Monday, October 31, 2022

EmmDev 2022-10-31 [Month of Mission 2022] Our Missional God

Our Missional God

From one man He made every nation, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being. (Acts17:26-28)
I love this passage - it reveals the very heart of God.
We are created to know Him and experience His greatness.

All of Creation - roses, lilies, mountains, oceans, suns, moons, nebulas, and DNA - is geared to glorify the Creator and point toward Him.

All of Providence - the way history works, my history and my genes and how things fall together (in spite of the blight of sin) - is geared towards me coming to a place of knowing God.

God is a Missional God:
He longs for us to seek Him and find Him and He is at work in creation and providence to reach us.

And here's the incredible truth: He is not far off
- through His Omniscience and Omnipresence He is aware of all
- through Christ's incarnation He has identified with our humanity
- through the outpouring of His Spirit He is closer than a heartbeat

Eugene Peterson translates these verses as follows:
"Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn't play hide-and-seek with us. He's not remote, he's near. We live and move in him, can't get away from him!"

This is our God!
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A very big "thank you" to our devotions writers: Sipho Mtetwa (Our Moderator), Peter Langerman, Natalie Barnard, Faresi Sakala, James Lunngu, Alain Zibondo, Amon Kasambala, Maria Phiri, Amas Nyirenda, Pat Baxter, Hendry Fortuin, Pascal Sibanda, Lazarus Chirwa, Graham Duncan, Wonke Buqa and Clarence Tungunu. Also to Wayne van Heerden who handled the social media distribution and Brian Mazini, Godfrey Mazanhi and Mathemba Tati who co-ordinated the dev-writers. Soli Deo Gloria!