Jesus said to his followers, “Go everywhere in the world, and tell the Good News to everyone.

Rick Warren personalises the command that Jesus gave in stating that the Great Commission is MY commission, and as I reflect on the command that Jesus gave from the NCV version, is begins with the words: Jesus said to his followers.

So, what identifies me as a follower of Jesus? Simply that I receive this instruction as spoken to me. If I claim to be a follower of Jesus, but don’t do what he tells us to do, am I really followers of Jesus?

I like the use of this translation simply for rephrasing the command from “Go into all the world” to “Go everywhere in the world”. It’s sometimes easy to think that to go into all the world is to go somewhere else, somewhere overseas to tell people about Jesus, which I have had the opportunity to do in the past.

But what about the present? To “go everywhere” is such an inclusive word. It literally means wherever I am, tell people the good news of Jesus. That includes where I work, the street where I live, and yes, all places near and far.

So, where I am right now, how am I being a follower of Jesus? Who can I tell about the Good News?

Lord Jesus, thank you for saving me, thank you loving me so much that you died for me, thank you for setting me free. Help me to see the people around me as you do. Holy Spirit lead me in telling everyone this Good News.

Written by Andrew Martin

1) In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world. 2) I don’t care about my own life. The most important thing is that I complete my mission, the work that the Lord Jesus gave me—to tell people the Good News about God’s grace.

The Blues Brothers told everyone they were on a mission from God. They meant people to take their plan seriously.

Jesus has sent me to continue his mission on earth – now that’s powerful! God gave him a mission and in this verse he dedicates his followers to that mission. This verse reminds me that it is an outward focused commission. My faith is not self focused and a searching for enlightenment. Rather my mission is to introduce people to God.

My secret weapon is the gospel of good news of the life and death of Jesus Christ for you and for me. And the end of the story is life! But God has spoken to me afresh about the impact of this message of life because it is a message of light, love, hope and healing. Jesus’ ministry was characterised by these things. He brought light into the darkness – how do I do that? He brought God’s love to a desperate people – do I do that? He brought hope to the broken, and to those waiting for the Messiah. Jesus brought healing, of the physical, emotional, and spiritual – am I available to God to bring healing?

What a life changing message, from the heart of God. And I have to be listening and tuned into the heart of God to be an effective messenger, to discern what the message means for the person God brings into my life.

I believe I am sometimes held back by a fear of ridicule, as well as a fear of being challenged about what I believe.  What if I can’t answer every question? What if I am rejected because of my views? When people believe something passionately they will be ready to defend it! I want people to take what I believe seriously. That demands I am ready to explain and defend it.

Dear Jesus. Help me to tune into the loving heart of the Father through the Holy Spirit. Help me to make those introductions to Jesus.

Amen

Written by Claire Moore

1) But my servant Caleb thinks differently and follows me completely. 2) Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself.

I enjoy period dramas and historical fiction, and in these types of novels and films, servants are quite common characters. The ideal servant is fiercely loyal to their master/mistress, dependable, trustworthy, full of integrity and highly skilled in their role. It is this combination of qualities that makes them hard to replace. These servants have learned the ways of their master/mistress and are able to predict what they will want or need. Oftentimes, these servants take a healthy pride in serving with excellence, and the satisfaction of their master/mistress is highly gratifying. 

God wants me to know Him as Father, Friend, Saviour and the Good Shepherd… but He is at the same time Lord of the Universe and the One I was created to serve. 

Am I seeking to serve God with the kind of loyalty, dependability, trustworthiness, integrity and skill that means God can rely on me? Am I growing in my understanding of God’s ways and am I better able to partner with Him in His work? Am I deriving joy from serving God with excellence? 

Holy Spirit, where I get focused on task or caught in details, please help me to see the bigger picture and to remember who it is that I am serving. Help me to grow in my capacity to serve God with integrity and skill. Amen. 

Written by Ps. Bethany Waugh 

So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be.

