Here are a few stories to let you know what OMS is involved in around the world, specifically in Taiwan.

Taiwan (provided by Rod and Beth Williamson - Twelve years ago, Central Taiwan Theological Seminary purchased 18 acres of farmland in northeast Taichung. Three years ago, we began a four-year process of rezoning the land so that it could be used for training pastors. Ten of the fourteen needed approvals have already been received. The eleventh approval from the Environmental Impact Committee is the toughest of all the approvals remaining. Just a few weeks ago, after six months of meetings, the Environmental Impact Committee finally gave its approval. The remaining three approvals should not be difficult, so we hope that in a few months, we can begin the preliminary construction of a retaining wall, contouring the property, roadways, water control, and putting in utilities. This will take about a year. A seminary’s impact is greatly increased when both head and heart are trained, when teaching focuses on knowing about Jesus, and learning how to follow and worship Him in daily life. May this campus be a place where leaders are trained who train many others, leading to the multiplication of leaders … and where Taiwanese missionaries are trained for impactful cross-cultural ministry!

Taiwan (provided by Don and Marla Bettinger) - One of the things that gives us the greatest joy is to see coworkers step up or take the initiative to be a witness to their own people. This Christmas, one of our coworkers, Chyou Ting, shared her testimony at two separate Christmas events. One was a Christmas breakfast we hosted for a number of our unbelieving friends, and the other was a meeting that she initiated on her own. This second one was a “Gospel Teatime” in which she invited several coworkers from the hospital ICU department where she works. She and her friends did the music, shared a testimony, and gave a Gospel presentation. We only needed to open our home and teach the women how to make cookies. At least one of the coworkers made a decision to accept Christ that night. Chyou Ting invited her to the Lighthouse home church this past Sunday evening, and she came. We praise God that Chyou Ting has caught the vision for sharing the Gospel and making disciples.

Taiwan (provided by Mark and Michelle Dinnage) - One of the college-age men
with whom Mark has been able to meet for discipleship is a great person of
peace, gifted in connecting people. He invited fellow classmate, Johanna, to
Bible study. A few months later, Michelle prayed with Johanna to accept
Christ, and then she was baptized in October. Johanna grew up in Honduras
with her mother, who is also a Christian. Johanna has also become closer with
her father, who is Taiwanese. Johanna is now growing daily in her faith.
​Lost people matter to God, and He wants them to be found.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
                                                                                                -Genesis 12:1-3
 
In the previous post in this series, God’s Heart for the Nations, we saw that at the end of everything God does is the purpose to reveal His glory, to show Himself glorious. And we saw that this means that mankind is not at the centre of God’s plan and the Bible is not about us.
 
In this post we hope to see the Bible not as 66 books that happen to be bound by one cover, but as one book. The Bible has an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction is the first 11 chapters of Genesis, the body starts at Genesis 12 and goes through to Jude, and the conclusion is Revelation.
 
Do you read the Bible as a collection of 66 different books that are just collected and bound together? Or do you read the Bible as a single book with a beginning, the main body, and a conclusion?
 
Now, in a well-written book, the author will begin to reveal major themes in the introduction. One of the keys to the correct interpretation of the Bible is to detect these themes and follow how the author develops them throughout the book. It is silly to try to interpret the Bible without some idea of its emphasis and purpose. This post looks at two fundamental themes that first appear in Genesis 1:28.
 
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
 
The first theme is that God wants to bless His creation. In the context of the blessing, we discover the second theme, dealing with God’s purpose for the blessing which involves man’s responsibility.

The two themes are restated in Genesis 9:1 and further defined in Genesis 12:1-3. Before we go to Genesis 12, here is a summary of what happens in the introduction of the Bible.

1. God has created the heavens and the earth and all living things, the final created thing being Adam and Eve. They sinned and destroyed their relationship with God; God pursued them, judged them and the serpent, and He sacrificed animals, revealing that the shedding of blood is necessary for the covering of sin.
2. Man continues to multiply but in so doing continued his rebellion against God to the point that man’s sin was so grievous that God had to judge mankind with a flood. We continue to see God’s redemptive character revealed in delivering Noah’s family from the flood.
3. The generations after Noah continued to reject God’s authority. In the land of Shinar, the people sought to make a name for themselves by building a city and a tower whose top reached to the heavens, in order to not be “dispersed over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4), even though this was an act of disobedience to God’s first command to fill and subdue the earth.
4. With a catastrophic judgment, God confused their language and “dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:8). The result of God’s judgment was the creation of approximately 70 distinct family groups (nations) listed in Genesis 10.

 
This is the backdrop from which God calls Abram to leave his country and declares His covenant with him.
 
