Sunday, April 8, 2007

The To-Do's of the Twelve

I've been listening to the New Testament while driving. I generally prefer to read, and am still doing that, but this has also been a good experience. We seem to hear things differently than we read them, so other perspectives become apparent.

Today, I heard something new in Matthew 10, which describes Jesus calling the twelve disciples to him, and sending them out with instructions. One sentence in particular caught my attention: "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons" (Matthew 10:8a). Then Jesus moves on to tell them about how to work the details of their journey. So many times I have read this and not really thought about it. But I imagine my leader sending me to fulfill a particular mission within a particular group, and inserting a sentence like that, and I wonder how I would respond. "Heal the sick? Got it. Raise the dead? Okay. Cleanse lepers and drive out demons? No problem." Somehow, that doesn't sound like a very natural response. It would take a lot of faith to step out and start acting on orders like that.

And so, for that step of faith, I admire the disciples.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The faith of the apostles in this situaton is amazing. The action that I have more admiration for thier willingess to just "GO" in that faith.

How many of us today are willing to "GO". To allow ourselves to be used by God for what ever purpose He sees fit. We may not be able to see the huge mircles that the apostles did but that is when we have to realize that planting a seed is just as much the miracle as any other described in this passage. The door has been opened for the Holy Spirit to move in the people we have been used to plant a seed in.

Again I believe that the importance of this passage is that the Apostles just "GO" Are you willing to "GO" in faith. Be obedient and take the chance watch the miracle of God at work through you.