“Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance…”  Psalm 2:8

The leadership of Faith Bible Church declared 2014 the year of “Rescue.”  Dozens of names fill a large chalkboard near the south entrance, names of family, friends, strangers dying to be rescued by the Savior.  A new outreach to international college students forges ahead into unfamiliar territory fueled by the goal of rescue.  FBC partners with many local and overseas ministries to offer the hope of rescue to the lost whom Jesus came to seek and save. 

So what?  How does this relate to me? 

In his book Why Pray?  40 Days—From Words to Relationship, Dr. John DeVries proclaims that “the first step in winning the world for Christ is prayer, not plans.”  Psalm 2:8 records God the Father’s command to His Son:  “Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession.”  By extension, He commands us as Christ’s followers to petition for the nations as well. 

Jesus died to bring the nations near by His blood (Ephesians 2:13).  He “was slain, and purchased for God with [His] blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).  Indeed, such sacrifice is more than worthy of the inheritance it was intended to purchase!

Thus, the Year of Rescue has everything to do with me!  Love for Jesus should drive me to my knees.  DeVries explains that we must be “driven by the fact that Jesus, having gone through the agony of bearing our punishment for sin, [is] worthy of the reward of having all the nations delivered to Him.”  Jesus paid it all to purchase me.  Shall I not pour forth “intensive, passionate, specifically directed prayer” that His inheritance be granted to Him?  We pray, moved by the “positive motivation of love [for Jesus], rather than human need” (DeVries).

Please join in the Year of Rescue.  We need you!  We need you to pray!  Don’t see the updates here as mere words on a page.  See them as joyful invitations to lay Christ’s blood-bought inheritance at His worthy feet.

“Every Christian, in fact, is a full-time missionary!  The work of missions is done at home by you who pray for missions regularly.”  --Dr. John F. DeVries