Pray for Ecuador

Ecuador

Stats
• Percentage of Evangelicals - 6.10%
• Human Development Rank - 72
• Number of Unreached People Groups - 12
• Persecution Index - N/A
• Population - 14,898,509
• Total Number of People Groups - 28
• Languages Spoken - 22

Ecuador's major exports are flowers, shrimp, oil and bananas. The gap between poor and rich has grown as a result of oil exploitation. Inflation, corruption, the 1995 war with Peru, and several natural disasters nearly bankrupted the country in 1999. Political instability since independence from Spain in 1830 has had a detrimental affect on the economy and people of Ecuador. Catholicism has had a profound affect on the culture, and as a result, many people are resistant to change despite freedom of religion. There are many indigenous tribes and group that live in the Andes mountains and the jungle of the Amazon who have yet to hear or who have had little exposure to the Gospel.

• An honest government is desperately needed to give stability and peace to this country while still tackling the serious economic and social problems there
• The Catholic Church has long held the majority and feuds have broken out against Evangelical churches resulting in sporadic persecution of many Christ-followers, such as believers in the mountain village of Apatug; pray that the hearts of those who do this are changed and that Christ is glorified above all
• Ecuador has Latin America's lowest population of Evangelicals; there are still dozens of unreached groups, particularly in the Andes Mountains and the rain forests of the east
• Praise that the Gospel has had a huge impact on the native Quichua people, growing from 120 believers in 3million in the late 60s to 45-50% Evangelical in some areas
• Pray for Steve & Carol Thompson, American missionaries who Brook Hills has worked with in the mission field; pray that God will continue to provide them with strength and that through them the Gospel will continue to spread and be heard
• Mission work among the jungle tribes has come a long way since the 1960s when several missionaries were killed by the Waorani tribe; there are now many believers among this group, and the families of those who died have continued to minister to the tribe over the years, displaying the tremendous power of God's love, forgiveness and grace

Missional Life (Updated)

Living a Missional Life

Living a Missional Life simply means we shift our thinking, life, resources, and priorities as the church toward God's gospel mission in our community, city, and the world.

Many churches and leaders gradually lose zeal for becoming "change agents" because of either corporate chaos or personal chaos in ourselves.

Obstacle #1: A sense of superiority to “the others.” Many Christians become egocentric because of their fear of extinction.

SIGNS OF SUPERIORITY

+ “us” and “them” language.
+ elevating a good life over groups of people who lack this quality.
+ focusing on past accomplishments rather than present obedience.
+ praise others and/or children when they separate themselves from the world and perform the “DO NOTS" rather than give encouragement and praise when they obey God’s Word to “BE” and “DO.”

RESULT: Christ is offended and withdraws grace and power for he reserves it for the humble. (1 Peter 5:5)

OUR RESPONSE: Remember the depth of our own sin both prior to salvation and after salvation and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, casting all our cares on Him (1 Peter 5:6-7)

Obstacle #2: Active Christians often have few non-Christian friends.

SIGNS of over-event-based activity among believers:

+ Not knowing everyone’s name in your small group and being a part of 3 small groups.

+ Searching for Christian events to attend each week.

+ Consuming other church’s resources by attending multiple local church events even though these events are designed to reach the unchurched.

+ Talking to non-Christians about changing their morals before telling them about Jesus.

+ Hearing a message/bible lesson, and regardless of the point, you think about how terrible a world we live in and how we need to protect ourselves from the world.



Obstacle # 3: Not preaching the gospel to oneself daily

The majority of your relational dilemmas are centered around conflict between other Christians rather than the dilemma of how to help your neighbor, a single parent, and show compassion to those less fortunate.


RESULT: Our gospel message that Christ came to save becomes less plausible because our actions communicate “Christ came to bring isolation.” (Luke 6:32-36)


OUR RESPONSE:

+ Cut down on the number of church activities during the week in order to spend time listening, blessing, and eating with your neighbors and co-workers.

+ Rather than being a part of several Christian communities that do not know you deeply, be vulnerable with one Christian community so they can encourage/challenge you with the gospel. Be apart of a community that always lets you in but rarely lets you down.

