29: 50 Days of 3:16

Jesus now baptised, has begun his earthly ministry. His next task was to assemble a team of disciples to assist him in the mission. We don’t see Jesus signing up on Linkedin or starting a recruiting drive. He did not go to the temple and try to recruit the best and the brightest religious minds. We see Jesus travelling the countryside looking for those who could relate to the people that needed to meet Jesus the most.

 

These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter),

Mark 3:16

 

Jesus found men right where they were in their work environments. He requested that they just stop what they are doing and to follow him. This was a radical request, there must have been some authority in Jesus’ voice, or compassion, whatever it was it drew these twelve men to devote their lives to a cause they really knew nothing about. They left their livelihood behind trusting a man whom they did not know. Jesus never promised them fame, fortune or anything like that, if you recall he told Simon if he followed him that he would make him a fisher of men. No money in that, yet Simon saw something in Jesus character and his offer that was too good to pass up.

 

There are some who put the disciples on a pedestal and think that they had it all together. Maybe they try to compare themselves and never measure up. But the disciples were just like us, they had their failures, doubts, fears. They were not perfect by any standard. They would fight amongst themselves about which of them was the best. When trouble fell on Jesus they scattered. Some even doubted Jesus had risen from the dead. Even one betrayed him. So why did Jesus surround himself with twelve flawed people? I believe he did so to show future generations that he uses everyone to fulfil the mission. We see more flawed people being used in amazing ways from all sorts of backgrounds. Saul a religious zealot bound to destroy every believer for their faith met Jesus and he became one of the powerhouses of the faith. Timothy was a kid, but he impacted the church. Many more are layered throughout the NT. The disciples went on to change the known world with the message of salvation, each suffering for it yet never giving in to their fears of death.

 

So what does the fact Jesus found twelve disciples mean to us today? I feel it is a good example of how we need to surround ourselves with those who are on the same mission. Working together we can make an impact in our world, country, region, community and families. We were never meant to be solo believers. It may be hard to find a group of twelve people that you would call your core group of faith, but a church provides an opportunity to find a small group of believers who will stand by you in the mission. If you have given your heart to Jesus, I wonder if you have plugged into a network of believers and are working to grow in your faith. This will guide you in the mission of reaching the lost.

 

Father, thank you for the example of friendship we see with the disciples and Jesus. His choice was ordinary people with no extraordinary giftings, just those willing to follow and believed in the mission.  We often decided who we will share the faith with on our outward views, I pray that we will look past the outward and see that there are people all around who need to meet with Jesus. They may look tough, homely, tattooed, angry, dirty, smelly, professional, or they have it all together, remind us that they still need you. Give us wisdom in each situation to be effective in sharing your love with them. Use me to change my world. Amen

Day 47: 50 Days of Change

“Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.”‭‭1 John‬ ‭5:21‬ ‭NLT‬‬

It is hard to fathom why one who has a relationship with God would replace him with something else. But we hear of believers, elders and even leaders walking away from him all the time. One might make the assumption that these believers never truly believed, as some have the notion that salvation cannot be discarded. What has truly happened is these folks have given up their relationship. Somewhere along the line sin got a hold inside and slowly but surely took them down a path away from God. 

God didn’t abandon them, he didn’t leave them, but at some point they left him. They pushed aside the truth and the counsel of the Holy Spirit for an idea that what te wanted was right and for them. One of the startiling things that I see is leaders who drop out of leadership not only abandoning their church but in many case leaving their spouses. This is so heartbreaking as it can be a domino effect on those who admire and have been mentored by these leaders. They should know better but we don’t know what is going on in their lives and hearts.

This is where we as believers are failing each other. If we were more involved in each other’s lives personally we would become more intune to our brothers and sisters needs and troubles. Maybe we would be able to see things in the early stages and cut them off before they decide to walk away from God completely. It would be so much easier if we knew what was going to happen with a time machine, but we pray and hope that the issues we resolve early will allievate any big mistakes down the road. Ultimatly it is between the person and God, but he can and will use us to build each other up, like iron sharpening iron. 