Genesis 12:1-3, which begins the main story of the Bible, outlines the covenant God makes with Abram. And as you might imagine from the introduction, there are two elements to the covenant. There is the blessing element and the responsibility element. Don Richardson, who wrote the book “Eternity in Their Hearts” calls these two elements the top line and bottom line of the covenant. The top line is God’s blessing and the bottom line is Abram’s responsibility.
 
So God promises to bless Abram by giving him land (v1), making him into a great nation (v2) and a great name (v2). But along with the blessing comes the bottom line, the responsibility. Abram was to be a blessing (v2) and that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed (v3). And so the implication is that Abram is blessed in order to be a blessing. That’s the top line and the bottom line of the covenant God made with Abram. You will be blessed but you must be a blessing.
 
God later confirms His covenant with Abraham and repeats it to his son Isaac and grandson Jacob, giving clarification of its themes. Check out the following passages.

1. Genesis 22:16-18
2. Genesis 26:3-5
3. Genesis 28:14

 
As you read the Bible you will discover the parallel nature of the two themes of blessing and purpose/responsibility. The danger is in failing to keep these two themes in their parallel tension. Our tendency is to see God’s blessings apart from our responsibility and His purpose for the blessing. That failure leads to an egocentric faith with ourselves at the centre of everything.
 
I want to challenge you to look at the following four stories and think about what God was doing in each instance. We will look more closely at these questions in the next blog post.

1. Why did God part the Red Sea?
2. Why did God give Solomon wisdom?
3. Why did God give Israel His commandments?
4. Why did God deliver Daniel from the lion’s den?
5. Finish the following verse from memory. “Be still and…”

​ Oh sing to the LORD and new song,
     sing to the LORD all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, bless His name;
     tell of His salvation from day to day.
Declare His glory among the nations,
     His marvellous works among the peoples! (Psalm 96:1-3)

Why did God create the heavens and the earth? Why did God create men and
women? What is the chief aim of God? Not His only passion or motivation,
but His ultimate passion for which all other passions are subordinate. When
every other reason is eliminated but one, what is this one? This one
​would be His ultimate design for creation and indeed for every action He takes.
 
As was pointed out in the introduction, there is a very real tendency to place ourselves (mankind) as the ultimate passion or motivation of God. We tend to think that this Christianity is all about us, as though we are the centre of God’s universe, and that our needs form the basis for His actions. We think that God’s ultimate purpose is to grant us salvation and enjoy us forever. And this perspective leads us to believe that the ultimate objective of missions is man.
 
As you look at the Scriptures in this blog post, ask yourself these questions: What does the Bible say is the ultimate goal of God? What is the ultimate goal of His activity in the world?
 
“He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Ephesians 1:5-6).
 
God created the natural world to display His glory: “The heavens declare the glory of God” ​(Psalms 19:1).

“You are my servant Israel in whom I will be glorified” (Isaiah 49:3); “. . . that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory (Jeremiah 13:11).
 
“He saved them at the Red Sea for His name’s sake that He might make known His mighty power” (Psalm l06:7-8); “I have raised you up for this very purpose of showing my power in you, so that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth” (Romans 9:17).
 
“I acted in the wilderness for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out (Ezekiel 20:14).
 
After Israel asked for a king “Fear not . . . For the Lord will not cast away His people for His great name’s sake (l Samuel 12:20-22).
 
“Thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act [in bringing you back from the exile], but for the sake of My holy name…And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name . . . and the nations will know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 36:22-23, 32). “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 48:11).
 
“Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy” (Romans 15:8-9).
 
“Now is My soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again” (John 12:27, 28).
 
“He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:15).
 
“God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
 
“I am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25).
 
“Whoever serves [let him serve], as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified” (1 Peter 4:11).
 
“Immediately an angel of the Lord smote [Herod] because he did not give glory to God” (Acts 12:23).
 
“. . . when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be marvelled at in all who have believed (2 Thessalonians l:9-l0).
 
“Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given Me, may be with me where I am, to behold My glory, which thou hast given Me in Thy love for Me before the foundation of the world” (John l7:24).
 
“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
 
From these Scriptures, we can now answer the questions asked at the beginning of this post. Why did God create the heavens and the earth? Why did God create men and women? What is the chief aim of God in everything He does?
 
The answer is that the ultimate purpose and chief aim in everything God does is for the praise of His glory and His grace. God’s passion for His name and should be our central motivation in everything we do, including missions. God is not receiving the worship that is due His name; therefore, the mission of the Church is to call out worshippers from among the nations. Every church and every follower of Jesus Christ is called to participate in this global activity.
 
As author Joh Piper puts it in his book Let the Nations Be Glad, “God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshippers for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations. Therefore, let us bring our affections into line with His, and for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts and join His global purpose.”
 
