His Heart, My Heart

Made For : an audio journey

God only has one purpose and one plan. And it's what he created us for. This is an important shift that as believers, we need to recognize So, what's it all about?

Full Transcript below, or at missiongap.org/podcasts

'Made for' CONTRIBUTORS:

• Andrew Scott – From Ireland, living in the USA. Serves as President of OM in the US, and author of “Scatter: Go Therefore and Take Your Job With You”
• Belén Peters – From Chile, living in the USA. Serves as Career Advisor with Elevalto, career advisors for Jesus followers looking to take their life and skills to another part of the world.
• Decio De Carvalho – From Brazil, living in Puerto Rico. Serves as Executive Director of COMIBAM, an alliance of national mission groups across twenty-five Ibero-American countries.
• Ewout van Oosten – From the Netherlands, living in the Netherlands. Serves as Global Director of TeenStreet, a youth discipleship movement in over 50 countries.
• Glenn Packiam – From Malaysia, living in the USA. Serves as Associate Senior Pastor of New Live Church, and author of “Blessed Broken Given: How Your Story Becomes Sacred in the Hands of Jesus”
• Jessica Shumba – From Zimbabwe, living in Zimbabwe. Serves as National Director of OM in Zimbabwe, mobilising Zimbabwean Jesus followers to share Gods love.
• Katherine Lee – From the USA, living in the USA. Serves as Content and Creative Director for the Fuller Leadership Platform at Fuller Theological Seminary.
• Lawrence Tong – From Singapore, living in Singapore. Serves as International Director of OM, a global community of Jesus followers, united to share God’s love with those who don’t know it.
• Vaibhav – From India, living in India. Serves among people unreached with the love of Christ, focusing on the Tribals, the rag pickers, farmers and migrant workers. (Last name omitted for security)

Bible readings: Mason Peters, Mariela Morbelli, Carla Moran, Matt Tooker, Anthea Godsmark, Philip Godsmark

Hosted by: Geoff Peters - Geoff is a huge fan of coffee and market research, but what really gets his heart pounding is inspiring people to share God’s love with the world. He is a deep thinker driven to understand the fears, concerns, beliefs and motivations of Christians better. Through the Mission Gap Project, Geoff hopes to encourage believers to step beyond the safety of their comfort zones and love others for Christ.

Transcript: Series three episode one, his heart and my heart.

Geoff:

God only has one purpose and one plan. And it's what he created us for. This is an important shift that as believers, we need to recognize it's a shift from being all about my purposes and my life to us entering into God's purpose. God's mission. See mission isn't just something that the Bible talks about. Mission is really what it's all about.

Reader 2:

Psalm 96, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord praise his name, proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. He is to be feared above all gods for all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendour and majesty are before him, strength and glory are in his sanctuary, ascribe to the Lord.

Reader 2:

All your families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name, bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in all the splendour of his holiness. Tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad that the sea resound and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant and everything in them, let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the Lord for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Geoff:

So let's consider God's grand purpose. This primary goal. God's hope for the world. Since the dawn of creation all the way to now. Andrew reflects back on his 18 year old self and what his response might have been.

Andrew:

If you were to have asked me that back in my 18 year old self, I would have described it something like this, Jeff that I have made the decision to make my life purpose, that of following God and trying to help others to follow God. That it was my decision that I got to define my purpose for my life. Back then I saw my life as the picture that I invited God into, today I recognize that God is the picture and I'm a piece of the picture. So it's not a matter of I get to live my life, whatever way I want to. And at some point then potentially, if I'm really serious about my Christian life, I invite God into that life, into that picture. But rather now I see that it's God's plan, God only has one purpose. God only has one plan, it's his story, not my story. And he is inviting me into his story, he has included me into his plan.

Jessica:

I remember asking the question if God is God, then surely he deserves more than just a Sunday.

Geoff:

That's Jessica. She lives and works in Zimbabwe.

Jessica:

And then out of that journey and exploration also just came a care and a concern for others beyond myself that I honestly can't say I ever had before. I'm an introvert, and so it's energy to engage people, but even simple things like a care and a concern to share, to talk to somebody about Jesus, a care and a concern for where their life is going and what's going on in their life. And then wanting to just walk that journey with them. I can't say I naturally had that. I think something changed in me when I connected with God and I wanted to do those things. I wanted more than just me. I wanted more than just my comfort, more than just I'm climbing the corporate ladder. I wanted to do more for others.

Reader 5:

Romans 10, verses 10 to 15. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified. And it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As scripture says, anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one who may have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? It is written how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

Geoff:

When we consider the role of the church, people often say that missions is one of the things the church does, as opposed to that mission is the complete essence of the church. That the church exists for God's mission in the world. I asked [Vibov 00:06:08], what he considered the role of the church to be. And when he signed up to follow Christ, did he realize what he was signing up for?

Vibov:

And many times ministry happens only if someone is a part of the mission organization. How we work and in my case, the love of Jesus compelled me to get in war in his mission. And I was completely involved in sharing his love in different settings. So whether I am a part of any mission organization or not, if somebody is watching me or not, my commitment is to fulfil the mission that he has given to me.

Geoff:

This is Andrew.

Andrew:

When we don't wrap our life around the purpose of God, we've missed the very reason for our existence, right? Now that's no small deal, that's a big deal that we were created with an identity as a child of God, that comes with a purpose to reflect our father in everything we do. And when we don't step into that, what we're really doing is stepping away from our creative purpose and therefore our created identity. And when you try to be something you're not, number one, you're going to fail a lot. And number two, it's going to be, I believe a life of constant discontent, constant frustration.

Lawrence:

Yeah. I'm a pragmatic person. So my faith is also expressed in many practical way.

Geoff:

This is Lawrence. He lives in Singapore and currently serves as the international director for OM. I asked him what he thought it would take for the over two billion professing Jesus followers in the world to do something, to reach the three billion people in the world who don't know Christ's love and don't live nearby any Christians or exist in Christian communities or churches. What do we need to do as Christians, as Jesus followers to step out and to take action, to share God's love with those who don't know him?

Lawrence:

To me I think it all boils down to an individual taking baby step of faith and go. Many of the people that I talked to who loves God, who wants to serve, they want to be a part of what God is doing. They sincerely want to avail themselves, but then they are waiting for all the stars to align before they step out. And so things say, Oh, who's going to provide for my children? Who's going to care for my future? Where am I going to live? And how am I going to live? All that. So that prevented a person from taking the first step of faith, I think. But for me, stepping out just as here I'm my Lord and let's see what you have. And I tell you, God has a lot in store for us, surprises as well as planned purpose.

Lawrence:

And so that journey looking back now, I've been involved in 42 years. I raised two children, both have received good education. We never had to live a day lacking in a want. God in his own miraculous way provided for us. And it's not just for me, I sit with my colleagues and all, and now we compare notes and none of us can complain against God's provision. In his own ways he met our needs. It may not be the way we expected, but he provided for us. And so we were locked into a certain thinking that we can only provide for ourselves, no one else can, but God is a living person. God is there and he can provide for us, and he has proven so.

Geoff:

You've been listening to the Made For podcast series, part of The Mission Gap Project from Operation Mobilization, with me, Geoff. To find out more, go to missiongap.org. And if you would please rate this podcast in your app store and leave a comment so others can more easily find the series. In the next episode.