What a great work the Lord has done in our lives.  We are fashioned by Him for His glory and some of that glory comes through our service.  Each with a unique set of gifts, talents, temperament and personality so that we can bring Christ’s light to those in our communities.  To be honest there are times I feel I need to have a few rough edges rubbed off, and He is at work.  I find it a little hard to think of myself as “excellently formed and marvellously functioning” but then again that thinking relies more on my view of myself than God’s and His creation of me and His empowerment.  For when I am reliant on Him, empowered by Him, then I am an able minister of His Spirit!  And so I can walk in victory and “go ahead and be what I was made to be”.  God is not holding me back, if I am held back it is myself doing that deed or the enemy of my soul the devil.

Do you use such superlatives and adjectives as you describe yourself as you find here in God’s Word describing you?  In your attempt at humility have you only reduced yourself to less than God’s creation in you?  May you meditate on this verse today to bring new light and love from God to you!

Father, work Your Word deeply into our lives that we would live, “Fashioned”; “Excellently Formed”; “Marvellously Functioning” and “be what we are made to be”.

Written by Ps. Richard Botta

1) For the Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 2) They are the people I made for myself, and they will sing my praises!”

When I became a Christian in August 1984, such a love and relief consumed me.  I was then baptised in the Holy Spirit in May 1985 and my heart and passion changed.  I didn’t care what anyone thought about me, I wanted to serve Jesus till the day I die.  In 1986 I joined Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and spent the next 3 years (for me Bible College) – learning about God, learning how to hear from the Holy Spirit, and learning how to sacrifice my personal desire for “His Kingdom”.

I came to the following conclusions:

Begin – serve in something and God will reveal your gifts, purpose and passion along the way.

Everything is an opportunity.  If you are asked – say yes.  Along the way God reveals what you are good at and what you need to work on.

As we give (financially and in service) – God gives back to us.  He reveals Himself to us.  He reveals our Heart within us.

AS WE DO AND BECOME – GOD REVEALS.

It is a discovery of ourselves and a discovery of God Himself

God gave me a scripture in 1988 when I left YWAM Hong Kong.  John 21 v 15-19 – “Susan feed my sheep, Susan feed my lambs, Susan take care of my sheep”.

In 2004 – I felt the Lord lead me back to this scripture and He said to me:  “I called YOU to be a Pastor, not because you married Richard.”

16 YEARS!!  A similar time to Joseph imprisonment.

I discovered WHAT I AM HERE FOR.  I discovered that I AM Loved.

Lord for everyone who reads this may you give them a scripture – a life scripture.  Help everyone to discover the meaning of their lives along their journey.  Reveal it to them we pray.

Written by Ps. Sue Botta

1) Everything on earth has its own time and its own season. 2) And I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns.

Christian discipleship and growth is an interesting thing. I actually have to remind myself that I am in God’s hands, which means I’m in His timing and following His lead. Often it’s seems that I like to disciple myself – that I think I know what I should focus on or fix or improve in my life.  I want to concentrate on getting it right, the first time. But this is a hard pace to keep and wears me out.

Thankfully, this is not what God asks of me. Jesus invites us on the path of discipleship and growth with Him: “walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace” (Matt 11:29 Msg). This means I don’t have to race ahead (forcing growth) nor lag behind (resisting growth) – instead Jesus wants me to live and learn and grow and develop according to His timetable, at His unforced gracious pace.

Holy Spirit help me to walk in step with Jesus. Help me to remember the best pace and place is right by His side, following Him through the seasons of life.

Written by Gab Martin

Happy is the man who doesn’t give in and do wrong when he is tempted, for afterwards he will get as his reward the crown of life that God has promised those who love him.

Temptations and trials, they are part of our human existence. We all have them but rather them being situations that make life difficult for us or at best annoying, James 1:12 tells us that enduring them will ultimately give us life.

As a young Christian I knew exactly what my temptations were and I didn’t always succeed in resisting or overcoming them.  Looking back now I can see that as I persisted in hanging onto Jesus, choosing to stay connected to Him, His word & His people, refining came, and through that process the temptations diminished and new life took over. In the process of persisting and enduring I know my thinking, speech and actions have all become more Christ centred, and continue to do so, as I grow in likeness to Him.

Temptations and trails grow us in one of two ways. They will either grow us in our dependence on Jesus with His grace to endure and the freedom that comes or they will grow us away from Jesus putting a wedge in our relationship with Him, they won’t lead to life but continued bondage & separation.  I choose freedom.

