The Bible provides us a great narrative of how God has interacted with His people from the very beginning. The Old Testament is filled with covenants that God made along the way to foster a better relationship with His people on earth. There is a great deal of evidence that suggests that God desires relationship with people and that He loves them. God is active in the lives of His people and He has written his laws on our heart to guide us. He is constantly desiring fellowship and reconciliation. God desires His people so much, that He sent His one and only son to die for our sins and to create a new covenant.
Through all of the covenants between God and mankind, he has invited people in a progressive manner, to have a more intimate relationship with Him. A relationship that is authentic and real, not one based on conditions or how obedient we are. He wants our heart, He wants devotion, He wants our love. The only worship that pleases Him, is from children that love Him genuinely, who put it all on the line to be close to Him.
As John Piper so keenly writes, “Missions exist where worship does not.” The spreading of the Gospel is an action that is taken by mankind as an act of devotion, where God’s children gather lost children to reconcile them unto Himself by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not only did God give us a new covenant in the New Testament, he gave us a perfect example, Jesus. By the life of Jesus, we know how God wants us to live on this earth and how to fulfill God’s mission. The more we seek to understand our relationship with God and what He wants us to do, we must draw closer to God, to be molded like clay in His image. Our understanding and theology of missions should constantly be evaluated ensuring that our focus is on Him, knowing Him and telling the world about Him.
