Month: January 2024

To take this idea that God is our refuge, let’s read Psalm 5:11-12 which says, ” Let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your Name may rejoice in You. For surely, O Lord, You bless the righteous; You surround them with Your favor as with a shield.” Both these Scriptures depict God as our island hideaway where danger is kept far off shore. But both also talk about songs of joy & deliverance, which translated are more shouts of victory. Troubles will continue to invade our lives…there’s no getting around it. But God promises protection, security, and help during those harrowing times…allowing us to rejoice in victory over them. 

Mother Teresa once said, ” I pray that you will understand the words of Jesus, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.'(John 15:12) Ask yourself, ‘How has He loved me? Do I really love others in the same way?’ Unless this love is among us, we can kill ourselves with work and it will only be work, not love. Work without love is slavery.” When Jesus told His disciples to love one another it really wasn’t a new commandment…in Leviticus 19:18 they were told to “Love your neighbor as yourself”, but here Jesus changes the wording from “neighbor” to “one another” and from “as yourself” to “as I have loved you.” So by changing the wording, Jesus put the focus on our need to pattern our lives after His sacrificial love for us. This takes examining our own lives and thinking about the many ways God has loved us… and then emulating that same grace, mercy, and love to everyone we come in contact with daily. The greatest model we have before us to follow is the life of Jesus…serving as and most worthy of imitation in our life.

When Jesus taught He never used idle words or offhand remarks…every word and phrase that He used held great importance. In this discourse, He was teaching about His Second Coming…that it would not only be unmistakable to all, but also sudden and totally unexpected, with no window of opportunity for last minute repentance. In His reference to Lot’s wife, we need to go back to Genesis 19:1-29 and the story of how Sodom & Gomorrah were reduced to ashes by God’s righteous judgment. Ezekiel 16:49-52 tells us that Sodom was not only known for its homosexuality & sexual violence but as a very affluent city, the people were overfed, arrogant, and indifferent to the poor and needy. This is where we find Lot & his family living…the righteous living among these heinous transgressions…Lot’s soul tormented by what he heard & saw everyday. But Lot was also very wealthy and with great status so the idea of leaving everything behind caused him to be reluctant. But the two angels commanded they leave with this warning, “Flee and don’t look back.” But as the story goes, Lot’s wife did look back longingly at all she once had and she became a pillar of salt. So going back to Jesus’ teaching, why did He use her as an example? What happened to Lot’s wife is a sobering lesson about disobedience, hesitation, and looking back on things (even very good things) that God has very pointedly told you to leave behind.  

Luke 8:1-3 gives us insight into the women, both named like Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and Salome, and other unnamed ladies that accompanied Jesus and His disciples as they traveled. They were a loyal group that had been cured of evil spirits & diseases and desired to support Jesus out of their private means of money & provisions…playing a very pivotal role in the early Church…funding missionary efforts & opening up their homes as places Jesus could teach. But what was so amazing about this was that in the day Rabbis flatly refused to teach women, so Jesus’ acceptance of them into His group of disciples and followers was highly unusual and unheard of. Just think, these ladies practiced hospitality as they served and all the while learned from the Master Himself as they witnessed miracles and listened and soaked in His teachings…so in a way they did both, “Follow Me.” and later after Jesus’ resurrection they were more than equipped to, “Go Home and Teach.”

In this account from Luke 18:35-43 we see a blind beggar receiving his sight from Jesus…and within it we see both “Go home and tell” and “Follow Me”. Jesus is on the road where the blind man is begging. The man hears the approaching commotion and is told by the crowd that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. Now right off the bat we see the crowd not giving Jesus honor due but rather using a title that Nathaniel once used, “How can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46) But the blind man yells out something entirely different and unexpected. ”Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The blind man gave Jesus a Messianic title used by Gabriel to Mary and grounded in God’s promise to King David…and in doing so fully expected the Messiah to exceed his ancestor King David’s power & authority and heal him. (Isaiah 42:6-7) And it’s because of this blind man’s faith the gift of sight was given…or it could also be translated, “Your faith has saved you.” This poor beggar now has his sight and new purpose in life…as he joyfully follows his Savior, while the townspeople are awestruck at the beggar they passed everyday who is now able to see…and they all end up praising God.

