Of late, I've been thinking a lot about what it means that as a household committed to serving the Lord, the Linos are a Great Commission family. To fuel my fire in this arena, the Lord ordained that I would reconnect with a college friend over this summer who works for a large oil company and is getting transferred to Eastern Europe. He shared the news with me over chicken sandwiches and iced tea like we were talking about going to a football game. What blew me away was that here was an all-American guy, a rising go-getter in corporate America, married to an all-American lady, with an all-American child, leaving behind their entire support network of family and friends to live on another continent, and they immediately see it from the perspective of being sent by Christ as missionaries. That is what I call a Great Commission family who is living inside of their commission. This is what has been thinking about my family living inside our commission.
Each morning my family is together and we review everyone's schedule and assignments for the day, we talk about family things, and we just hang out together as a family enjoying one another's company. Take this morning, everyone was ready 30 minutes before it was time to leave (yes, I know, the Linos are weird) so the six of us watched part of the movie, Black Beauty. On the way out the house, I like to make a quick comment about how we are all going in our different directions today, but that Lord willing we'll all be back together again around the dinner table in the evening.
And then the Linos split up in all directions--school, work, play groups, grocery stores, public libraries, various ministries and meetings, etc. We are all over the place hopefully living out our lives--verbally and non verbally, for the glory of Jesus Christ. On the way to school, I try to find some way to frame the day for Colt and Cam in light of Jesus Christ. We must see our day in light of the person of Christ and His agenda for humanity and the Linos. When we leave the house, we are on mission.
And then at the end of the day, the Linos all come home in ones and twos and we are together again around the dinner table and it almost always happens that we go around the table and everybody reports in on their day in varying degrees of detail. Nicole and I give 10,000 foot views of our days. Colton will tell you anything you want to know--but you have to ask lots of questions to prompt him. Campbell gives up nothing. She is already qualified to work for the CIA. Her day is highly confidential and when she does give something up, it's because she is working an angle that you don't figure out until it's too late. Cassidy usually only gets around to telling us one little thing from her day because she describes it in such detail that by the time she's finished she has talked longer than the rest of us combined--her future husband better have the patience of Job. And believe it or not, Chloe will get into it. When we ask her about her day she immediately starts gurgling and gesturing with her hands!
I love that about my family--we are together in the morning before we go out for the day, hopefully we live on mission for Christ, and then we come back together in the evening and recap our days in order to love each other, encourage each other, affirm each other, take advantage of teaching moments to reinforce key principles, and frame the day's experiences in light of God's Word.
According to the Great Commission, as Christ followers, Nicole and I have already been commissioned by Jesus Christ as missionaries. Right now He has us based out of Houston, but what if in five years He surprised us and relocated our base to Madison, Wisconsin, or Hungary? We would be no more commissioned as missionaries than we are right now. So, I and my family ought to live inside our commission every single day.
Could you imagine a commissioned officer in the army waking up each morning and living outside his commission? As Christ commissioned missionaries, I pray the Linos live inside our commission every day; that we would truly be a Great Commission family who has as it's purpose the making of disciples for the glory of God.
Each morning my family is together and we review everyone's schedule and assignments for the day, we talk about family things, and we just hang out together as a family enjoying one another's company. Take this morning, everyone was ready 30 minutes before it was time to leave (yes, I know, the Linos are weird) so the six of us watched part of the movie, Black Beauty. On the way out the house, I like to make a quick comment about how we are all going in our different directions today, but that Lord willing we'll all be back together again around the dinner table in the evening.
And then the Linos split up in all directions--school, work, play groups, grocery stores, public libraries, various ministries and meetings, etc. We are all over the place hopefully living out our lives--verbally and non verbally, for the glory of Jesus Christ. On the way to school, I try to find some way to frame the day for Colt and Cam in light of Jesus Christ. We must see our day in light of the person of Christ and His agenda for humanity and the Linos. When we leave the house, we are on mission.
And then at the end of the day, the Linos all come home in ones and twos and we are together again around the dinner table and it almost always happens that we go around the table and everybody reports in on their day in varying degrees of detail. Nicole and I give 10,000 foot views of our days. Colton will tell you anything you want to know--but you have to ask lots of questions to prompt him. Campbell gives up nothing. She is already qualified to work for the CIA. Her day is highly confidential and when she does give something up, it's because she is working an angle that you don't figure out until it's too late. Cassidy usually only gets around to telling us one little thing from her day because she describes it in such detail that by the time she's finished she has talked longer than the rest of us combined--her future husband better have the patience of Job. And believe it or not, Chloe will get into it. When we ask her about her day she immediately starts gurgling and gesturing with her hands!
I love that about my family--we are together in the morning before we go out for the day, hopefully we live on mission for Christ, and then we come back together in the evening and recap our days in order to love each other, encourage each other, affirm each other, take advantage of teaching moments to reinforce key principles, and frame the day's experiences in light of God's Word.
According to the Great Commission, as Christ followers, Nicole and I have already been commissioned by Jesus Christ as missionaries. Right now He has us based out of Houston, but what if in five years He surprised us and relocated our base to Madison, Wisconsin, or Hungary? We would be no more commissioned as missionaries than we are right now. So, I and my family ought to live inside our commission every single day.
Could you imagine a commissioned officer in the army waking up each morning and living outside his commission? As Christ commissioned missionaries, I pray the Linos live inside our commission every day; that we would truly be a Great Commission family who has as it's purpose the making of disciples for the glory of God.
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