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A Couple of Good Blogs

God is on mission to bring to completion what he started in the Genesis creation. Even prior to the fall, the Genesis creation was not the “done deal”. It was not the finished product. Heaven and earth were always meant to be joined together and God’s presence was always meant to be a permanent, never just a ‘cool of the day’ feature (Gen 3:8)!

Some great content from a couple of excellent blogs.

This seems like a good time to highlight a couple of mission blogs that I’ve come across lately.

The first one is not so much new, as re-launched and is written by my friend Paul Davies. He has recently been working through a series of studies on discipleship, which are well worth reading. Here is a taster:

So what do we learn from this about discipleship? Firstly, when we become disciples of Jesus, it is not through our wisdom but through his revelation. Even our recognition of need is a gift from God. We need to respond in reliance and faith to find rest. Secondly, all disciples have to go through recognition of need. Whether it is a sudden crisis moment or a slow dawning of the necessity, we must move from self-reliance to reliance on Christ. Thirdly, this is not a ticket to heaven or a free ride. There is obligation to turn to Christ and take up his purposes in the world and not our own. The kingdom of Heaven is at hand and by turning to him in need we also turn away from ourselves.

Now that you’ve read this, go away and read Missional Musings: Scattered Ruminations From a Mission Theologian. If you subscribe to blogs through an RSS reader or by email, Paul’s would be a good one to follow.

While on the subject of Paul, he has recently published an excellent paper which examines mission in Luke and Acts from a Latin American perspective. If the Bible and mission are your things, then you have to read this paper, even if Latin America isn’t your field.

As we have already noted, the suffering of Jesus (and of the church) in the fulfilling of their mission is not only a historical fact but Luke also underlines it as a necessity. For Luke the gospel is always communicated in the context of the suffering of the messenger.

In Latin America, the first messengers of the “gospel” came with military and political power. The first “Christians” that the indigenous peoples saw brought the sword and a gospel of power. The conquistadores were accompanied by their priests and, although we do not want to propagate “the Black Legend”, we know that the vast majority did not defend the human rights of the indigenous but rather consented to their exploitation or even participated in it. The mixture of power and religion left people with the impression that Christianity is the religion of the powerful oppressor.

This same impression was maintained when the first Protestant missionaries arrived in this part of the world. They did not bring with them military power, but often they came with the blessing of the governments that had recently won their battles for independence. President Justo Rufino Barrios of Guatemala, for example, personally accompanied from the United States the first Protestant missionary to his country in 1882. In a continent where often money is synonymous with power, missionaries that come from countries with great economic might, without wishing to, give the impression that Christianity is the religion of the rich. Today, the so-called “theology of prosperity” reaffirms that interpretation.

Jesus, on the other hand, came in weakness and vulnerability. He was not born into a rich palace or privileged position. His birth to a young peasant woman had a hint of scandal and the witnesses to his birth were not the great but the humble. In his life he did not take political office or reach a high social standing but identified himself with the despised, rejected and marginalised. His death was not the honourable death of a hero but the ignoble death of a slave or common criminal.

The other blog that I wanted to highlight today is called Simply Mobilizing and describes itself thus:

This blog provides me with the opportunity to share the vision, ideas and yes, the ‘mobiology’ of the Simply Mobilizing Movement. Simply Mobilizing is dedicated to the mobilization of all God’s people into meaningful involvement in the world Christian movement and to assist churches and church leaders in equipping God’s people for works of service.

I’m not sure that this description works on this side of the pond – but don’t be put off, the content is excellent. Try this for size:

God is on mission to bring to completion what he started in the Genesis creation. Even prior to the fall, the Genesis creation was not the “done deal”. It was not the finished product. Heaven and earth were always meant to be joined together and God’s presence was always meant to be a permanent, never just a ‘cool of the day’ feature (Gen 3:8)!
We need to be plain on the scope of God’s mission. It’s not just redemption or the Great Commission, as important as this is – it’s actually much, much more and so much bigger. God’s mission is to bring to completion and to glorious fulfillment all that he envisioned and purposed before the world began (Col 1:19)! This is God’s mission!
At this point we need to make a clear statement. The devil and ‘the fall’ never forced God into a Plan B. God has never known a Plan B. He has only ever known a Plan A – His Plan A. Nothing has ever taken God by surprise or caught Him off guard. For this reason we read that the “ the Lamb was slain from the creation of the world” (Rev 13:8 NIV, 1Pe 1:20).
This is another blog which should be on your reading list; especially if you are involved in recruitment or mobilisation for mission.

 

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