Sorry about the long break. For my Masters Program, I have to turn in a journal with ten different 5 chapter overviews about God's missional heart for the world. So read through the first 5 chapters of the bible today and give me your thoughts on how you see God's love for the entire world. It should be fun and it will help me out.
From the very beginning it seems clear to me that God has a heart for all of humanity...why else would he create us? The bible starts out, "In the beginning, God CREATED..." and the very fact that He created anything at all tells us that He wanted to give Himself away. He didn't need us to be alive...He had perfect community in Himself. God created because the essence of love is giving one's self away. God is love, so He created man pour out His love on a creation that could choose not to return the favor. That sounds like a missional heart to me! Everything about the creation narrative tells us that God cares. He made a beautiful home for humanity to dwell in. He made men and women in His image. We are image-bearers of the uncreated God. Every man, woman and child that has ever walked the face of this earth is the child of God and I have to believe He desperately wants to be in community with each one. In chapter 2, we see that God creates the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because if you truly love someone, you have to give them the option to reject your love if they so desire. In chapter 3 when Adam and Eve choose to reject God, God imposes punishment on them, but even this is missional in design. While living in a perfect world, Adam and Eve were not satisfied and they sought to become god-like themselves. God allows pain and suffering to come into the world as consequences for sinful actions, so that people will turn to Him in their brokeness. In chapter 4, Cain commits the first murder in human history and God still shows him mercy by promising to protect Cain from the vengeance of others. This is a perfect picture of God's mercy and patience with His fallen creation. It is clear from the outset of the bible that God's heart calls out to all of creation.
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