By Nic Allen, Director of Strategic Partnerships
“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.” – Isaiah 54:2-3a
Merry Christmas, JMI family.
A word that has continued to rise to the surface this year is “expansion.” As Sarah Rodrigues, our national director in Brazil, shared with me, “God is calling us to expand deep into the West, to go further with the gospel than ever before. He is already there working, and we are joining Him.” She is one of the most gifted wordsmiths I know, and the only one I know personally who does that in multiple languages.
Isaiah’s words are beautifully bilingual as well. The word we read as “enlarge” or “expand” in English is the Hebrew word rachab, which literally means to grow; to be or make large. It’s an amazing word, though not always with a positive connotation (think of appetite in Habakkuk or baldness in Micah!). But in Isaiah 54, it couldn’t be more perfect as we pause to celebrate the glorious gift of Advent and look ahead to an enlarged new year.
Ultimately, as God opened Heaven and chose to gift us a grace we could never earn, holding back a wrath we truly deserved, Christmas ushered in the New Testament and the greatest expansion the world will ever know.
When the angel visited Mary with the promise of a Savior, he did more than prompt her faith or expand her mind. He opened the door for God’s love to penetrate human hearts in ways previously unimaginable. He strengthened His covenant stakes in the world, looking east and west, stretching deeper into nations once thought unreachable. He didn’t just invite a young girl to bear His Son into the world; He invited His treasured people to shine His one true light into the farthest, darkest corners of the earth.
Christmas isn’t the introduction of God’s plan. It is the forever expansion of His Kingdom. And it’s a syllabus for how we, like angels, shepherds, and magi alike, can carry that Good News into the most unimaginable places, too.
When the hallelujah chorus of angelic hosts sang, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests,” the recipients of that song, and the future readers of that verse, had no idea just how far the favor of God would stretch. They had no idea how many descendants it would include. Little did they know, as Isaiah 54 foretold, that the favor of God was expanding farther than they ever thought possible… through Jesus.
So let me ask you:
What part of your faith is God calling you to grow this year?
What part of your mission is He calling you to enlarge?
Who needs to be invited to your table and included in your family?
At JMI, we’re prayerfully considering every way God is calling us to grow. We’re looking at all the areas He is inviting us to expand. We’re studying all the ways He might use, even us, to broaden His Kingdom, share His love, and multiply His followers around the world.
How many more vulnerable children can we sponsor? How many more remote villages can we reach? How many more seeds can we sow? How many more disciples can we make? How many more pastors can we support?
God’s Word invites us all to ask the same questions: How many more people can we love? How many more relationships can we forge? How many more seeds can we plant? How many more people can we tell about the joy we have in Jesus?
May our influence and our territory expand this year, for His Kingdom, for His glory, for His Church, for His reign on earth, just as it is in the heights of heaven.
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