Throwing Gas On the Fire

In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven. -Matthew 6:9-10

For the established Christian church to be always reforming, it must be always cultivating a passion for the Name of Jesus Christ to be great among the nations. The church exists for Christ. The world exists for Christ. Every tribe, tongue, people, and nation (Greek ethne - that is, ethnicity or people group,) exists for Christ, and He is relentlessly pursuing His own from among them. For us to sincerely pray the way Jesus taught us, we must gladly surrender all that we are to Him, to be used by Him in any way He sees fit for the furthering of that kingdom.

The saving of some out of every ethne for the glory of God is Christ's passion, and those who have the Spirit of Christ will share that passion. Dare I say it? You cannot be truly passionate about Jesus without being truly passionate about world missions.* How empty is theological precision and methodological integrity without missiological zeal! Theology matters! Methods matter! But we deceive ourselves if we think they truly matter to us, if the unreached peoples of the world don't.

Toward that end of cultivating a passion for Christ's glory to be spread to the ends of the earth, I submit for your consideration, Reckless Abandon: the blog of To Every Tribe Ministries. I commend both to you for your joy in Christ and your increased zeal for the lost. While you're at it, check out their Center for Pioneer Church Planting. As I've looked at these in recent weeks, I feel like God is throwing gas on a fire in my soul. I pray it's a divine fire, as unstoppable as its Maker. I pray you'll join me in seeking the spread of that holy flame. Let's pray, let's send, and let's go as God leads - to the ends of the earth, for the glory of God.

Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. -Hebrews 13:13-14

From the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; In every place incense shall be offered to My name, And a pure offering; For My name shall be great among the nations," Says the LORD of hosts.
-Malachi 1:11

*I'm not saying that only fire-breathing missionaries love Jesus. I'm saying that being passionate for Christ and Christ-likeness will mean, at least in some measure and increasingly, being passionate about His passions. We cannot be near Christ without being made more like Him. Whether you're called to live and die for the glory of God in the city in which you were born, or whether you're called to take that glory to those who've always lived in darkness, partaking in the divine nature will cause you to ache for God's glory to be seen and treasured in every pocket of humanity. More than just aching to see it happen, true Christianity joins Jesus in joyfully embracing sacrifice, suffering, and if needed, death, to see it happen, in whatever way God leads.