At a recent church planting conference, one statement that really got me thinking was this: “God doesn’t have a people with a mission. He has a mission with a people”. This has several implications:
1) This takes the focus off of you, and puts it on God. It’s not about what you want, or what God can do for you. It’s about what God wants, and what you can do for God. This is the vertical relationship in our lives. This means focusing on God, and directing others toward God. The Bible is full of details about how we should approach God – with fear, with reverence, with worship, with love.
2) This takes the focus off of you, and puts it on the people that are God’s mission field. It’s not about you, it’s about others. This is the horizontal relationship in our lives. The Bible is full of details about who God’s mission field is. It seems to deal a lot with widows, orphans, the poor, the sick, the lame, the prisoners – the “lost, the least, and the last”.
3) You’re not really God’s person unless you’re on God’s mission. And that mission is crystallized in the junction of a vertical relationship and a horizontal relationship – represented by the cross.
4) So, the cross should be the center of our focus. When our eyes are focused on the cross, we are drawn into God’s mission.
So, what does this have to do with being still? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Because sometimes we’re NOT called to be still. Last time we talked about the anticipation that comes with being pregnant, and how it is a time of expectation. It is not really a time of “being still” because there is a lot going on. That includes telling the world about the pregnancy! “We’re gonna have a baby!” Family is told, friends are told, co-workers are told, face-book is told….anyone and everyone is told. It is also a time of celebration – baby showers with games and gifts and laughter. So it is a time of anticipation, of proclamation, and of celebration. Sounds kind of like how we should be approaching the whole “focus on God” thing, doesn’t it? This advent season, as we celebrate God’s work already done, and anticipate His work yet to come, shouldn’t we also be proclaiming this? I’m not talking about the “Jesus is the reason for the season” buttons, or the “Let’s put Christ back in CHRISTmas”. I’m talking about actually sitting down and telling a family member, a friend, a co-worker about what Jesus has done in your life and what Jesus could do in theirs. I’m talking about inviting someone to join you in relationship with Jesus. I’m talking about getting out this season and actually touching some of those people that Jesus talks about in Matthew 11:2-5. Touch them by meeting their needs – money, food, clothing, shelter, freedom from drugs or human trafficking. And LOVE them. Hold their hand. Brush their hair. Wash their feet. Hug them. Walk alongside them. And most of all, tell them about Jesus as you do it.
There is one more implication in our saying about God’s people and God’s mission…
5) If you don’t do the mission, God will find someone else. In Luke 19:39-40 God makes this abundantly clear – God’s mission (both proclamation and action) will be done. The fact is, God doesn’t need us to do it…but He does invite us. That is the wonder of the Christian God – that He invites us into relationship with Him. Let’s take some time this advent season to anticipate, celebrate, and proclaim that wonder.
God bless,
John
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