This was meant to be an
introductory post explaining the purpose of the blog, but the key word for
Perspectives this week was Purpose, so I might as well just jump right
into things.
If you haven't heard of
Perspectives, I highly recommend checking out their website. It's a 15 week
course offered all over the US and the world (mostly in churches) designed to
understand God's global purpose and heart for missions.
My dad took this class wayyyy
back (in the 80s?) and has since retaken it, and he's been encouraging me to
take the course since I started high school. But, coincidentally, life got busy
around that time, so I didn't get around to taking it until now. AND IT'S
AWESOME. AMAZING. FANTASTIC. HIGHLY EXCELLENT.
Yes, I'm only on week 1, and I
have yet to do most of the reading for this week, but it's already changing the
way I see God and the world.
So this past class, the speaker
went through the Old and New Testaments, highlighting passages that show that
since the beginning (and I mean like starting in Genesis beginning), God has
had a plan and God has had a purpose: bring salvation to every tribe, tongue,
nation, and people.
I highly encourage you to look up the following passages in their entirety. Even more powerful with context!
Psalm 67
(^how many times have I heard the
first half of this sentence and not the second half?!)
Genesis 12:1-3
Deut 4:5-6
Ex 9:16
Ex 12:38
Joshua 4:22-24
1 Sam 17:45-46
1 Kings 4:34
2 Kings 19:19
2 Chronicles 6:32-33
Ps 22:27-28
Ps 86:9
Ps 96:3, 7-10
Isa 49:6
Daniel 6:25-27
Jonah
Mark 6 and Mark 8 feeding of the
5000 and 4000 (note Jesus's attitude towards the people vs. disciples'
attitude)
2/3 of Jesus's major miracles are
towards non-Jews
Matt 24:14
Acts 26:22-23
Rom 1:5
Gal 3:8, 13-14
2 Cor 5:17-20
Romans 15:20
Rev 5:9
Rev 7:9
I don't know if you're as mind
blown by this as I am, but this definitely has, at some level, restored my
faith in the goodness of God.
My brother committed suicide last
summer, and I was struck by the seeming randomness of, well, life in general. I
know that God is sovereign. Having grown up in the church, there are some
attributes of God that I take as being fact without truly trying to reason
through or understand what that means (both a good and bad thing, but a
discussion for another time). And, as taught in Sunday School, I knew that
Sovereign meant that God knows everything (Wise), can do anything (Powerful),
and is Good, so therefore everything that happens is under God's jurisdiction
and not random (and in fact is working toward the good of those who love God
and are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28)). And yet, I had trouble
sensing this in my own life. Specifically, why me? Why not my brother? Why did
God choose to be so faithful to me? In many ways, I feel like the testimony of
my entire life is God choosing me, putting me on this path of faith, me
wandering dangerously close to the edges, pushing God away, being ashamed of
Jesus, hiding my faith, etc., and God picking me back up and guiding me back
onto the center of the path.
Anyways, this is something I've
been struggling with for about half a year now. But going through the Bible and
seeing how God has had a Purpose since the beginning has made me
realize it's not about me. It's so much bigger than me, bigger than
my brother, bigger than the small percentage of the world that I know. It's
about God getting His name glorified. It's about Him being
glorified and honored and praised forever. By all the nations. And that's
comforting. More than anything else, this is comforting. God has had a plan
since the very beginning. This plan is a big plan, and a good plan. And even
right now, we get a glimpse into what it looks like when this plan is
accomplished. And isn't it a glorious picture?
After this I looked, and
behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every
nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne
and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in
their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation
belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Rev 7:9-10
