 A friend gave me this poem one day on a particularly challenging day. I sometimes forget that God can use us to serve Him where ever we are. You go nowhere by accident! Remember, you go nowhere by accident. Where ever you go, God is sending you. Where ever you are, God has put you there. He has a purpose in your being there. Jesus Christ Who lives inside of you has Something He wants to do through you right where you are. Believe this and go in the grace and peace Of the Lord Jesus Christ to love and serve God and your fellow man now and forever more. Amen God put Paul in prison with Roman guards around him 24/7. He converted many of them to believe in Jesus as Savior. These same guards took the message of grace and peace to the other Roman soldiers. These same soldiers took the Good News to the whole Roman Empire.
Being in prison is not at the top of anyone's favorite place to go but being there brought Chuck Colson into God's kingdom. His influence brought about several ministries serving the needs of people in prison as well as their families. God puts people in the right place at the right time to bring about His plan. Esther, Ruth, Moses, etc, were all used in times of fear and trials to bring about the perfect plan of salvation to God's people. Without Joseph's transport to Egypt, his family would have starved. When you are in a place of tribulation, ask God for His plan. He doesn't always tell us what He has planned but you will always be used to glorify Him. We don't have to know what God has planned. We just need to be available and mostly willing to serve Him. Jonah wasn't all that willing but still brought salvation to Nineveh and the Assyrian nation. His love for all people can be extended to the world through us.
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John 17:2,3 For You have granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those You have given Him. Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent.  Throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, He preached that the kingdom of God is not a physical kingdom. It is a spiritual kingdom that thrives within us as we study and learn of Him. Jesus repeatedly reminded His disciples that He is the bread of life, the living water, the rock of salvation. The whole of our belief system rests not on what we do, it rests on what He has already done.
Psalms encourages us to study to show ourselves approved. We are also reminded that if we know the truth, the truth will set us free. Jesus is the truth. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is revealed from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. John tells us that Jesus did it all. John 1:1-3 tells us that He created the universe and all that it contains. Later in the chapter, John says that Jesus is the light. He came into the world but the world did not recognize Him. I have always been amazed that those that studied prophesy did not know Who He was. They couldn’t understand how He fit into their preconceived idea of Who He should be. The uneducated, the poor, those who were hungry for forgiveness and healing recognized Him and chose to follow Him, sometimes at the cost of their lives. They were not so blinded by things as were those who were ‘in the know’. Many sat at His feet and learned of Him. They heard the words of life. They heard the guiding wisdom in parables they understood. We are not as lucky in that we don’t understand a lot of the references because our culture is so different. But we have something they did not have. We have God’s Word in written form that we can pick up at any time. We can search for answers without fear of being arrested or imprisoned. We can still sit at His feet if we take the time to get to know the One Who has given us eternal life. It is simply a matter of being open to spending time in His presence. The song of praise to the Lord from Zechariah for his son, John the Baptist. Luke 1:76-79 “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him, to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”  When travelers in Israel would be caught on the road after dark, they were at high risk of thieves and, in our modern speech, getting mugged. There were no street lights to show the way and chase away shadows. They sometimes had no moonlight or stars to help. The roadways out of Jerusalem were in places very narrow with many caves and lots of places for thieves to hide. Waiting for the dawn to light the way could be a long scary experience.
Jesus was going to be that sun rising in a world filled with the darkness of sin. He would shine that light into the lives of the religious elite and the beggar in the streets and everyone in between. He would allow them to make their own choices whether to admit the sin in their lives or be offended and self-righteous. Jesus wept over Jerusalem when they rejected Him. Jesus rejoices, however, over us throughout the ages when we choose Him and are willing to be humbled by His gift of salvation. He is asking us to be that light to the world. He is asking us to go before Him and offer to the people in our lives the Light of the world. God’s word tells us that the angels rejoice when one sinner is brought to salvation. We will be given the crown of glory when we come into His presence at the final judgment. Whether we offer our daily lives as a witness to the mercy and grace of Jesus or if we verbally witness, whether we financially and prayerfully give to others who are in the midst of the battle, God honors our efforts. He sees our heart and motives and is blessed by our submission. He is joyfully waiting to tell us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Isaiah 61:1a The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, ..........  We all have our broken places. We all have areas of
pain that are buried deep so that we don't want to think about what hurts. Fractures in our hearts, spirits and bodies build walls that are hard to get around or over. The Lord has everything we need to heal those places. He has been bruised for our iniquities and by His strips, we are healed. He knows the pain and hurt and loneliness we feel for He has been there also. He hurts when we hurt and He grieves with us when life hands us losses that are more than we think we can handle. Some issues may not be healed in our lifetime, but we can learn and grow and be a witness to others of the Lord's great mercy and plan for us. Others will be watching the way we deal with everyday problems. Whether the problem is short term or long term, how we deal with the problems speaks in a loud voice to those around us. He has not given us an easy path. His disciples and prophets all lived a life of sacrifice and most died as martyrs for Him. They believed in the promise of His Word. He will not forsake us when we continue to live for Him despite the challenges that we face. We may be afflicted with financial disaster or life threatening disease or relational destruction in our lives. But the Lord has already lived through and dealt with these issues. He had no home during His ministry. His disciple denied Him and another betrayed him. He has borne our afflictions and will grieve with us but He will also stand with us through it all. He wants us to be open to allowing Him to help us heal our own broken places, despite the pain. Then we can help heal the broken places of the ones He sends to us. John 12:13, 17:18 Luke 9:1 …...."Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world". When Jesus had called the Twelve together, He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases.  The Jewish priests and rabbis would have followers that wanted to learn more of the Torah and the laws and rules they were to live by. They would learn from the ones they followed as they spent time in their company. We would call them interns or apprentices. As they became more experienced and knowledgeable, they would have greater responsibilities. They could become scribes (responsible for copying the scriptures and transcribing the rulings of the Sanhedrin, etc.). They could become messengers for the Sanhedrin. (They would be the ones in the crowds with Jesus and reporting back to their leaders.) Some of the highly educated messengers would have been the ones that challenged and tried to trap Jesus.
The designation of disciple means 'learner or student'. Apostle is derived from the Greek which means 'sent one'. They would not have authority, they would only deliver messages. They would have to rely on someone else to enforce the messages as needed. Jesus picked twelve ordinary men to be His 'sent ones' but He went beyond the regular apostles of the Jewish religion. He gave His apostles greater power and authority than the other apostles of the Jewish leadership. He gave them His power and authority to do the same miracles that He did. He even told them at one point that they would do greater things than what they saw Him do. The name "Shaliah" means sent one but it also means that anyone who holds that title also holds the authority of the one who sent them. They would not carry their own message. They would only carry the message of the one that sent them. When we accepted Jesus as our personal Savior, we became His Shaliah. We were given the power and authority that He gave the Twelve. He is sending us into all the world to deliver His message of grace and forgiveness. He is telling us to offer the world of darkness and pain a message of hope and healing. We are His Shaliah. We are to introduce Him to the world and the more we know of His message, the better we can share it with others. |
AuthorPlease join us as we grow in Christ through our weekly devotions, written by Catherine Donaldson 
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