by Diane Jackowski
Jesus begins a new phase of his ministry by multiplying his efforts. He’s not just going out to preach and teach the gospel; He now is sending out his apostles to preach about the kingdom of heaven. He tells them to go find places where they are welcome and if not, to shake off the dust and move on. There’s been a lot of talk around Suncrest about going out and being the light amoungst our friends, families, neighborhoods, workplaces and just in our lives in general... being the light and being used by God to do His work and to be different than the people of this world.
How many times have you tried that? It’s pretty dang hard. Well, at least it is for me because I like results! I’m in San Diego, California on vacation with my family right now and we’ve been visiting with old friends and co-workers of mine. It’s been a great time, but pretty disheartening with so many broken relationships, marriages, losses of jobs, and just brokenness in general. How come the world can’t see how different I am? Why aren’t they asking me? Can’t they see? I’m wondering how long before I should shake the dust off and move on from these relationships or if I should just stay and allow God to do the work through me? And then I remember it’s up to Him and to them to decide to see Christ’s redemptive mercy, grace and forgiveness. I love that!
So that means I am home free, right? Or am I? God has called each of us personally to keep pursuing Him and building a relationship with Him. Most likely, that means pursuing relationships with others and that requires action even with no results at times, or visible and tangible results. Ugh! So, then, I have to stop thinking about me and that’s so hard sometimes.
But getting back to our story for today, the apostles come back to Jesus to tell Him of what happened and then they retreated together. How cool would it be to be able to go back and retreat with Jesus and get His recommendations face to face? Of course, crowds followed and in the moment that his disciples doubted His great and amazing power, Jesus gets ready to do an incredible miracle. His apostles did the normal thing all of us would think to do... they suggested going back to the villages to find enough food for the 5000 people that had followed them to Bethsaida. But Jesus had other plans. He held up the fives loaves of bread and two fishes to heaven and BOOM! How much more proof do we need to know how much power Christ has and how much His power flows through us when we choose to follow Him daily? Through Him all things are possible and as long as I keep praying for the people in my life that don’t know Him and pursuing a relationship with them, then maybe their eyes will be open to knowing the Most High. Should I pray for results? Just kidding!
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