Submitted
by Caleb Lain – North Side Baptist Church
Over the
next 40 days, the devotionals will be from individuals who give of their time
and resources to travel to, or to live in areas where they are not known and
know no one, just to serve others in the name of Christ. The individual and personal stories in these
devotionals will give you an insight into how God moves people into
service. Many of these devotionals are
written by your friends and family here at North Side or by our mission
partners. These devotionals are designed
to help us focus on Christ and the calling He has given all of us – the calling
to love, serve, and make disciples. These
40 daily readings will end the week of our 2018 Mission Conference.
After this I looked, and there before me was a great
multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and
language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing
white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. and crying out with
a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the
Lamb!” Revelation 7:9-10
I’ve been blessed to travel to
several different countries on five different continents in my lifetime. One of
the most exciting things about traveling to distant lands is to see the
differences in culture. One thing that I’ve learned is that God has made each
people group distinct and He moves among all of them. He loves diversity! He has created us to be different and when we
get to Heaven we will still be different. I believe when we get to Heaven we
will be able to understand one another perfectly, but, as we see in this
scripture, our languages will still be different.
What moves me most when I travel
to different countries is the similarity among Believers – that we exalt the
risen Christ. We are the One, global Church united in our belief that Jesus is
Lord.
We know that our country and world
is becoming increasingly diverse. As we see people from other nations and
cultures around us, let’s remember that God loves them, that God loves
diversity. And that one day people from EVERY nation, tribe, people and
language will stand before the throne and proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father.
