Not a Plan B

This weekend Derek and I are participating in Chestnut Mountain Presbyterian Church's annual Missions Conference. Let me tell you that CMPC is a model church for supporting their missionaries - and I don't just mean financially! We are blessed by them in so many ways as they show us so much love and care. In preparation for their conference, they put together a devotional from several people, and I was able to write one of their devotionals, as well. The theme for this missions conference is "A Task Unfinished." 

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I am not a Plan B. I am not a bandaid fix to an otherwise unfixable problem. I'm not a sympathy settlement after a stubborn, self-righteous group of people.

I am not a Jew, but I was always a part of the Lord's plan of salvation.

Growing up in church I somehow received the unintended meta-message that the reason Gentiles got a chance at God is because the Jews - his first and chosen group of people - rejected his offer of grace. Yet as I grew up and began studying the Old Testament Scriptures, it was a delight to me to find out that I was always intended to be part of God's beautiful story.

In Genesis 12:1-3 God begins his covenant with Abram, which is sometimes viewed as the Lord's beginning of selectivity. He chooses one man - one family, one nation - to claim as his chosen people. They were the elite. The blessed. The loved. The covenant ones. And for me, growing up, it seemed to stop right there. And for the Jews, it seemed to often stop there for them, too. Gentiles were to be excluded and looked down upon, but Jews were automatically included because of their heritage. Then one day I realized what God had chosen them for. What he had blessed them to do.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (emphasis mine)

He specifically chose them so that they may then bless the nations and bring about His restored Kingdom!

Now that I know Jesus as my Savior, I too have to recognize my chosen-ness. Here I am - a Gentile - in the same place as the Jews so many, many years ago. Do I take God’s love for me and just settle for the comfort it brings me personally? Do I hold my salvation in a closed hand and hoard its blessings? Do I end there with the blessing, or do I move forward in His plan, recognizing the purpose for which I have been blessed? Do I share that love and blessing with others?

The people who have not yet come to believe in Christ are not simply the second choices. The Lord is not waiting for enough Gentile believers to satisfy the huge rejection of his originally intended people. He is waiting for his entire flock. He is longing for his entire people. He is calling to all of his children. And that includes me and so many others who have yet to call Him their Lord.  

And therefore, I must - we all must - move out to bless the nations.