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I exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things,
for the joy of all peoples, through Jesus Christ.
That's my life mission statement and it's the church mission statement,
the seminary mission statement, Desiring God mission statement.
It's what happens if you stay in one place for a long time. It's a sweet thing.
And it gets tweaked in terms of its outworking ... but a paragraph on that.
"I exist" — we'll leave that one.
A philosophical, profound affirmation. How do I know that?
But we'll leave it.
I think operative is "spread."
I'm leaning toward a world that doesn't have a passion for the supremacy of God.
I'm just leaning there all the time.
How can more people be awakened?
And so secondly, I'm not ultimately, mainly concerned with rational knowledge.
That is a means to an end.
So I want a "passion for" — and not just any old god,
but a supremely powerful, supremely wise, just, good, holy God.
So I want passions to abound for his bigness and greatness.
I want that to be experienced joyfully.
Those are almost interchangeable words in the statement,
"passion" and "for the joy,"
because I think God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
And therefore, pursuing people's joy in God is pursuing God's glory.
And "peoples," "for the joy of all peoples," puts that global, multi-ethnic piece on it.
There are 12 to 16 thousand people groups in the world
and I would like to be used by God to get the gospel to each of them.
"Through Jesus Christ" was added, interestingly,
because I assumed it and you can't assume it in a world like ours
that's dominated by Islam the way it is.
And so "through Jesus Christ" means that he died.
"He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all,
how shall he not with him freely give us all things?" [Romans 8:32]
So the "all things" that I'm after are only possible because Christ died for me.