Gaining a World-View

In Psalm 40, the writer lays out an incredible vision of the wonders of the Lord, referring to a tangible expression of God's deliverance, he writes:
(3) Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the Lord. 4 Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. 5 Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered.

God is spreading His message to the entire world.  Jesus came to die in order that He might redeem all in the world who call upon His name - to every tribe, tongue, and nation, He desires to bring the message of salvation through faith in Christ.   And, He will use us to communicate that truth through our words and our actions.   In our service, we demonstrate the compelling love of Christ, and in the acts of kindness that we do, we in essence give to the Lord a precious gift - this is an especially relevant message as we think about what we can give Jesus as we celebrate His birth.   We love, because He first loved us...

It's called the Great Commission, and we find it in Matthew 28, as Jesus said:
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."


For the second consecutive year, our family travelled to Atlanta to volunteer at the regional distribution center for Operation Christmas Child, which brings shoeboxes filled with gifts to needy children all over the world.   And, it is quite an operation in this giant warehouse outside of Atlanta - some 600 volunteers came from all over the Southeast - our team had people from Chattanooga, TN and Lakeland, FL...that group had signed up to do multiple shifts over a 3-day period.  

And, this is quite a finely-tuned machine...teams are situated throughout the warehouse - on each team, you have a pre-inspector, who looks inside the box and removes a donation envelope for shipping, if that's included.   The primary inspector looks through the box for inappropriate items.   Then, it's on to the taper, who seals the box with the most high-powered strapping tape known to man; even an overstuffed shoe box is generally no match for this tape.   In our training, I had made the comment to one of my kids that taping was essentially the least desirable job...so what was I assigned to for the majority of our 4-hour shift: that's right, taping!   And, it actually wasn't nearly as bad or boring as I thought it would be - doing service for the Lord can change the way you think about even what seems to be thankless.   The next position is - deep breath now, the cartonizer, who places the shoeboxes in large cartons according to age and gender.   There's also a scanner, who scans the boxes that have a barcode label so the box can be tracked.

The atmosphere was lively, there was a pause for prayer and testimony every hour or two, and God was exalted.   We were told that the boxes processed that day would be sent to one of 3 countries:  India, Latvia, and Lithuania.   And, here's a thought I'd like to leave you:  I did think I knew where Latvia was, but I did a Google search and found that it is one of 3 countries east of the Baltic Sea, across from Sweden:  Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia.   I then went to a very helpful website, Operation World (www.operationworld.org), and learned more about the missions climate there:  there are 34 people groups there, 21% of the people are unreached.  Here's a summary of the prayer challenges:

Unprecedented unity in the churches was caused in part by challenges to biblical morality in society. The aggressive lobbying by homosexual and anti-family agendas in particular elicited joint statements and coordinated activism by the churches. But more important are the prayer and worship summits attended by the leaders of almost every denomination and confession – these meetings are the foundation for revival in Latvia. Pray that this unity might reverse the moral tide in Latvia, and that the laity might emulate their leaders to worship and work together for the Kingdom.

Missions vision in Latvia is still in its infancy, but is demonstrating impressive diversity and determination. Pray that this spark might grow into a flame to take the life-changing gospel to the less-reached in Latvia and beyond. Pray also for groups such as Bridge Builders International, the Latvian Evangelical Alliance and its CP-21 vision, which seeks to work with indigenous churches to plant new churches and reach every Latvian.

It's a great time of year to expand our vision for the world that Jesus was sent to earth to die for and redeem.  Southern Baptists are engaged in an International Week of Prayer currently, in association with the Lottie Moon Christmas offering.   Prayer points include nations such as Egypt and Nepal, embracing the unengaged, and praying for persecuted believers.   

On today's Meeting House, Jill Hardie will continue to talk about giving a gift or gifts to Jesus in honor of His birthday.   As we look outside ourselves for opportunities to serve, these are gifts that are shared to, as Jesus put it, the "least of these".  This includes children touched by Operation Christmas Child, or by toy outreaches we've been focusing on recently, or giving or getting involved with other ministries.   God sent His Son to die for the whole world, and I believe it's great to learn more about how He is at work and desires to work in this world.