The Living God is a Missionary God (We are blessed to be a blessing)

Opening Questions: A. In your country, how are Christian missionaries viewed? How do you think they have helped or hurt your country’s well- being and development?
B. What are some of your dreams for ways you could help bring hope to your homeland?

Read these Bible verses together:
Psalm 42:2 (written by King David) “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”

Acts 14:15b(proclaimed by followers of Jesus, Paul and Barnabas, when men tried to worship them by offering sacrifices of animals to them, after they helped a man to walk) “We too are only men, human beings like you. We are bringing good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.”

Genesis 12:1-3
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

1.In what ways have you been blessed? Have you ever considered these as blessings from God? Why or why not?
2.Circle the 6 promises that God makes to Abram (and to us) by stating “I will”
3.Now, find the additional 2 wills. “you will” and the “all peoples on earth will”
4.What does it mean for a person (or group of people) to “be a blessing”?
5.Why does God bless people?
6.What are ways that God may want you to use the blessings you have been given to be a blessing to others, so they in turn can bless others?

God could have revealed His purpose in the form of direct commands about what He wanted to see done. Instead, God chose to reveal His purpose in the form of a promise, a promise that was both personal and immensely global: to bless all the families of the earth.
God’s purposes in poetry

Read Psalm 67 (from the Old Testament in the Bible) :
God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us. That your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God. Let all the peoples praise You. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for You will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth. Let the peoples praise You, O God. Let all the peoples praise You.