that he was the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament prophesy. And yet, it took them a little while to come around.
Thoughts on Celebrating Easter
Earlier this week I mentioned to Daniel that I didn’t feel like I had prepared my heart to celebrate the Resurrection this coming Sunday. I realized that I had allowed all of the busyness of life to overshadow the coming celebration. But then I realized something even greater—I never let that happen with Christmas.
Missions Wednesday: Russia
It is hard to read or watch the news these days and not be overwhelmed by the tragedies that surround us. In a lot ways, and I know this is true for me, it is hard to not be desensitized to the horrors of suffering and bloodshed. On Monday two Russian women, strapped with explosives, committed suicide taking many victims with them. As Christians, our initial reaction to these acts of violence should be a missional one. We should be broken over the souls lost and be broken over the evil taking place. To believe in the finished work of Christ is to believe that he can and will one day make all of these things right. In the meantime, we have work to do. We are called to be ministers of reconciliation and hope to a lost and dying world.
Missions Wednesday: Nigeria
Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, with over 130,000,000 living in this coastal country. While Nigeria practices freedom of religion, the country is split between Muslims living in the north and Christians living in the south. This split has always caused tension, and often violence between the north and south, with Christians being the recipients of horrific persecution as of late. Carolyn McCulley responds to this violence after watching a documentary on Nigeria. Her insights are very helpful as we pray for, and think about, Nigeria.
Jesus Makes All Things Clean
Have you ever read through the ritual cleansing passages in Leviticus? Often we don’t think of these passages first when we do our quiet times in the morning. We usually gravitate towards something more practical to us, right? But should this be the case? If we believe that God’s Word is true, and we believe He has things in store for us on every page of Scripture, then even the words in Leviticus have tremendous power over our lives.
Missions Wednesday: Mexico
My junior year of college I went on my first mission trip. Ever since my conversion I had felt a strong urge to work with orphans and impoverished children in some capacity, but primarily through short-term mission trips. So when the list of trips came out that fall I could hardly stand waiting to pack my bags to head to an orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico.
Missions Wednesday: Chile
Just by watching the news it seems that every week brings a new form of devastation to a country. In reality, devastation happens all around us every day, it is in the large magnitudes that we are shocked awake. But these great tragedies that happen, that affect us on a global scale, do often bring our attention to countries otherwise would have been far from our minds.