for the nations

The love of God extends salvation to all. Everyone who believes on Jesus has eternal life with Jesus, and everyone who doesn't perishes. Missions is the answer of our heart to that love. (John Piper)

I find myself more and more praying for a heart for the nations. At our family devotional/debrief time tonight, I was so encouraged to hear my boys start to get a glimpse of God's heart for the nations and our role to have that same heart and by living out God's mission. Watching them play at Casa Robles this morning (the Boys Rescue Home) was awesome. They found themselves restricted by language, yet found a way to share Christ's love. They played and laughed, explored their home - and I could tell they were just taking it all in. A flicker of the flame of having a heart for the nations was starting to burn. That's a flame that I want to fan into a great fire!

So, I'm praying that God's heart continues to grow inside them... and me. I have been praying that God would allow this generation to be the one that sees the completion of the Great Commission. That is a monumental task and at times seems like an overwhelming prayer to pray. Especially in light of the statistics.

The Joshua Project reports that there are 15,988 distinct ethno-linguistic peoples in the world. Of these, fewer that 2% are Christians (6,572 unreached people groups). In those unreached people groups they account for an estimated 2.6 billion people. Of the 100 largest unreached people groups, 44 are in India, 8 are in China, and 7 are in Indonesia and Pakistan... 43 are Muslim, 36 are Hindu and 9 are Buddhist. 22 of them have populations over 20 million. All that to report, there is great work to be done in obedience to the Great Commission. So what are we waiting for? What am I waiting for?

My prayer is that my life would be consumed in not just going... but studying, praying, preaching, leading and speaking in such a way that results in passing on a passion to this next generation of middle, high school and college students - that I'm privileged to shepherd - who would recklessly abandon their lives for the sake of the Gospel for the nations - whether near or far. It's a continual call on my life from God not to waste it. And one I want to shout to this next generation: don't waste your life!

And this great zeal, passion and heart for the nations can only come from catching a vision of the greatness of God and His great design for this world that we call home. May we see God for who He is, believe Him for what He says and live for what He loves!