In
case you’re wondering why the first blog post of 2015 is only in late May: I haven’t written this year because I’m
focusing on writing a book. After
writing 20 blogs about prayer in Genesis I realized that there was much more
there for the mining then I could possibly do in a blog post, so I’ve reworked
and added significantly to the work while reformatting it as an e-book. I’m up
to chapter 11 now, so I hope to have it published by the end of this year. That said, there are so many things I’m
coming across that deserve some thought that I cannot stay silent:
The
other day I read a quote from Elton Ladd.
Speaking about the ultimate meaning of history, he said, “Some day when we go into the records of
heaven to find a book that tells the meaning of human history as God sees it,
we will not draw out a book depicting, ‘The History of the West’; ‘The Progress
of Civilization’; ‘The Glory of the British Empire’; or ‘The Growth and
Expansion of America’. That book will be
entitled, ‘The Preparation for and the Extension of the Gospel Among the
Nations.’ For only here is God’s
redemptive purpose carried forward. This
is a staggering fact. God has entrusted
to people like us, redeemed sinners, the responsibility of carrying out the
divine purpose in history.”
Why
would God do such a thing? I mean, what
if we fail? We’re only human after all,
and we’re fallen creatures at that too.
In fact, Adam and Eve had only to avoid one thing in Eden to keep
life on course, and they couldn’t do that successfully. If we can mess up such simple and obvious
instructions so badly (and we all have personal illustrations of just how
poorly we’ve done), how can it be that God would entrust the entirety of His
holy plan to US? Yet Ladd says, “Here is the fact. God has entrusted to us this mission, and
unless we do it, it will not get done.”
That’s
a pretty poignant fact in the light of Matthew 24:14, where Jesus said, ““And this gospel of the kingdom will be
preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end
will come.” That’s a description of
the condition of the world (as having the Gospel preached to it) at the end of
days. It’s also an answer to the
disciple’s question of ‘when will these things be’. And, it’s also a mandate. Ladd and AB Simpson consider that verse, and
would agree with Simpson’s commentary on it, “We know that our missionary work is not in vain, but, in addition to
the blessing it is to bring to the souls we lead to Christ, best of all it is
to bring Christ Himself back again. It puts in our hands the key to the bridal
chamber and the lever that will hasten His return. What a glorious privilege.
What a mighty incentive.”
I
do agree that it’s a huge incentive. But
Ladd hits on another incentive. That
perhaps – as each of us go about fulfilling that mandate – we are actually
writing the second book of Acts. After
all, the first book of Acts is the account of the disciples who obeyed the
mission mandate. So it’s not a stretch
to consider that those who participate in God’s mission are participating – by
their very lives – in the writing a heavenly book. For we have here His heavenly work, written
down for us through the Spirit by the hands of mere men (that is, the book of
Acts) – but perhaps when we get there, we will read of His earthly work though
our own lives, written down for us by the Spirit’s own hand. A holy edition, of which the author is not debated. For Revelation says, “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and
books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead
were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”[1]
Far
be it from God to write a book that only gets used once (at the judgment). I rather think that just as we’ve used his last
book for millennia here, we’ll read those books for eternity there. What is written in them will eventually be known
by all the redeemed. Your life is a
chapter in that book. Will it be a
chapter like the book of Judges – a chapter full of sorrow and misery and
failure and disobedience, with a tag line like ‘he did whatever was right in
his own eyes’? Or will it be a chapter
like the book of Acts? A chapter full of
promise and miracles and hope and obedience?
Food
for thought.
