This weekend has certainly been a cold, snowy one in our neck of the woods, hasn’t it? The kids may not be back in school until Wednesday, and I am sure that moms and dads will be begging for school to be back in session by then. I had my first experience with Facebook Live this past Sunday, and I want to thank those of you who tuned in for extending grace and sympathies as you watched me learn how it works. If you didn’t get a chance to watch, you can go to my Facebook page and pull up the video to watch at your convenience. I taught from the first couple of chapters of Genesis as we began our Scarlet Thread series. Be sure to check it out.
The reading this week will carry us all the way through Genesis 29 and the story of Jacob. You will notice that the book of Genesis gets more specific in its focus as it moves from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, and from Abraham to Jacob. The history of the Hebrew nation all begins with Abram in chapters 12-13. We are told that he was living in Ur of the Chaldeans when God called him to leave his father’s house, the comfort of all he had ever known, and go to a land that God would reveal to him. God had great things in mind for Abram, for he would become a great nation and his name would become great. He would be blessed of God in order to be a blessing to others. Through him, God says that all the families of the earth would be blessed. God would bring blessing to the world through Abram’s seed. Abram would become ‘Abraham,’ father of many nations. He would become the father of the Hebrew nation through whom God would reveal His Word. In its most specific sense, this promise is salvivic in nature as it is a prophetic reference to Christ. Through Jesus Christ, the Seed of Abraham, the world has experienced blessing. Jesus Christ is the hope of nations because salvation from sin’s curse is found only in Him.
The gospel is good news that believers are to proclaim to the nations so that all may have opportunity to be saved and find rest for their souls. This is why we must prioritize mission and disciple-making in the local church. Pastors and leaders must mobilize their people to fulfill the Great Commission by making disciples of all nations, baptizing those who believe, and teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded. We do this through praying for the lost, supporting missions financially, as well as through commissioning and sending out career missionaries and short-term mission teams. In my years serving as a pastor, I cannot begin to describe what happens in a local church when it gets a passion for the mission field, beginning in its own backyard, but extending to the ends of the earth! Nothing will change your life any more than going on a mission trip to another part of the world in the name of Jesus. By the way, we are planning at least five trips to various parts of the world in 2017 through our ministry at Green Street. Check it out!
God has always had a global agenda in mind, and we see this clearly in His calling and commissioning of Abram. Here is the question I want to leave you with: Have YOU found your place in the mission?