+Do not just gather as a group for study and prayer but be active together on a mission to meet needs around you. We often spend much time teaching people how to live in the church and neglect how to live as the church in the world.

SIGNS OF NOT APPLYING THE GOSPEL DAILY

+ You think to yourself, “I want to move on to understanding the bigger, better and deeper things of Scripture.” In reality, all true theology and doctrine should be further explanation of the gospel.

DISTORTED GOSPELS:

Ask yourself which distorted gospels below tend to lodge in your heart.

Approval Gospel: "I feel significant when I am liked, loved, and respected."

Moral Gospel: "When I obey, then I finally feel accepted and worthy to talk to God."

Comfort Gospel: "What else do I need to do, I prayed for christ to save me!"

Relationship Gospel: "If I follow Christ, he will bring me a great spouse."

Ministry Gospel: "I am down and devastated when ministry is not going well and the church is in disarray."

Family Gospel: "If I have Christian morals and values, my kids will be good kids. I just want them to have a good life."

Prosperity Gospel: "If I follow Christ, he will grant me health, wealth, and prosperity."

Individual Gospel: "Christ came to save individuals and my spiritual life is a private matter."

Service/Social Justice Gospel: "I feel significant and worthy of God’s love more after I have served those less fortunate."


RESULT: When we forget the gospel for everyday life, we will continue to speak Christianese (i.e, “Jesus take the wheel”) to people, and convert people to a moral life, a conservative mindset, and traditional values, yet without Christ ever taking hold of their life. Our message will be fragmented because it will be a rehearsed answer without true belief and practice. Because of this historic tendency of separating belief and practice, people will hear "be a better person/become religious" even though our words say "Jesus saves."

RESPONSE: To be continuously established in the gospel, and refuse to be moved from there. (Colossians 1:23, 2:6). The more we preach the gospel truths to ourselves daily, the more we will be compelled toward compassion for others to have it.

We see this in the writings of Paul in the book of Romans. Observe some of the major themes in the following chapters:

Romans 5: Paul praises God for giving him right standing before God
Romans 6: Paul proclaims the freedom from sin that comes in Christ
Romans 7: Paul realizes this freedom is sometimes forgotten in daily living.
Romans 8: Paul trusts in the gospel promise that there is no condemnation for those in Christ and nothing can separate us form his love.
Romans 9: Paul writes, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers.” (Romans 9:2-3)

Paul preaches the gospel to himself in Chapters 5,6,7, and 8 and it moves him to love and mission in Romans 9

Pray for China

China, People's Republic of

Stats

• Percentage of Evangelicals - 6%
• Human Development Rank - 94
• Number of Unreached People Groups - 365
• Persecution Index - 12
• Population - 1.36 billion
• Total Number of People Groups - 456
• Languages Spoken - 470

A Communist state since 1949, China has suffered immense economic and social chaos during the Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s. Religious believers and intellectuals were severely persecuted, and an estimated 20 million Chinese lost their lives during Mao Zedong's rule. Agriculture and industry were largely privatized in the latter half of the 20th century, and both living and economic conditions have slowly improved. Unemployment is still high, but accurate statistics are difficult to determine. Elimination of all religious groups is the ultimate goal of China's Marxist government. It orchestrated the infiltration and subversion of organized Christianity in the 1950s, which led ultimately to the banning of all religious activity and the birth of the house church movement. Restrictions have slowly eased a bit in recent years, but strict monitoring and repression over all Christian and even Muslim activities is still the norm. The Chinese government attributes the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe to religion, and therefore maintains tight control on religious activities as a way to preserve power.

