Part 4 of a series of mini articles on Co-Mission

see www.co-mission.org.uk for more information

In this slot we’re thinking about what will characterise how we go about our strategy. We’re thinking about how we’ll conduct ourselves. And the Bible makes it clear that we’re all to exercise our ministries in love. In fact the Bible gives us three commitments to love.

• We want to Love God
• We want to Love God’s People
• We want to love God’s world

1. We want to love God

Our aim of making disciples for Christ, employing the strategies we’ve outlined, is to be done out of responsive love for God. We’re not to be involved in this out of obligation or duty or terror. We’re to be involved because we’re responding to God’s grace in the death and resurrection of Christ. We do so with the sacrificial and holy worship of our whole lives. We want everything we do as individuals and as a church to be characterised by deep love for all that God has done for us and for all that He means to us. Our Sunday preaching, our small group work and our emphasis on practical discipleship through prayer triplets and accountability groups is designed to help us deepen our love for and enjoyment of God.

2. We want to love God’s people

In our aim of making disciples and employing our strategies we need to remember that we’re not simply a work force who turn up to do our job and then disappear back to our homes. We want to establish a church family that offers genuine friendship and support to one another. This has not been an easy year for many of us. Ill health has affected us, our kids or our parents. Many of us would have found it much harder were it not for the loving encouragement of friends here at church. I trust that commitment to one another will continue to characterise our church life. As I’ve said before we need to open our diaries and give people some time, open our homes and give people some food and perhaps most of all open our hearts and give them something of ourselves as we seek to build on friendships throughout the week. Our church lunches are just a first stage in that. Of course there’s artificiality about those lunches because no regular scheduled meeting can provide the companionship that many wish for. But they’re a start, they’re something to build on and they’re enjoyable!

3. We want to love God’s world

We’re committed to mercy ministries that demonstrate the practical love of God. And so we’ll continue to support Options the Crisis Pregnancy Centre in Wimbledon [see http://www.freewebs.com/ministriesofmercy/optionspregnancycentre.htm]. We’re committed above all to evangelism since God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son to die for us. We’ll encourage and pray for friendship evangelism, for ministries to reach children and adults and we’ll support the efforts to reach ethnic sub-cultures through the International Cafes and Mission. There’s an opportunity this year to be involved in the Eternity Mission [www.eternitymission.org.uk] in March under the leadership of Rico Tice. Rico is on the staff at All Souls and is the public face of Christianity Explored.

These are the things that characterise the manner in which we’re to act. And they’re summarised by one word, ‘love’.

Some very early preparatory thoughts on Psalm 113

Notice three things

1. The psalm calls us to praise the Lord (1-3)

1 Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! 2 Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! 3 From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!

It’s obvious from the repeated instruction in these opening verses that this song is a summons to advertise the magnificence of God’s name, or His character. Our praise of the Lord is to be

• universal (1) and involve us all, no one from among God’s servnats is exempt from this responsibility and privilege
• perpetual (2) and go on for all time, there will never be a time in human history when it will be inappropriate to praise the Lord
• continual (3) repeated constantly around the clock

The Christian life is one of praise.

2. The psalm declares the majesty of the Lord (4-6)

4 The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! 5 Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, 6 who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?

The songwriter provides the reason for our praise in these verses. God is vertically distinct from us! He is above on high from where he looks down on the events in human history. It is the majesty of the Lord that should provoke our praise. He exercises sovereignty over every nation on earth. He is even more majestic than the glory of the heavens. He is seated in transcendence above the creation. This is no small deity. He is the mighty, magnificent, powerful creator of everything that ever has been or ever will be. Of course we’re to praise Him. Not to would be a sin!

3. The psalm illustrates the condescension of the Lord (7-9)

7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, 8 to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. 9 He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!

Though He is majestic and mighty, He’s also the God who stoops to meet His creation with tender compassion and mercy. The Psalmist then provides one specific illustration of this precious divine condescension. Alluding to Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 1 he reminds his readers of the Lord’s help to the barren woman. There were few greater tragedies for a Jewish married woman than to be barren. Not only was there the grief of unfulfilled hopes there was the threat of being desolate in old age. But the God we are to praise is the God who descends from the throne to serve. The Lord we praise is the God who helps the needy.

Conclusion

This Psalm exhorted the people of God to praise the Lord. We praise Him for his magnificence. But his magnificence is seen most clearly in the compassionate acts of mercy to the needy.

The followers of Jesus Christ can take these words to our lips with ever deepening realisation that what’s required of us in this Psalm is even more justified in the light of the gospel accomplishments and promises of our Saviour and Lord.

The Lord Jesus Christ has been raised to the right hand side of His Father to reign forever on the throne. And yet this same reigning Lord descended and left the glory of his heavenly throne to stoop to serve people who are little more than the ‘dust of the earth’. In his resurrection and ascension he has raised us to sit with him in the heavenly places from where we will share his dominion for all eternity.

You want to know why we should praise the Lord? Really? This ought to be the sound track to our lives, the constant accompaniment to our daily activity. Let’s not let this wonderful melody be drowned out by the unpleasant noises of our daily struggles with sin and suffering. No one ever said that life would be easy. We’ve not been misled. Whatever life throws at us none of the gospel reasons to praise God will ever diminish. He is still the magnifience servant King and we should make that known, to ourselves, to his church and to his world.