Focus 2020 – The Great Commission: Perspectives from LeadersSample

Our Calling 

Bible passage: Jesus on the road to Emmaus - Luke 24:13–32 

Devotional: 

The months of March, April, May, and early June of 2020 were challenging times for every one of us. We worked under government-enforced “stay at home” and “lockdown” restrictions. Not just in just one country but globally! Some countries, such as Singapore, were ‘stay at home’ unless you needed groceries, and only one member of the family could shop.  

On Cyprus, one would text the authorities to obtain a permit number that would admit you to buy groceries or other products, if you didn’t have the permit you could be arrested. Other places were on extreme lockdown with arrests and stiff fines for those whom law enforcement officers deemed non-essential business activity. 

Israel, when Jesus came to earth, was an environment in which the Romans enforced rigid laws of social interaction. Jesus understands what it is to live in an oppressive environment. He knows what it is to be marginalized. He knows what it is to live in strict social governance.  

With this in mind, I was deeply impacted by the story of a nurse in New York City, who in tears, related, “In less than an hour, nine of my patients in my intensive care ward went ‘code blue’ or flat-lined!” Nine patients entered eternity as she watched! 

Jesus knows what it is to “flat-line.” He flat-lined for you and me and the world! That is what we are about: letting people know Jesus “flat-lined” so you and I and the world would not “flat-line” for eternity. That’s our calling: to let people know that Jesus died so that they could live with Him forever and to know Him intimately in this life as well. Jesus came back after “flat-lining!”  

I love the Emmaus Road story. 

A couple of Jesus’ friends were walking seven miles to the town of Emmaus. They talked about what had happened and the execution of Jesus. Another person joined them, Jesus, but they didn’t recognize Him. Jesus queried them about what was happening in the neighborhood. They were astonished that this stranger had not heard what had gone on. Then Jesus, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, interpreted the scriptures concerning himself. Still, not knowing it was Jesus, they invited him to dinner … and suddenly they knew who their guest really was. “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:13–32). 

Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, is making hearts burn today as we share His Good News on air, on phones, on computers, individually, and corporately. I sense it personally, in our parking lot talking to a neighbor who has never considered Jesus, who faces a very unsure future. Or to another neighbor who wants to begin to know Jesus on a deeper level. 

That is our calling!  

Quote: “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” 

Question: Do I bring burning to hearts as I encounter others during this unsettling time? 

Lauren Libby 

CEO, Trans World Radio