• Praise that the number of believers is growing despite Communist attempts to stamp out all religious practices; there are now believers in all levels of society
• Materialism, corruption and moral decline are stumbling blocks to spreading the Gospel
• Other social and economic problems: One Child policy results in 10million abortions a year (nearly all girls), growing divide between very wealthy and very poor, strained health care system, deforestation and resulting floods, polluted rivers and cities
• The government instituted Three Self Patriotic Movement was established to control and limit Christian activity under the auspices of patriotism and communication; although there are many who compromise the faith, many quietly ignore this push toward atheism
• Leadership training is woefully deficient and in need of protection from interference
• The growing house church movement is intensely persecuted and the government is intent upon eliminating this group they cannot control; there is a great need for bibles
• There are 60million members of the Communist Party, but there are secret believers among their ranks
• Daoism, Buddhism, ancestor worship and other idolatrous philosophies are growing in number; Islam is also a growing religion
• It is illegal to teach youth what is deemed religious superstitions, and many adults are afraid to minister to the next generation
• Missionaries are not allowed into China; pray that Christians can enter as tourists, students or other avenues and that the Gospel will be spread through their visits
• Bibles, video/audio tapes and other Christian literature are severely lacking, but demand is growing
• The internet and radio are major avenues through which the Gospel is shared; pray for protection of these resources and that they will have a lasting impact

Leftovers

As I am re-reading "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and I am challenged again by this chapter.

Leftovers! Are we giving God our leftovers as it relates to our resources, money and time?

Malachi 1:14 in particular really hit me hard. How often in our relationships (marriage, parenthood, etc.) do we make a commitment, only to fall short too quickly? What about in our school work, job, community organizations? Too often, I believe, we commit our best, and we truly desire to give our all; but in the end, sometimes all we can offer is our leftovers. Our leftover time, leftover energy, leftover resources, leftover money.

There are some powerful questions raised by this passage: What kind of offering are you bringing to God? Is it your best? Or is He only getting your leftovers? What are you doing to make God’s name great among the community?

Pray for Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Stats

• Percentage of Evangelicals - N/A
• Human Development Rank - N/A
• Number of Unreached People Groups - 55
• Persecution Index - 4
• Population - 32,902,000
• Total Number of People Groups - 70
• Languages Spoken - 50

For decades, Afghanistan has been in devastated by Soviet occupation, civil war, Taliban misrule and the US-led invasion in 2002. Half of all housing, nearly all complex irrigation systems and a large portion of all livestock was destroyed. Now, the main crop is opium, and Afghanistan has become the world's largest producer and uses revenues to supply weapons to various warring factions. The Taliban gained control of the country in 2001 and began imposing a strict form of Islam. No laws are passed that run contrary to this harsh form of religious belief. This has further devastated the country, and has had a particularly harsh affect on the women of Afghanistan. There is almost no religious freedom and little prospect of that changing.

• Praise that the Taliban was overthrown in 2002, giving hope to the possibility of positive change
• New leadership has had a difficult time gaining full control over the country
• Decades of war have left the ecology, infrastructure and society in ruins; pray for peace in this beleaguered nation
• Afghanistan is one of the least reach countries in the world; there are over 48,000 mosques here but not one church building
• Fear and suspicion prevent the few Christians that can be found from meeting together; pray that there will be opportunities for them to come together in community, fellowship and worship
• Women were severely oppressed during Taliban rule and were denied education, health services, employment and were restricted from leaving their homes; depression and suicide are common
• Several Christian aid organizations have worked with the sick and destitute since the 1960s, but they have been targeted by Islamist terror groups; pray for their protection and that they will have a lasting impact on those they reach
• The bible is not available in most of the dialects and minority languages here; pray for the speedy translation and effective distribution of God's Word

Living Missional

Living a Missional Life simply means we shift our thinking, life, resources, and priorities as the church toward God's gospel mission in our community, city, and the world.

Many churches and leaders gradually lose zeal for becoming "change agents" because of either corporate chaos or personal chaos in ourselves.

Obstacle #1: A sense of superiority to “the others.” Many Christians become egocentric because of their fear of extinction.

SIGNS OF SUPERIORITY

+ “us” and “them” language.
+ elevating a good life over groups of people who lack this quality.
+ focusing on past accomplishments rather than present obedience.
+ praise others and/or children when they separate themselves from the world and perform the “DO NOTS" rather than give encouragement and praise when they obey God’s Word to “BE” and “DO.”

