Psalm 96:1-3 and 7-10
1 Sing
to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
proclaim his
salvation day after day.
3 Declare his
glory among the nations,
his marvelous
deeds among all peoples.
7 Ascribe
to the Lord, all you
families of nations,
ascribe to
the Lord glory and
strength.
8 Ascribe to
the Lord the glory due
his name;
bring an
offering and come into his courts.
9 Worship the Lord in the
splendor of his[a] holiness;
tremble before
him, all the earth.
10 Say among the
nations, “The Lord reigns.”
Sandy and I spent eight years as the Area Directors for Mexico. It was a fulfilling and important ministry. However, lately we had begun to notice that that this role was taking us away from the specific ministries which God has called us to.
There are enormous needs in Mexico. Living there, what we see is often quite different from what visitors see. Many churches in the US often consider Mexico a “reached” country. People think they know Mexico. They make regular missions trips to the border. They might vacation at Mexico’s beaches.
What people don’t see is that Mexico City is the most populated metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere. But while it is home to between 25 and 30 million people, it has less than 50 Assemblies of God churches.
The UNAM, in Mexico City, is the largest university in Latin America—a quarter of a million students are enrolled. But it has almost no evangelical presence. Pray with us that God will raise up campus ministry in this academic “city.”
In the Central region of Mexico there four states where less than 2% of the population identifies as Evangelical. That percentage is less than in the United Arab Emirates.
Mexico is not the only place where there are pressing, enormous, life-threatening needs. Everywhere in every country we see needs and needy people. If we focus on needs, emotional paralysis can take over.
So, it can’t be just these needs that answer our “why” questions.
Why are we anxious to return to Mexico? What motivates must be more than the need.
Why do we work hard to return to the work? Even claiming that God called us is not enough.
We go to declare His glory among the nations. So that the nations may join us in chorus to ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. So that people from every nation, tribe people and language can join us around the throne saying
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!” (Rev. 5:13b)
Amen
Next week we tackle the question of what?
Paul and Sandy Kazim 