Passage of the Day - February 12, 2011

After an extraordinarily busy week at work, Passage of the Day is back in full swing.  This passage was one of those random open the Bible, point, and read passages I did this evening with my baby.  It fits for me in so many ways these days.

Psalm 67

¹God be gracious to us and bless us,
         And cause His face to shine upon us-- Selah. 
    ²That Your way may be known on the earth,
         Your salvation among all nations. 
    ³Let the peoples praise You, O God;
         Let all the peoples praise You. 
    ⁴Let the nations be glad and sing for joy;
         For You will judge the peoples with uprightness
         And guide the nations on the earth. Selah. 
    ⁵Let the peoples praise You, O God;
         Let all the peoples praise You. 
    ⁶The earth has yielded its produce;
         God, our God, blesses us. 
    ⁷God blesses us,
         That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.


As John Piper explains in his famous work "Let the Nations Be Glad", the point of missions and evangelism is to bring God glory in all places and by all people groups.  Bringing people to a saving faith is a subset of this supreme purpose.  Feeding the hungry, binding the wounds of the injured, ministering to the widows and orphans are all great subsets of this supreme purpose as well.  This purpose is grand and amazing, but also very freeing as well.  We are responsible for being a part of the grand design of the Church to be led by its King, our Lord and Master Jesus Christ and by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit to bring God the Father glory.  We are to do our part.  We are to produce fruit.  However, we can't be guilted into feelings of failure over the seed of our fruit not always germinating.  That is up to God.


The reason bringing God glory in all places and by all people groups is, as John Piper explains, is that God is fully worthy.  We must have a greater understanding of how worthy God is to demand our focus, our heart, our mind, our strength, our time, and our very soul.


Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)