Sharing God's Global Vision

God is at work in his world today in powerful ways! This is one of the main messages we try to communicate every time we get a chance to share with a church, small group, or Sunday School about missions. We try to help our hearers gain a vision for God's global work. Through the witness of his people among every nation he re-establishes his rule in the midst of a rebellious humanity, transforming individual believers in Christ to again reflect his glory. To be sure, local ministry is vital and is the foundation for global missions, but God's work is not limited to local ministry--his mission encompasses the entire globe! All of creation will one day be reclaimed and is in the process of  reclamation right now through the work of global witness: i.e. missions. How can you participate today in God's global mission?

Certainty, Uncertainty, and Faith in 2013

I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas season and that 2013 is filled with hope for what God will do in and through you this year. We have had a wonderful few weeks of relative rest over Christmas and are now preparing for the many changes we anticipate coming our way in 2013.

-The spring will be filled with continued travel and support raising (Jan.-March in NC and SC and April in CT and ME).

-If we have enough financial support we will move to the Netherlands and begin teaching at Tyndale Theological Seminary in June.

As I think about the massive changes ahead for 2013, particularly the uncertainty and complication of support raising and an international move, I have been reflecting anew on what it means to live a life of faith—a life completely and unreservedly dependent upon God to such an extent that if God doesn't provide there is no good back-up plan. Abraham would have been in this situation when God first called him to leave his homeland and travel to an unknown destination.

As I consider how Jenny and I are in this situation (along with other missionaries) I have realized that all Christians are really in the same situation. Nothing is certain in life, as they say, except death and taxes. Every Christian shares the same situation. Our jobs aren't certain, our health isn't certain, our safety isn't certain. So little in life is certain. As Christians however, we know an incredible truth—God as revealed in and through Jesus is certain. God’s purposes and plans are certain. This has forced me, more than ever before, to put away the false façade of certainty (that never really exists for anyone anyway) and look more and more to the one true certainty in the universe—God. May you find increased certainty and security in the one true and only source of both in 2013!