The disciples weren’t the only people Jesus said, “Follow Me” to. In Luke 9:57-62 we see the account of three unnamed men that when confronted with the radical commitment Jesus demanded of them had second thoughts. The first impulsively blurted out to Jesus, “I will follow You wherever You go.” But Jesus then reminded him that he would be as I Peter 2:11 describes, an ”alien & a stranger in the world” with no real home. The second man Jesus called to “Follow Me.” but he made excuses of why he couldn’t…putting his priorities first… not realizing that the demands of the Kingdom of God override all earthly loyalties. Finally the third man said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family.” Again this man was putting stipulations & conditions on him following Jesus. But when Jesus says to you, “Follow Me.” He doesn’t mean when you feel like it or when it’s convenient …He rather demands from you there be no delaying, waffling, excuse making, or bargaining.

In this very familiar story of Jesus and the woman at the well, we see another instance that “Go home and tell” had a tremendous impact on the people who knew her. After His intimate conversation with her, the disciples returned with food, and while they were talking with Jesus the woman slipped off unable to contain her new found joy any longer. Once in town she said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” Now this statement probably piqued the curiosity of many…but what drew the most townspeople to Jesus was the drastic change in this woman’s countenance…her facial expression now radiating joy & peace unlike anything they had ever previously seen. Before them was a truly changed woman, no longer slinking in the shadows…full of anger, bitterness, & hostility. A harsh woman that nobody wanted to deal with in the marketplace…always walking around with a chip on her shoulder & an “everybody’s done me wrong” attitude. No, instead here was a gentle kindly woman with love in her eyes beckoning them to, Come and see for yourselves that you too might receive the Messiah.

The rich young man was one of the few that Jesus beckoned to “Follow Me” rather than “Go home and tell.” When Jesus demanded the young man to liquidate all his business dealings and wealth, He already knew what the man’s decision would be. But what if this rich young man had realized that his love of money was mightier than his love of God? And what if he walked into his workplace a changed person to witness personally about Jesus? Do you know that where you’re working right now is exactly where God wants you, and thus you have the responsibility to demonstrate the love of God? But also realize that all the cute Christian plaques & doodads in your cubicle make no difference or will ever withstand your coworker’s scrutiny if you are continually complaining, whining, and arguing. At work you can set an example everyday for others…but it’s up to you whether it’s a good example or a bad one.

Just as yesterday when Jesus told the demon possessed man that he needed to go home rather than follow Him, today we’ll look at a few more examples. In Mark 2 we see Jesus teaching, when men lower a paralytic through the roof. Jesus heals the man and then says to him, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” (Mark 2:11) Now we don’t know how long this man had been disabled…but long enough for his loyal friends to make the desperate & last ditch attempt to insure his healing. But why did Jesus specifically tell him to go home, and oh by the way, take your mat with you? That mat not only represented the man’s testimony, but it was a undeniable reminder of who he was before Jesus spoke healing into him. And no family, friend, or neighbor could refute it. Later in Acts 9: 34-35 we see the Apostle Peter in a similar situation. In his travels Peter came upon Aeneas, a paralytic bedridden for eight years and said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat. Immediately Aeneas got up. All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.” Again this healed man went home dragging his testimony behind him…and all the people in the area were amazed at this dramatic transformation of someone they had known for years…and placed their trust in Jesus.

Jesus could of allowed this man to follow Him, but Jesus also knew the greatest impact of his healing & testimony would be among the people who knew him the best. That’s because this man had been exiled due to his violent & self-destructive behaviors…left to live among the tombs as a mentally ill outcast. So you can only imagine how shocked & amazed the townspeople were when they saw him in his right mind and listened to his testimony of what this man called Jesus had done for him. There was no denying that this was the very creepy man living in the cemetery…and now here he stood, publicly proclaiming he had been totally healed by Jesus. Many of us often dream of a national or international ministry…when God instead is telling us to “Go home and tell.”  Sure, that man might of won a few souls if he had accompanied Jesus…but just think of the impression & influence he made on his friends, family, and neighbors who knew him before he met Jesus that day.