I love the thought of the gospel marching triumphantly around the globe as God in Christ is building His church (Cf., Matt. 16:18). And I am particularly moved by this reality today as a team from our church left this morning for Peru to minister to hundreds of local pastors and their families. The third annual Amazon Mission Festival sponsored by JungleMaster Ministries is officially underway (see overview video below).
This ministry of outreach, encouragement, and equipping is a powerful reminder that the gospel knows no borders. God will be “exalted among the nations” (Ps. 46:10) and He is using short-term ministry teams like ours to accomplish this ultimate end in the farthest reaches of the earth. Indeed, this is why missions exists. Taking his cue from the Lord’s Prayer, this is how John Piper explains it:
The first two petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are perhaps the clearest statement of all in the teachings of Jesus that missions is driven by the passion of God to be glorified among the nations. “Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:9-10). Here Jesus teaches us to ask God to hallow his name and to make his kingdom come. This is a missionary prayer. Its aim is to engage the passion of God for his name among those who forget or revile the name of God (Psalm 9:17; 74:18). To hallow God’s name means to put it in a class by itself and to cherish and honor it above every claim to our allegiance or affection. Jesus’ primary concern–the very first petition of the prayer he teaches–is that more and more people, and more and more peoples, come to hallow God’s name. This is the reason the universe exists. Missions exists because this hallowing doesn’t (Let the Nations be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions, p. 35).
Would you join me in praying for our Peru mission team by name? Please pray that Ben, Billy, Joel, Linda, Lee, Paul, Jamie, and Tom would be an incredibly effective contribution to the exaltation of God among the nations.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name among the people of the third annual Amazon Mission Festival and among the churches each person represents. May Your kingdom come in power over the next several days in the jungles of the Amazon. Be glorified among these people as Your name is sanctified, cherished, and honored! In the name above all names, the sovereign One over the nations, Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.”