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? What steps can you take to bring your affections more in line with His? What role could you have in the goal of gathering worshippers from every people, tongue, tribe and nation?
 
Leave a comment and let us know how you answer these questions.

​Welcome back to this series on prayer. If you have missed any previous posts you can click here to catch up.
 
In this post we look at the question of the purpose of prayer. Often the point is made that, if we believe that God is sovereign and knows everything, including what we are thinking or what we need, what is the point of praying?

Maybe you have asked a similar question. I know I have occasionally wondered this.

1. Prayer is Obedience
   The first purpose of prayer is obedience. God commands all who are born again to pray. We talked about this in the Commands of Christ series. Click here to review that post. But in Matthew 6, Jesus makes it clear that Christ-followers or disciples will pray. He says, “And when you pray…”, making it plain that you are expected to pray.
   
   There are other scriptures that also make it clear that prayer is expected of us. Philippians 4:6, Luke 21:36, Colossians 4:2, and 1 Timothy 2:1-4 are just a few.
   
   
   
2. Prayer Establishes God as the Source
   A second purpose for prayer is that it establishes God as the source of all things. 1 Corinthians 8:6 tells us that God is the source of all things and that we exist for Him. When we pray to Him, we are acknowledging that He is the source of everything we need for this life and for the next. Prayer positions Him as the supplier.
   
   If you are at all like me, you will need to be reminded of this truth often. It is not difficult for me to begin to think that I can handle things, that I can figure this out, that I know what is best. Bad things usually follow this line of thinking. Best to keep it clear that God is the source and my role is to come to Him in prayer asking for that which I need.
   
   
3. Prayer Establishes my Dependance on God
   Connected to the last purpose, this looks at it from the other side of the equation. Not only does prayer reinforce God as the source, but it also reinforces me as the recipient of His grace. This can be seen in Jesus use of the ‘vine and branches’ in John 15:5. Here He says that the branch is utterly dependant on the vine for everything it needs. For nourishment and for water and for support, the vine is indispensable. But the vine is also required for growth and for fruitfulness. Without that connection to the vine, there can be neither growth nor fruitfulness.
   
   This is made crystal clear in verse 15. Jesus tells us that apart from Him, we can do nothing. If we can do nothing apart from Him, then our supplication in prayer is the acknowledgement that we depend on Him for everything. It is our confession to Him and our declaration to self. Being fully dependant, we come to Him for what we need.
   
   
4. Prayer Glorifies God
   I hope that you come to this blog post with the understanding that God’s ultimate purpose in everything He does is to display His glory. Isaiah 48:11 tells that God does what He does for His own sake, for the sake of His glory, which He will not share. Jeremiah 13:11 also makes it clear that God made Israel to cling to Him so that they might be for Him a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. And in Ephesians1:6-14, Paul also makes it clear that God has saved us to the praise of His glory of His grace (verses 5-6), to the praise of His glory (verse 12), and to the praise of His glory (verse 14).
   
   And if it is God’s ultimate purpose then it should be ours as well. Scriptures like 1 Corinthians 10:38 tell us that whatever we do should be done to the glory of God. And we do this in prayer in a couple of ways.
   
   First, as the source of everything we need, coming to Him with our requests honours Him as the source. It exalts His supply while acknowledging our need.
   
   Second, the glory of His self-sufficient power and wisdom shines most brightly not when He looks like He depends on the work of others, but when He makes plain that He Himself does the work. 2 Chronicles 16:9 makes this pretty clear. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward Him.” God is searching for needy people for whom and through whom He can show off His strength.  And He really does want to do this. This brings Him great pleasure.​​
   
5. Our Means of Communicating to God
   Finally, the obvious purpose for prayer is to communicate.
   
   Communication controls relationships. We withhold communication in order to control a relationship—to prevent others from seeing us in an unpleasant light—and we choose to share information about ourselves with others as a way of bonding with them. This exchange of information is a means of letting them see us—of opening ourselves up to them. And this makes us vulnerable to them.
   
   Prayer is absolutely critical to our relationship with God. We know that God has spoken to us in His Word but how do we speak to Him? Through prayer. There is no alternative. And a prayerless Christian is...well I don’t know what kind of Christian could be prayerless. Certainly not one with a growing relationship with his or her Creator. Not one who is an obedient disciple, or who sees God as the source of all things, or who acknowledges his or her neediness before the God who supplies all our needs, or who glorifies God as the source.
   
   Let’s commit to being people of prayer.

 
What is your prayer life like? Would you share what God has spoken to you about prayer? What steps can you take to be more prayerful? Leave us a comment and let us know.