This could be you, you maybe testing the waters of sin and not sure where the undertow is. But if your testing one day it will pull you under. I beg of you ask for help, cry out to God to pull you out now, send brothers and sisters of the faith to help you through this time of confusion. We need to ask for help, push past our pride, se that we are failing and need assistance. What we do with our lives as believers does not only affect us. It affect all around us, don’t be fooled that it’s my life and what I do doesn’t affect others.

Father, if anyone reading this is tempting their relationship with you by flirting with sin, I pray that right now you will show them the consiquences of their actions. Holy Spirit surround them with believers who will hold them accountable in love, building them up and loving them. It is not to late for them to cry out for forgiveness and change their behaviour, let them se that their actions affect others. God we ask that we will be used by you to reach others who may not know you at all or maybe did but have replaced you with something else. Give us the words to speak and wisdom to share with them your love. They matter you you God so they matter to us, amen. 

Day 33: 50 Days of Change

“And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame.”‭‭1 John‬ ‭2:28‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus himself claimed that there will come a day where he will return and people will come up crying Lord Lord, and he will turn them away say ‘ I do not know you’. How can this be? Take this example, if a father of mother abandons their child after birth, they have taken the role but the have decided not to fulfilled the role as expected. 30 years down the road they show up in the child who is now an adult and expect to be accepted as the father or mother. Maybe they returned because they learned of their child’s riches or fame and when arrive the child will most likely say who are you. 

The role of parents is to be a role model to your children, we accept this role when a child is brought into this world. We don’t always know how to handle it but learn grow and push forward in parenting. As a believer we need to continually grow, connect with God. If we accept a life in Jesus yet never do anything to connect with him or live in fellowship with him, why then should we expect blessings and rewards. 

We can’t live our lives with a set it and forget it attitude. Or accept him and forget him. We are called to so much more. Repentance is all about doing a 180 in our lives. We don’t need to change to accept Christ into our lives, he accepts us as we are. After we need to understand what it means to have a relationship with him. This involves the Holy Spirt showing us areas in our lives that are not beneficial and harmful to us. We connect by praying, reading the word of God, meeting with fellow believers. If we accept Jesus and carry on with our normal lives changing nothing and don’t work towards changing we may be the person shrinking back in shame.

Father, today I want to thank you for the opertunity to fellowship with you, to be able to connect with you is incredible. I do not want to waste another day, let me be connected with you in all I do. Show me ways to reach this world so others can come to experience this relationship and love that you desire to share with them. They matter to you God so they should matter to us. Amen

Day 26: 50 Days of Change

“I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.”‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1:9-10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

There is a subject of Christianity that believes that once you have accepted Jesus Christ as your saviour it doesn’t matter what you do after that because he has forgiven your past, present and future sins. They have been told the salvation message, they quickly accepted and went on with their lives. A vast majority of Christians are missing a vitally important part of their faith, discipleship.

The church is to blame for this, as for a few generations we have neglected this aspect and we were so focused on saves we forgot about foundation. Don’t get me wrong, leading people to Jesus is the mission, but only part one of the mission, part two is to disciple them so they can go and do the same. Now we are playing catch up, using Christians who have never been disciples to disciple, others. As a follower of Christ we must keep growing in our knowledge and understanding of the faith. This will strengthen us as mentors to the babes in the faith.

There are many teachers out there these days, radio, books, tv, internet even blogs like this one. If you take everything yo read at face value and as 100% truth then you are going to run into issues. Not all teaching is truth. It is mans opinions and interputation of what it means to follow Christ. So how then do we evaluate what we are taking in? First you must get it though scripture, is what being said match up with what Jesus taught. Second find a group of believers who you can bring these opinions to, discuss them and see what they think of the teachings. Third you can pray about it and ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom and discernment. The last thing you want to be doing is spreading untruth to those you are discipling.

Are you mentoring someone? Do you have a mentor of your own? Are you growing in knowledge in the faith or have you locked yourself into your beliefs? There are times where we have been taught untruths and kept them close to our hearts as truths. To rip these off is hard, but they if not corrected can damage future believers.

Father, I pray you love will overflow more and more. We want to share your love with those around us that are hurting and need to experience you. Holy Spirit give us wisdom and discernment when it comes to the media we input into our lives. Show us what is truth and what is untruth. If we have believed a lie reveal it to us and show us the truth. Thank you for your sacrifice on the cross. We want to tell others about you cause they matter to you, so they matter to us. Amen