RESULT: Christ is offended and withdraws grace and power for he reserves it for the humble. (1 Peter 5:5)

OUR RESPONSE: Remember the depth of our own sin both prior to salvation and after salvation and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, casting all our cares on Him (1 Peter 5:6-7)
Obstacle #2: Active Christians often have few non-Christian friends.

SIGNS of over-event-based activity among believers:

+ Not knowing everyone’s name in your small group and being a part of 3 small groups.

+ Searching for Christian events to attend each week.

+ Consuming other church’s resources by attending multiple local church events even though these events are designed to reach the unchurched.

+ Talking to non-Christians about changing their morals before telling them about Jesus.

+ Hearing a message/bible lesson, and regardless of the point, you think about how terrible a world we live in and how we need to protect ourselves from the world.

+ The majority of your relational dilemmas are centered around conflict between other Christians rather than the dilemma of how to help your neighbor, a single parent, and show compassion to those less fortunate.


RESULT: Our gospel message that Christ came to save becomes less plausible because our actions communicate “Christ came to bring isolation.” (Luke 6:32-36)


OUR RESPONSE:

+ Cut down on the number of church activities during the week in order to spend time listening, blessing, and eating with your neighbors and co-workers.

+ Rather than being a part of several Christian communities that do not know you deeply, be vulnerable with one Christian community so they can encourage/challenge you with the gospel. Be apart of a community that always lets you in but rarely lets you down.

+Do not just gather as a group for study and prayer but be active together on a mission to meet needs around you. We often spend much time teaching people how to live in the church and neglect how to live as the church in the world.

God is Supreme in the World

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.

Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It's the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white hot enjoyment of God's glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. "The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!" (Psalm 97:1). "Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!" (Psalm 67:3-4).

But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can't commend what you don't cherish. Missionaries will never call out, "Let the nations be glad!", who cannot say from the heart, "I rejoice in the Lord...I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High" (Psalm 104:34; 9:2). Missions begins and ends in worship.

If the pursuit of God's glory is not ordered above the pursuit of man's good in the affections of the heart and the priorities of the church, man will not be well served and God will not be duly honored. I am not pleading for a diminishing of missions but for a magnifying of God. When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God's true worth, the light of missions will shine to the most remote peoples on earth. And I long for that day to come!

Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak. Churches that are not centered on the exaltation of the majesty and beauty of God will scarcely kindle a fervent desire to "declare his glory among the nations" (Psalm 96:3). Even outsiders feel the disparity between the boldness of our claims upon the nations and the blandness of our engagement with God.

Albert Einstein's Indictment

For example, Charles Misner, a scientific specialist in general relativity theory, expressed Albert Einstein's skepticism over the church with words that should waken us to the shallowness of our experience with God in worship.

"The design of the universe...is very magnificent and shouldn't be taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why Einstein had so little use for organized religion, although he strikes me as a basically very religious man. He must have looked at what the preacher said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty than they had every imagined, and they were just not talking about the real thing. My guess is that he simply felt that religions he'd run across did not have proper respect...for the author of the universe."

The charge of blasphemy is loaded. The point is to pack a wallop behind the charge that in our worship services God simply doesn't come through for who he is. He is unwittingly belittled. For those who are stunned by the indescribable magnitude of what God has made, not to mention the infinite greatness of the One who made it, the steady diet on Sunday morning of practical "how to's" and psychological soothing and relational therapy and tactical planning seem dramatically out of touch with Reality--the God of overwhelming greatness.

It is possible to be distracted from God in trying to serve God. Martha-like , we neglect the one thing needful, and soon begin to present God as busy and fretful. A.W. Tozer warned us about this: "We commonly represent God as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world. ... Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God."

Scientists know that light travels at the speed of 5.87 trillion miles in a year. They also know that the galaxy of which our solar system is a part is about 100,000 light-years in diameter--about five hundred eighty seven thousand trillion miles. It is one of about a million such galaxies in the optical range of our most powerful telescopes. In our galaxy there are about 100 billion stars. The sun is one of them, a modest star burning at about 6,000 degrees Centigrade on the surface, and traveling in an orbit at 155 miles per second, which means it will take about 200 million years to complete a revolution around the galaxy.

