August 26

“He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation’.”   —MARK 16:15

David Livingstone, a pioneer missionary from Scotland, set out for Africa, and after not being heard from for six years, was assumed dead. A New York newspaper sent H.M. Stanley to look for him. In October 1871, he found Livingstone on the shores of what was then called Lake Tanganykia. As there were no other white people for miles around, Stanley greeted him with the famous line, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.”  In his journals, Stanley recorded: Livingstone asked me, “Tell me the news.”  “No, Dr.,” said I. “Read your letters from home first. You must be impatient for them.” “No, tell me the news,” Livingstone replied. “How is the world getting on?”

Stanley caught Livingstone up on many historical events, including the completion of the Great Pacific Railroad, President Grant’s election, the invention of the electric cable and the Spanish revolution. “Even as I told Livingstone all of this, he became a changed man,” Stanley writes. “Fresh tides of vitality rushed to him and his haggard face simply shone with the glow of enthusiasm. Livingstone repeated again and again, ‘You have brought me new life’.” An Australian, F.W. Boreham, wrote about this meeting and stated, “It meant that a heart of a man cries out for the whole world, and it is starved if you confine it to the African forest or the Australian bush. Stanley had poured the world into the empty soul of Livingstone, and every fibre of his being tingled with new animation and fresh energy.” 

One of the things God instilled in our hearts is a conscious awareness of the world. It’s placed in our hearts because it is in God’s heart, and it is the purpose of Jesus Christ that we love the world, be concerned about it, and become the vessels He uses to reach the world. Do we identify with Dr. Livingstone’s passion? Are we motivated to reach out to the world?

As Christians, it is our responsibility to go into all the world to make disciples, but making disciples isn’t about geography. In fact, the only people God takes to serve around the world are people who have been serving Him at home. Every Christian needs to ask: Where in my world is God taking me? To whom is God leading me? Whether at home or abroad, going into all the world is about delivering the Gospel of Jesus Christ wherever God has placed us… in our cities, towns, communities and among family, friends and co-workers. And when we do, we’ll discover there is nothing more exciting than realizing our lives have been caught up in the purposes of Jesus Christ.

PRAYER: Dear Father, wherever I am placed, Lord, I know it is by your hand, and I ask that You give me many opportunities of sharing the Gospel with others.

TO REFLECT UPON: Am I alert to opportunities where God has placed me to share the Gospel with others?