Scripture for the Week: Matthew 28:19-20

Introduction

For the next several weeks, I will post a section of Scripture for use primarily by Bethel’s Long Range Planning Team.  I pray this is helpful both to this team and anyone else who happens upon it.  I invite you to read the Bible verses for the week every day (there is a link to the Scripture in the title for this article).  You may choose to read this by yourself or with a friend our spouse.  We’re not reading strictly for information; we’re reading as a form of prayer.  This is a devotional technique called Lectio Divina – or praying the Scriptures.  You may also choose to journal your thoughts.  Journaling helps as you try to articulate what you’re thinking.  When you read back through what you wrote over the week, you may notice some themes and possibly some places where the Holy Spirit is urging you.  If you find that your curiosity is piqued and that you want to read on a particular topic or study the Scriptures further … by all means, follow that holy curiosity!

Devotion

Matthew 28:19-20 is the piece of Scripture known as the Great Commission and is used often as the “marching orders” of the church.  It is not the only place in the Bible where God commissions and sends people – consider Noah, Moses, Jonah, the prophets, the Israelites, the commissioning of the seventy, Paul, etc.  In your devotional time, consider questions like:

• Who does God call?  What kind of people?
• What does God call people to do (or not do)?
• Is it easy for those who hear and answer God’s call to respond?
• The Bible is full of people who have been commissioned and sent.  What does God’s commissioning and sending mean for us and for our congregation today?