Genesis 1:26-28
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth
and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man
in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he
created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and
multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of
the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that
moves on the earth.”
Mission—Adam and Eve were to govern the world
as the image-bearers of God, to fill the earth with the glory of God as his
vice-regents. Missions is grounded in the very act of creation and in our
nature.
But then… Fall. The image of God was marred.
The curse struck at the very essence of God’s command. Instead of subduing the
earth, there was difficulty in working the soil and in taming animals. Instead
of being fruitful, there was pain in child-bearing. Instead of filling the
earth as God’s representatives in his image, the image was marred and man
sought to fill the earth with his own name (ie., Lamech’s taunt and the Tower
of Babel, Gen. 4:23-24; Gen. 11).
But God…. But God so loved the world that he
reclaimed HIS mission himself. He spoke of a redeemer in Genesis 3:15.
Throughout Old Testament history, he moved powerfully in mission. And then he
sent his own Son on mission to save the world. His Son, the second Adam (Rom. 5:12-21), the very Image of God (Heb. 1:1-3). Who subdued wind and waves, who had dominion
over nature and will have dominion over all nations. Who is at work filling the
earth with his Body, the Church, for the glory of God.
And missionaries are part of this great
reclamation of God’s command to fill the earth with his glory, and to renew
humanity in God’s image until all creation is freed from futility and is under
God’s dominion (Rom. 8:21-25; 1 Cor. 15). In Christ, they are carrying
out God’s own mission. Sometimes the missionaries’ very work seems futile.
Hours lost in paperwork and government lines. Learning language and living in a
different country adds weariness and toil. A work suddenly uprooted by war,
terror, eviction, or a health crisis. The finitude of physicality when foreign
illnesses or parasites take their toll. But they are propelled on by the love
of their Savior the second Adam, the glory of God, and the hope of a creation
redeemed under God again!
Your Mission
·
Pray for
our missionaries as they toil. Pray for strength, perseverance, courage, and
hope to persevere.
·
How can
you today participate in God’s mission to see the world filled with his glory?
Mission Impossible
Made Possible—Field Notes
“Christianity is
growing in comparison to overall population. More than one-third (33.4 percent)
of the 7.3 billion people on Earth are Christians. That’s up from 32.4 percent
in 2000. By 2050, when the world population is expected to top 9.5 billion
people, 36 percent will be Christians.
Those positive numbers
are due to explosive growth in the global south. Only in Europe and North
America is Christianity growing at a less than one percent rate. In Africa and
Asia, the rate is currently more than double and will continue to climb.
In 1900, more than
half of the world’s population (54.3 percent) was unreached with the gospel.
Today, that percentage is down to 29.3 and will drop another 2 percentage
points by 2050.”
No comments:
Post a Comment