Lord Jesus, today I pray for continued endurance, that I will never give up on the life that you have promised me and the freedom you bring.  This is a scary prayer I know, but continue to refine me.  Amen

Written by Suzie Hodgson

1) Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ 2) Now I’m turning you over to God, our marvelous God whose gracious Word can make you into what he wants you to be and give you everything you could possibly need in this community of holy friends.

When I think of transformation in the Bible I think of stories like that of Zacchaeus (Luke 19), who after an encounter with Jesus went from greedy thief to insanely generous. I think of Paul (Acts 9) who after an encounter with Jesus went from murdering Christians to building the church. When I think of my own transformation though it can seem far less tangible. Some days I feel like I’m growing, others I feel like I’m stuck in a vortex of making the same mistakes again and again.

I believe that one of the best signs of being filled with the Holy Spirit is growth. Our God is alive and at work, so if He is in us He will be transforming us, and His transformation is to make us more and more like Jesus. Sometimes that transformation will be obvious to us and to others, like a newly planted herb. Other times though it might be less obvious, like a big tree that grows almost imperceptibly from year to year.

The only way to be sure that I’m more like Jesus in one year than I am today is to ‘abide in His word’ (John 8:31-32). Ensure that the loudest, most consistent voice in my life is the voice of God. This comes through spending time reading His word, talking with Him about it, listening to Him. It also comes by remaining in the ‘community of holy friends’, people who speak God’s truth and spur me on to become more like Jesus.

Dear God thank you that your Bible is truth I can trust. Help me to rely on it to sustain and grow me, just as I do food.

Written by Rhiannon Mellor

1) God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. 2) We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created.

I love that God doesn’t make mistakes, he has, through Jesus chosen us to be in His family.  There is no mistake.  We see the original purpose of the human design in the way that Jesus had relationship with the Father and lived on earth.  Jesus is who we look to in order to determine how we live our lives.  We place our eyes on the eternal nature of who He is and allow Him to lead us.  We, however, cannot do this without the Spirit.

We are created to be the hands and feet of Christ on this earth, to imitate him but we can only do this with a life surrendered and empowered by the Holy Spirit.   A life surrendered is a daily choice we make to lay down those things and fix our gaze on Christ.  What areas of your life do you need to ask the Holy Spirit’s power to help you be like Christ in today?

Heavenly Father, thank you that Jesus understands what it is to wrestle as we do.  Thank you for the model of how we are called to live that we find in Jesus.  Help us this week to continue to live a life surrendered and empowered by your Holy Spirit and that as we allow the Spirit of the Lord to work in us we become more and more like Christ.  We love you Jesus and ask you would have your way in our hearts.  Amen

Written by Ps. Annique Botta

God has done all this. He has restored our relationship with him through Christ, and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships.

As seasons change, as life comes and goes, and as we ourselves grow and evolve as people, our relationships with others change. Sometimes this is a good thing, and other times it is hurtful. It can be hard sometimes to recognise why relationships with people change, or try to determine the ‘how did we get here?’ in our relationships. There might be some relationships we think are not worth restoring, or aren’t worth our time, energy and effort to restore. 

However scripture tells us to make peace with everyone (Rom 12:18) as best we can. As I reflect on these passages today and this area of relationships, I am led to think ‘who do I need to restore relationships with?’  God restored His relationship with me through Jesus Christ, so who can I reach out to in my world? Who are those people who have hurt me, or I have hurt, and what can I do in my power to redeem that?

I pray that God would help you today to forgive broken relationships you may have, and I pray that you will find the strength, courage and willingness to bring restoration to those relationships if it’s possible to do so. You never know what might happen with God on your side. 

Written by Rachel Tomc

1) Each one of you is part of the body of Christ, and you were chosen to live together in peace. 2) How wonderful it is, how pleasant, for God's people to live together in harmony!

There’s a lot of fighting that goes on in the world, from kids fighting at school, to politicians fighting on TV, to countries physically fighting for life and death. Some people seem to have fighting in their blood, whilst others will avoid a fight at all costs – I fit in this second category! It might be an oversimplification, but I’d say that fighting seems to happen because of dislike and/or disagreement.

