What Are We Holding On To?

Mark 6:7-9 -

"And He called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; and commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse; but be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats."

Being followers of Christ, whether it be at home or out in a foreign country, we know that we are all called to die to our selfish needs and be like Christ to others. While this passage speaks to me during my circumstances of being on a small team sent out from a bigger team onto a foreign mission field, this passage also applies to couples, families, kids in highschool; any Christians life really, considering that darkness is all around us, we are called to constantly be lights in this world. Here Chirst sends out His disciples in I guess we can call it, small groups. Before sending them out, He gives them power over the unclean spirits. Here we see that when we are going out into this world we need walk in the power of Chirst. We need to be faithful to recieve His power, that He wants to bestow upon us. If we know the fact that with Chirst all things are possible, then we should understand that without Christ, nothing is possible. While there are "good" people in this world, who love others, who go out and do volunteer work at hospitals and retirement homes, who take care of the homeless and the orphans, if they are not doing it for Christ, it will amount to nothing at the end of their lives. Continueing on in this passage, after He gives them His power, He tells them that they should take nothing with them but a staff and sandals and the clothes on their backs. After I read this, I quickly remembered that our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He tells them to keep a staff on them; do we know anyone who has used a staff because the Lord told them to? Here Christ is telling them what they need; shirt, pants sandals, staff and Him. God did amaizing things through men in the Old Testiment, and while I don't want to make extreme assumtions, I feel like most of these men had clothes, a staff, and God. Now I'm not saying that we need to all go out and buy staffs, but the picture here is very clear to me that all we need to serve Christ and to survive in this world is our clothes, our shoes our Lord, and what He has given us to use for His glory. While we all have spiritual gifts, we all have phyiscal gifts that we can use every day to bring glory to our Father, thats why He gave us these gifts in the first place. Like I said before, Our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomrrow, so if He told Joshua that He has given him every place that the sole of his foot will tread upon, and He has told us to not worry about what we will eat or wear because He feeds the foul of the air and He clothes the grass of the field, He will take care of us if we would allow Him to.

I will pray in the mornings that I will use the gifts God has given me to the fullest of my abilities!

The Lord Appoints Posistions In Ministry

Mark 5:19 & 43-           
        

          "Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, "Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee"; And He charged       them straitly that no man should know it..."

As we all probably know, or at least can tell, there are many different roles or aspects that take part in the ministry. One thing that I, personally, have always dealt with, was the issue with asking God, "Why is that person in that posistion," or "Why am I not doing that?" When I was in, I believe, 10th grade, the youth pastor who had been teaching the newly developed middleschool/highschool aged teens, stepped down from his postition. I still have no idea why he stepped down, perhaps because he had been fed up with our immaturity, but when he stepped down, the senor pastors 19 year old son began to take over. Now, while I didn't know him personally, I knew enough about him to know that I didn't like him, and to know that when he and my older brother where in school together, he wasn't exactly the nicest kid around. Now, I am supposed to look up and respect this person who, in my mind, didn't have the best reprutation? wrong. At least thats what I told myself. Honestly, while he was still a student in the youth group I couldn't stand this kid. He was always so prideful in everything we seemed to do. The first year the youth group performed at our Chirstmas program, I couldn't stand how much this kid wanted to do everything up front on stage. He also became the worship leader, and once again I began to see this self centered attitude in the way he performed. One summer, the youth went to California for a Youth Camp. While there, he and I butted heads so much we could've given eachother comas; but it was probably after that year when I felt God tell me, "Jonathan, you know this to be true... that nobody wins with a headbutt." While that may sound a little silly, it made me ask, Why am I continuously butting heads with this guy? Why have I seemed to purposefully set it on my heart to do this? I needed a heart change. So I asked Him for it, and He gave it to me. Now, Nate has been leading our youth group for 3 or 4 years now, is married, and has done amazing things for our Church and our community, because he had listened to God. We don't know why God asks us to do some things. We don't know why He tells some to go and be a witness, and others to stay at home, but the truth is, we don't have to know. It's His plan and we need to obey whatever He tells us to do. He has something planned for everyone, so when He tells you to be a witness, be that witness for Him; and when He tells you to stay at home, you stay because He told you to.