As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

John 17

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. John 17:18

I maintain a pause of my study of 1 Corinthians as I continue using DesiringGod.com's Advent devotions where I pick up on Day 18.  Here, John Piper highlights missions and how "Christmas is a model for missions. Missions is a mirror of Christmas."  Just as Christ came into the world on Christmas Day to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), we are to go out into the world - to all nations - to proclaim the gospel (Matthew 28:18-20).  The mission field is often very dangerous as there are many places where proclaiming the gospel or starting a church is against the law and persecuted harshly.  Piper shares how Jesus encountered resistance but we are go out just as He did: "Christ came to his own and his own received him not. So you also. They plotted against him. So you. He had no permanent home. So you. They trumped up false charges against him. So you. They whipped and mocked him. So you. He died after three years of ministry. So you."  Piper then shares the greatest danger - to lose faith and trust in God: "[t]he greatest danger a missionary faces is not death but to distrust the mercy of God. If that danger is avoided, then all other dangers lose their sting."  He concludes with hope and encouragement for those facing danger by stating that if believers "Conquer [temptation to distrusting God's mercy] and nothing can harm you for a million ages."

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My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God who loves me and who is full of grace and compassion for me - thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of such grace and mercy.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day. 

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Matthew 24

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:14

Tonight, I continue a pause on both of my studies in Isaiah and Revelation to listen to John Piper's daily devotion for today - Solid Joys.  Here Piper emphasizes that what is stated here in Matthew 24:14 is one of God's promises - God states that "the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world"  before the end times.  The certainty of Jesus' statement is worth noting here, according to Piper, because believers can pray with great faith and invest with great confidence both those in the mission field (effort) and those supporting them. 

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My Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for Your promises!  There are many and because You are faithful - I know they will all come to pass.  I can pray in great faith and invest richly into the mission field because I know You will fulfill Your promise.  Thank You Jesus!  What a blessing!  I am not deserving of participating in such a blessing - my sin is great and it is daily....worry, anger, etc. Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.  

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 25:6-8

This morning, I continued with John Piper's book Holy Ambition.  My focus today is on chapter eight Cities of Ruthless Nations Will Fear the Lord, pages 122-132. Here, Piper uses both Isaiah 25:1-8 and a description of this prophecy in action as Paul has a vision to go to Macedonia (Philippi) to spread the Gospel (Acts 16:10-12).  

As we read Piper and how he unpacks the passage in Isaiah (in the context of missions - the purpose of the book), we are first urged to remember that the goal of the Gospel is God Himself - to know, be with, and enjoy God; missions, "therefore is about the greatness of God[.]"  Piper then reminds us that much of the world is in darkness and not seeing the greatness of God, regardless of efforts to bring the message everywhere. We are at war with the powers of darkness.  Yet Piper wants us to see the prophecy in Isaiah 25:1-8 as one of hope - that God "has promised an astonishing triumph in the end."  We are urged to see how God "is a planning God...[and how] He gives forethought to what he does.  He is wise" (v25:1).  Most importantly, we are to look at v25:6-8 and how he is "stronger than the strong peoples, and he is so powerful and so gracious that in the end he will turn cities of ruthless nations to fear him....This is the reverential fear of converts."  In the end we must also remember that "[n]ot one life spent in the cause of world evangelization is spent in vain."  As Piper turns to Paul's work in Philippi, we see from 2 Corinthians 8:1-2 how Paul's efforts paid off.

Piper then sums up this chapter by stating that God's vision for missions and the nations is a "vision that cannot fail-if any one of us walks away from it, someone else will pick it up."

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My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God who loves me and who is full of grace and compassion for me - thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of such grace and mercy.  My sin continues.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others. Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.