April 1 – A Promised Promise

“This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” – Matthew 24:14 (ESV)

We can rightly consider this a most inspiring missionary promise from Jesus. Not: should be preached. Not: might be preached. But: will be preached. This is not a great commission, it’s a great certainty. How can we be sure the church won’t fail in its missionary task? The grace of missionary service is as irresistible as the grace of regeneration. Christ promised universal proclamation because he is sovereign. He knows the future success of missions because he makes the future and sees it happen. A “nation” as used here is not a modern “country” in the way we use the word. When the Old Testament spoke of nations, we recall groups like Jebusites, Hivites, Amorites, Moabites, Canaanites, and Philistines. “Nations” identified ethnic and tribal groups with their own peculiar language and culture. We call them people groups, these days. As the sovereign Son of God and Lord of the church, Jesus simply applied His divine purpose and stated as an absolute certainty. World missions to proclaim the Gospel is assured of success. It cannot fail. Let us, then pray with great faith, invest with great confidence, go forward with a sense of sure triumph?

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John Piper shared these words in a recent devotional: 

December 1 – God's Love Abounds

“The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,”  - Exodus 34:6  (ESV)

One image that comes to mind from these words about God is that of a fresh spring of pure water that bubbles up to the surface, providing a limitless supply of pure water.  Never drying up during the greatest drought it gives and gives and gives for century after century.  Available to all who come to draw the water.  That is the idea of 'abounding' in steadfast love and faithfulness. We might think of the power of a perpetual volcano that pours out an endless flow of lava from deep in the earth and is like the love of God that never ends for us.  It comes from the very core of God's character, His absolute existence and omnipotence.  This verse was how God described Himself to Moses as He, a second time, inscribed the Ten Commandments on the new stone tablets. They were and are the essential elements of the Law given to Moses. In anguish over the sin of the people, Moses had smashed the first tablets but God reminds Moses that He is merciful, gracious and slow to anger.  That is what our God is and He abounds in all of it.   

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