Scientists know these things and are awed by them. And they say, "If there is a personal God, as the Christians say, who spoke this universe into being, then there is a certain respect and reverence and wonder and dread that would have to come through when we talk about him and when we worship him."

We who believe the Bible know this even better than the scientists because we have heard something even more amazing:

"To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him?" says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these (stars)? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. (Isaiah 40:25-26)

Every one of the billions of stars in the universe is there by God's specific appointment. He knows their number. And, most astonishing of all, he knows them by name. They do his bidding as his personal agents. When we feel the weight of this grandeur in the heavens, we have only touched the hem of his garment. "Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways! And how small a whisper do we hear of him" (Job 26-14). That is why we cry 'Be exalted, O God, Above the heavens!' (Psalm 57:5). God is the absolute reality that everyone in the universe must come to terms with. Everything depends utterly on his will. All other realities compare to him like a raindrop compares to the ocean, or like an anthill compares to Mt. Everest. To ignore him or belittle him is unintelligible and suicidal folly. How shall one ever be the emissary of this great God who has not trembled before him with joyful wonder?

The Second Greatest Activity in the World

The most crucial issue in missions is the centrality of God in the life of the church. Where people are not stunned by the greatness of God, how can they be sent with the ringing message, "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods!" (Psalm 96:4)? Missions is not first and ultimate: God is. And these are not just words. This truth is the lifeblood of missionary inspiration and endurance. William Carey, the father of modern missions, who set sail for India from England in 1793, expressed the connection:

"When I left England, my hope of India's conversion was very strong; but amongst so many obstacles, it would die, unless upheld by God. Well, I have God, and His Word is true. Though the superstitions of the heathen were a thousand times stronger than they are, and the example of the Europeans a thousand times worse; though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith, fixed on the sure Word, would rise above all obstructions and overcome every trial. God's cause will triumph."

Carey and thousands like him have been moved by the vision of a great and triumphant God. That vision must come first. Savoring it in worship precedes spreading it in missions. All of history is moving toward one great goal, the white-hot worship of God and his Son among all the peoples of the earth. Missions is not that goal. It is the means. And for that reason it is the second greatest human activity in the world.

God's Passion for God Is the Foundation for Ours

One of the things God uses to make this truth take hold of a person and a church is the stunning realization that it is also true for God himself. Missions is not God's ultimate goal, worship is. And when this sinks into a person's heart everything changes. The world is often turned on its head. And everything looks different--including the missionary enterprise.

The ultimate foundation for our passion to see God glorified is his own passion to be glorified. God is central and supreme in his own affections. There are no rivals for the supremacy of God's glory in his own heart. God is not an idolater. He does not disobey the first and great commandment. With all his heart and soul and strength and mind he delights in the glory of his manifold perfections. The most passionate heart for God in all the universe is God's heart.

This truth, more than any other I know, seals the conviction that worship is the fuel and goal of missions. The deepest reason why our passion for God should fuel missions is that God's passion for God fuels missions. Missions is the overflow of our delight in God because missions is the overflow of God's delight in being God. And the deepest reason why worship is the goal in missions is that worship is God's goal. We are confirmed in this goal by the Biblical record of God's relentless pursuit of praise among the nations. "Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!" (Psalm 117:1). If it is God's goal it must be our goal.

The Chief End of God Is to Glorify God and Enjoy Himself For Ever

All my years of preaching and teaching on the supremacy of God in the heart of God have proved that this truth hits most people like a truck laden with unknown fruit. If they survive the impact, they discover that it is the most luscious fruit on the planet. I have unpacked this truth with lengthy arguments in other places. So here I will just give a brief overview of the Biblical basis. What I am claiming is that the answer to the first question of the Westminster Catechism is the same when asked concerning God as it is when asked concerning man. Question: "What is the chief end of man?" Answer: "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever." Question: "What is the chief end of God?" Answer: "The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy himself for ever."

