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The following short articles have appeared as editorials in the
Rivermont Missions Digest.
If you’d like to be placed on the mailing list for future issues of this
publication, please e-mail your request to Vic Uotinen, Director of Missions at
vic@rivermont.org,
or write us at Rivermont Presbyterian Church, P. O. Box 3017, Lynchburg, VA
24503.
Grasping God’s Vision For the World
The God we worship — the God Who has revealed Himself to us in holy Scripture —
is a missionary God. In fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, He sent His Son,
Jesus Christ, to be the Savior of the world. God has a global vision and plan
for the nations, i.e., to raise up and establish a world-wide worshiping
community — a community of people whom He has redeemed from every nation and
people group — to worship and praise Him.
God’s heart reaches out to the world. If we are His people — if we are children
of our Heavenly Father — we should be pursuing His agenda. His
desire should be our desire. His vision for the world should be
our vision for the world. We should be fervently pursuing what His
heart is pursuing.
If we wish to live lives that are pleasing to God --- if we
wish to be people "after God’s own heart" ---
being involved in missions is not
optional for us.
Our God is passionate about world
missions. Let’s pray that we, His people, would be like Him in this respect,
that we would be as passionate about missions as God is.
(VU)
You Can Have a Powerful
Impact
Scripture urges us to pray without ceasing (I Thess. 5:17),
to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions"... and "to always keep on praying for
all the saints." (Ephesians 6:18) Martin Luther wrote, "As it is the business of
tailors to make clothes and cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of
Christians to pray." Prayer is absolutely necessary to the advance of God’s
kingdom. It is an indispensable tool in the unfolding of God’s plan for
the whole world. And it is a tool we all can use.
Prayer is also a powerful tool. Both Scripture and
Christian history are filled with examples of the power of fervent, sustained
prayer. As Christians pray in the power of the Spirit, messengers of Christ are
infused with boldness and power, closed doors are opened, hard hearts are
softened, lives are changed, situations are altered, obstacles are removed to
allow the gospel to advance, the Light of the World dissipates spiritual
darkness, and God’s kingdom advances around the world.
To inform and facilitate our praying, members of the Missions
Conference Planning Committee have published a Missions Prayer Guide, which is
available at the church. Please pick one up and join the growing number of
Rivermont members who pray daily, and in a focused way for our missionaries
around the world. (VU)
Loving God and Our Neighbor
At Rivermont Presbyterian, we take Christ’s
Great Commission
seriously. This is reflected in our strong commitment to reaching Unreached
People Groups with the Gospel, as well as in our continuing support of many
other evangelistic mission activities.
However, we are also committed to fulfilling Christ’s
Great Commandment
— to love God above all, and to love our neighbors as much as we love
ourselves. Christ told the story of the Good Samaritan to illustrate what
this means. In short, it means we must be involved in working to alleviate human
suffering in this world — thus, demonstrating God’s love for the world in
practical ways. It should not be an either-or proposition. John Stott points out
compellingly in Christian Mission in the Modern World that Christ’s love
compels us to do both
– to both evangelize and alleviate human suffering.
Rivermont supports many evangelistic ministries, and also a
number of ministries – locally, nationally and globally – whose primary work is
to alleviate human suffering. In this second category, our budget supports
ministries that provide food for the hungry, housing for the homeless, medical
care for the sick, care for orphans, the elderly, battered women, unwed mothers
and families of prisoners, and various othe kinds of practical help for people
in need. In addition, we respond from time to time to provide aid to victims of
wars and natural disasters.
We thank God for His blessings, which make it possible for us
to respond to such needs. Such acts of compassion also help to open doors for
the gospel, and give our message added credibility before a watching world. (VU) |
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