The Invitation

One bright, starry night on the tiny hilltop village of Bethlehem, God incarnate came to earth in the form of a helpless baby.

Yet, His obscure arrival stands as a reminder to all mankind. The invitation was given to all humanity. It is a call to you and to me to remember that from the beginning of creation, God has been inviting people from around the world to:

• know Him,
• to receive His precious gift given and to then
• worship Him in unison.

The Introduction

All throughout scripture you find God introducing Himself to His creation.

He communicates to people His Names, thereby giving the world a peek into His very character.

God showed Himself over and over again in the Old Testament through mighty miracles, words to the prophets and in just the day in and day out faithfulness to His people, Israel.

But as you come to the New Testament, you see more vividly God calling people from around the world to know Him. Think of the various differences in the people who surrounded the event of Christ’s birth. You see:

• a young couple, poor in the world’s eyes birthing God’s son!
• Angels inviting lowly, smelly shepherds to be the first to visit this Holy child.
• Simeon, a righteous man, is introduced to God incarnate as he chooses to approach this young poor couple as they were performing the necessary purification rites for Mary, 40 days after the birth of their child.
• Anna, an older poor widow, was phenomenally spiritually rich as she devoted everything she had to daily worshiping God.
• A few years later, you see rich (probably Persian) wise men coming with gifts that were equivalent to those given to royalty. The scriptures highlight a very unique scene where you see these wealthy travelers falling down before this toddler in front of them.

The Invitation

Invitation. God throughout time has been offering an invitation. The invitation is this:

• Come and receive the most precious & priceless gift you will ever have – eternal life through Christ alone.

But along with this incomprehensible rich gift that is given, God also provides another aspect to the gift. It is the ability for mankind to unabashedly worship their Creator God.

He has given us the opportunity to throw off all hindrances such as race, status, or gender and to worship Him together as a people united in Christ.

As a recipient of this indescribable gift, you and I are given the invitation to lay aside what the world communicates is a divide between people. And instead, He invites us to come together just like the variety of people found in the Nativity narrative in Luke 2. God invites us to come, amidst our diversity, and just worship Him.

The Unified Worship

Today in our world, to be able to experience unity among so much global diversity is something that world leaders continually strive to achieve.

But as people who have accepted God’s gift that has been offered, we have the opportunity that confounds the watching world. We have the God-given privilege of entering into such diverse, yet unifying worship.

And the result? An inexplicable joy that brings total glory to God alone.

My husband and I have had the privilege of serving in an international church here in the south of France for nearly twenty years. At the church, we tend to have a very simple focus. We do not come with flashy programs or projected strategies as we invest our lives into this work.

We come with just an invitation to the people around us who come from all around the world. The call is this:

Come. Join us at the foot of the cross. Worship with us. Study with us His Word which brings life.

And may we as a church be able to say as David did in Psalms 86:9,

“All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name.”

Now and forevermore. Amen.