Another way to say it is simply, God is righteous. The opposite of righteousness is to value and enjoy what is not truly valuable or rewarding. This is why people are called unrighteous in Romans 1:18. They suppress the truth of God's value and exchange God for created things. So they belittle God and discredit his worth. Righteousness is the opposite. It means recognizing true value for what it is and esteeming it and enjoying it in proportion to its true worth. The unrighteous in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 perish because they refuse to love the truth. The righteous, then, are those who welcome a love for the truth. Righteousness is recognizing and welcoming and loving and upholding what is truly valuable. God is righteous. This means that he recognizes, welcomes, loves and upholds with infinite jealousy and energy what is infinitely valuable, namely, the worth of God. God's righteousness passion and delight is to display and uphold his infinitely valuable glory. This is not a vague theological conjecture. It flows inevitably from dozens of Biblical texts that show God in the relentless pursuit of praise and honor from creation to consummation.

Probably no text in the Bible reveals the passion of God for his own glory more clearly and bluntly than Isaiah 48:9-11 where God says,

"For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another."

I have found that for many people these words come like six hammer blows to a man-centered way of looking at the world:

For my name's sake! For the sake of my praise! For my own sake! For my own sake! How should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another!

What this text hammers home to us is the centrality of God in his own affections. The most passionate heart for the glorification of God is God's heart. God's ultimate goal is to uphold and display the glory of his name.

"For the Sake of His Name among All the Nations

Paul makes crystal clear in Romans 1:5 that his mission and calling are for the name of Christ among all the nations: "We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all nations."

The apostle John described the motive of early Christian missionaries in the same way. He wrote to tell one of his churches that they should send out Christian brothers in a manner "worthy of God." And the reason he gives is that "they have gone out for the sake of his name, taking nothing from the Gentiles." ( 3 John 6-7).

John Stott comments on these two texts (Romans 1:5; 3 John 7): "They knew that God had superexalted Jesus, enthroning him at his right hand and bestowing upon him the highest rank, in order that every tongue should confess his lordship. They longed that Jesus should receive the honor due his name." This longing is not a dream but a certainty. at the bottom of all our hope, when everything else has given way, we stand on this great reality: the everlasting, all- sufficient God is infinitely, unwaveringly, and eternally committed to the glory of his great and holy name. For the sake of his fame among the nations he will act. His name will not be profaned forever. The mission of the church will be victorious. He will vindicate his people and his cause in all the earth.

The absence of Brainerd's passion for God is the great cause of missionary weakness in the churches. This was Andrew Murray's judgement a hundred years ago:

"As we seek to find out why, with such millions of Christians, the real army of God that is fighting the hosts of darkness is so small, the only answer is--lack of heart. The enthusiasm of the kingdom is missing. And that is because there is so little enthusiasm for the King."

The zeal of the church for the glory of her King will not rise until pastors and mission leaders and seminary teachers make much more of the King. When the glory of God himself saturates our preaching and teaching and conversation and writings, and when he predominates above our talk of methods and strategies and psychological buzz words and cultural trends, then the people might begin to feel that he is the central reality of their lives and that the spread of his glory is more important than all their possessions and all their plans.

The Call of God

God is calling us above all else to be the kind of people whose theme and passion is the supremacy of God in all of life. No one will be able to rise to the magnificence of the missionary cause who does not feel the magnificence of Christ. There will be no big world vision without a big God. There will be no passion to draw others into our worship where there is no passion for worship.

God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of his name among the nations. Therefore let us bring our affections into line with his, and, for the sake of his name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts, and join his global purpose. If we do this, God's omnipotent commitment to his name will be over us like a banner, and we will not lose, in spite of many tribulations (Acts 9:16; Romans 8:35-39). Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. The Great Commission is first to delight yourself in the Lord (Psalm 37:4) . And then to declare, "Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!" (Psalm 67:4). In this way God will be glorified from beginning to end and worship will empower the missionary enterprise till the coming of the Lord.

Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the ages! Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy. All nations shall come and worship you, for your judgements have been revealed. Revelation 15:3-4