Yet God makes it clear that He doesn’t want His people to be known as those who fight with each other. In Col 3:15, Paul encourages the church that they’re called to live in peace! And in Ps 133 we find an exhortation for us to live together in harmony. This all points to the reality that God’s design is for people to get along, to see past differences, to forgive, to empathise, and ultimately to live in peace. As the church we are to champion this reality, demonstrating to those around us what living in peace and harmony looks like. This means we should live lives of genuinely caring for one another, of going deeper in our conversations, of letting others in to our lives, of speaking well of each other, of giving up our own desires for the good of others, and of bearing one another’s burdens. Is this not what Jesus demonstrates to us?

Jesus, thank You that Your Kingdom is a kingdom of peace and harmony. Thank You for showing us how powerful Your perfect love is in overcoming disharmony and disagreement. Help us as Your body to live in peace and to truly love one another, and in doing so, glorify You! Amen.

Written by Ps. Matt Samperi

1) So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. 2) And love means living the way God commanded us to live. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is this: Live a life of love.

These 2 verses have a lot to say about love. No matter what I say, believe or do, I’m bankrupt without love. I looked up ‘bankrupt’ and it means “completely lacking, impoverished or depleted.” So everything I do and everything I say is “completely lacking” and “impoverished” unless I do it or speak it in love, even if what I am doing is a good thing. For example – it is good to give to others who may be in need, but if I do it resentfully, or even just dutifully, without giving in love, my actions are as poverty-stricken as their wallet may be! Doing and saying everything in love is a hard ask! I know that I fail in this many times each day. Sometimes I act selfishly, sometimes I act in anger or jealousy, sometimes I just act mechanically, doing whatever seems to be the most efficient timewise, without taking the time to love.

What is the opposite of being bankrupt in love? The answer is in the second verse above. God commands us to live a life of love. That means choosing to love in everything we do and say, not just when we feel warm towards others. In fact, we are showing more love if we choose to act lovingly when we don’t feel like it, than when we do. How do I do this? I think it starts with loving God and asking him to give us his everlasting and complete love for others. It is making a commitment every day to look for opportunities to love others and then choosing to act on them. How often do I think of doing something which I know will bless someone else, but then run out of time (not prioritise it) or not bother (act selfishly)?

Heavenly Father, thank you for your absolute and complete love for each one of us. Please help me to follow you – to see the opportunities you give me to show love to others, and to take them. Please work in me Holy Spirit, so I can grow in knowledge and depth of love.

Written by Megan Cornell

The Lord has hidden himself from his people, but I trust him and place my hope in him.

We live in a world where we desire things to happen straight away, in the here and now. How many times do we get frustrated when Netflix won’t download straight away, or we have to wait 3-5 days for our online shopping to arrive? Our sense of satisfaction in things can be so dependent on our own timing and desired outworking.     

As I reflect on the mysteries of God, my mind is opened to how large He is. Our human minds can’t really fully comprehend His grandeur and sovereignty, and therefore it can be hard to see how He is working in our lives when things don’t pan out ‘our way’. But in thinking about Isaiah 8, Isaiah can’t see God clearly yet his trust and faith in God is strong. It can be easier to trust God when He’s working the way we want, but when His timing doesn’t align with ours, that’s when we need our hope and trust in Him to rise.

Lord God, I thank You that even when I don’t see it, You’re working. Please help me to stay focussed on you today. Give me the eyes to see what You’re doing in my life, and an increase in faith in You no matter what my circumstances look like. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.   

Written by Ps. Laura Samperi

1) …he offers his friendship to the godly. 2) Come close to God, and God will come close to you.

I desperately want to be loved! There we go, I’ve said it! But it is a need I believe every single one of us can relate to. This is a need that can drive me to the worst behaviours – attention-seeking, self-absorption, manipulation… the list goes on. The truth is, me being loved is very difficult to control because I cannot control the way others respond to me. And when I try to control the way others respond to me, I end up driving others away.

That is why James 4:8 contains one of the greatest securities imaginable.

“Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you.”

I never have to fear God’s response to me, he deeply loves me and I am as close to God as I want to be. I do not need to manipulate him, or be someone other than I am. There is one thing required to be close to God – to want to be close to God!

Dear Lord, I can chase love all over the world, but there is one love that will satisfy me… and I have as much of it as I want to have. Teach my heart not to wander but to earnestly draw near to you. You never disappoint.’

Written by Andrew Mellor