Friday, January 25, 2013

The Missionary Impact of Obedience

I borrowed the title from Ajith Fernando's commentary on Deuteronomy.  When a people, whether it is the nation of Israel in Moses' day or the church today, are obedient to God's Word it has an impact on the world.
First, we see that the people are wise and understanding.  When we cling to the Word then we have a Biblical worldview.  Many churches and many Christians do not know their Bibles and therefore they cannot cling to the Word.  Their world view then comes from the culture around them and instead of being counter culture they are part of the ever shifting mainstream culture.  Remember that though the world sees this they do not necessarily recognize it. 
Second, remember that God is with us.  What makes us different from the world?  The main difference is that we have God with us and we know that He is with us.  Why we do what we do is because we know that God is with us. 
Third, we display righteousness and we show the world that righteousness rules in our lives.  When we speak out against social evils it is not because we are filled with hatred but because we want to see righteousness done in our land. 
Does the world see our missionary impact or do they see us as people who are against current culture?  We are against the trends of our culture as it shifts further and further to the left but it should be because we are clinging to God's Word, having a Biblical worldview, knowing that God has not abandoned His people and we desire righteous to rule.

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