Look to the Lord
Isaac Ambros (1658):
“Look and look again unto Jesus.” Why do you stand gazing on the toys of this world when such a Christ is offered to you in the Gospel? Can the world die for you? Can the world reconcile you to the Father? Can the world advance you to the kingdom of heaven? As Christ is all in all, so let him be the full and complete subject of our desire, and hope, and faith, and love, and joy; let him be in your thoughts the first in the morning, and the last at night. Shall I speak one word more to you that believe? Oh apply in particular all the transactions of Jesus Christ to your very self. Remember how he came out of his Father’s bosom for you, wept for you, bled for you, poured out his life for you, is now risen for you, gone to heaven for you, sits at Gods right hand, and rules all the world for you; makes intercession for you, and at the end of the world will come again for you, and receive you to himself, to live w/ him for ever and ever. Surely, if you believe and live, your life will be comfortable and your death will be sweet. If there be any heaven upon earth, you will find it in the practice and exercise of this Gospel duty of “Looking unto Jesus.”
What If?
What if the gospel was so real to the people in your church that they longed to take it to the unreached peoples of the world? Now, what if God was kind enough to turn that Spirit-given desire into a reality?
What if I told you that before Restoration Church was even 3 years old, God used our congregation to build up and send out a missionary to an unreached people group? What if our church just did not send him out, but continually labored in prayer for him, and him for Restoration Church?
Now, what if people in your congregation did not just pray for him, but, of their own desire, wanted to go visit him to encourage him? What if God was kind enough to turn that Spirit-given desire into a reality?
This picture turns each one of those “what if” questions into a reality. One of our Community Groups Skyping with the missionary we sent to an unreached people group as he sits there with one of our members who traveled around the globe to encourage him!
Yes, God is using our little church to take the gospel to the nations not just by sending missionaries out and saying “God Bless Your Ministry,” but by forming connected, interwoven gospel partnerships with those we send out.
Lord God, hallow your name!