God has a Global Purpose (part two)

“…I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46: 10b

Unfortunately, the sigh of contentment that we feel because of the first part of verse ten often causes many of us to miss the fact that God is going to reveal something incredible about Himself in the next phrases. Verse ten gives us one key to understanding how our experience with God should transform our lives.

What is it that God is saying so clearly, yet we miss it? I believe that God is communicating a very important part of His nature to us. Our God is a global God. Through the pen of the Psalmist, God is shouting that all peoples of the earth will know Him.

You are probably thinking, all of that buildup for that … I already knew that!?

Did you really? Do you realize that the word nations as used in the scripture is the word ethne, which best translates “ethnic”. It is in using this word that this principle surfaces: God has a heart for every ethnic group¹ in the world.. In fact, in this verse, He is declaring a future reality – that at some point in the future every ethnic group will exalt God through worship. Scripture reinforces this thought through the pen of the prophet in Habakkuk 2:14, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

I have met many believers throughout the United States who truly believe that these scriptures have already been fulfilled. They, because of Western contextualization, believe that all peoples in the world have access to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Nothing could be further from reality.

Evangelicals have collaborated to publish a comprehensive report on the status of global evangelization. The results are interesting. There are 11,260 known people groups (ethnic groups) in our world today that make up a global population of 6.130 billion. Of that population, the following is summarized:

• 248 people groups representing almost 29 million people have no evangelical Christians or churches. They have no access to evangelical print, audio, visual or human resources.
• 4,733 people groups representing just over 1.5 billion people are less than 2% evangelized. They have some resources available, but no active church planting in the past two years.
• 327 people groups representing 1.34 billion people are less than 2% evangelized. They have been engaged by initial (localized) church planting within the past 2 years.
• 1227 people groups representing almost 700 million people are less than 2% evangelized, but have widespread church planting within the past two years. ²

What does this information really mean? In summary there are 1.530 billion people who have little or no access to the Gospel, and there are another 1.8 billion people whose exposure to the Gospel is in its infancy. In other words there are 3.365 billion people who are on the edge of eternity with almost no chance of hearing the Good News of Jesus in their lifetime.

What does this kind of information do to our Christian “experience”? It should light us on fire to get busy with the things that God sees as important – sharing the message of salvation among all people (ethnics) in the world.

That will only happen as our vision, passion, and effort merge with His. We must align ourselves with His Plan. We must realize that there is a need in our world greater than any natural disaster could ever create - it is a need becasue of the impending eternal disaster.

Questions for prayer and reflection…

1. How is God leading each of us to be involved in rescuing the billions who are one breath away from eternity never having the opportunity to hear the name of Jesus?
2. How can I demonstrate that my life is merged with God’s purpose of “being exalted among the nations”?
3. What must it be like for someone living outside the reach of the Gospel? How do they have hope? How do they deal with the crises of life? How do they find purpose for their lives?

¹The current term most often used for these ethnic groups is people groups. A people groups is a population of people who are linguistically and culturally similar.

² Status of Global Evangelization , May 2004, Global Research Department, International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Richmond, VA

Thanks for taking this journey with us,
David