Blessed is the Nation

Psalm 33:12 reads
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance”(NASB).
It seems that in our post-Christian(some say pre-Christian),
pluralistic society, that we will certainly cease to be
blessed by God as a nation. The United States now has
the third highest number of non-Christians of all the
nations of the world (behind India & China). Considering
our continent of North America, there are an estimated
258 million people who are without Jesus Christ (lost and headed
for eternity separated from God)! But this verse causes me to
ask, “What is the inheritance for God’s people?”
Psalm 2:8 reads, “Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations
as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your
possession.” We may still have hope to receive the inheritance
God intends(and continue to be a blessed nation), if we keep
our eyes on the result of the Great Commission, reaching
every people group ("ta ethne") on earth. This is a continued and
sharpened focus of Dr. Jerry Rankin and our International Mission
Board. It was overwhelming to SEE the display of all the world's
people groups at the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando
(June 2010). If we have the heart of God at all, we cannot help
but be moved to tears and action in finding a way to reach every
last one of those language and cultural groups in the world.

I believe North America (and Southern Baptists) will be blessed
by God as we continue to (or perhaps actually start to) make
disciples of all the nations. Making disciples must be more than
just preaching the Gospel and seeing people make a decision and
praying a prayer. We cannot make disciples until we know what
a disciple really is. We need a good working definition of the kind
of disciple (pupil or student) into which Jesus turned His twelve
chosen men. Check out this: "A disciple is a lifelong, radical
learner and radical follower of Jesus Christ." Until we begin
the process(through repentance leading to right action) of becoming
a radical learner & follower ourselves, we could not possibly lead
anyone else to become such a person. This is not about transferring
information or mentoring or holding someone else accountable only
(though it is all of those things). It is completely about life
transference. (I encourage you to read Dr. David Platt's new book
"Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream", then
take the one-year challenge at the end of the book!)

We cannot allow a decrease in sending career & short-term
missionaries to the ends of the earth. We desperately need a
Great Commission Resurgence that will follow a true revival
in the Church. We cannot fail to make disciples of the nations
as they come to us (and as we go to them). The glory of God
in the nations (and in the U.S.A.) depends on our faithfulness!