Jesus Called You to be a Missionary (A Reflection on Mark 6:6-13)

“[Then] Jesus went to the villages around there, teaching the people. He called the twelve disciples together and sent them out two by two. He gave them authority over the evil spirits and ordered them, ‘Don’t take anything with you on the trip except a walking stick – no bread, no beggar’s bag, no money in your pockets. Wear sandals, but don’t carry extra shirt’” (Mark 6:6-9, GNB).

Previously Jesus was rejected in his hometown Nazareth. Hurt, but not giving up. So, he and the disciples went to the villages nearby to tell people who want to receive the good news about the Kingdom of God and to “turn away from their sins” (Mark 6:12). What Jesus is doing here was exactly what he challenged them to be and to do “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). When he chooses the twelve he said, “I have chosen you to be with me. I will also send you out to preach, and you will have authority to drive out demons” (3:14-15).

Do you remember Jesus’ first invitation to you to be his disciple? Just like yesterday, today we are called to him, to equip by him, and then sent out as his representatives. Mission, mind you, is the calling of all God’s people, not just for the selected few. Wherever you are – at the church, workplace, shopping mall, up in the jungle, hospital, campus or home – you’re God’s representatives. To be a Christian is to be a missionary. I always tell my students that God is calling them to be missionaries at home and in their own campuses. One Christian teacher told me, “God sent me to be a missionary at school [he chuckled] and thanks to the government, they paid me to be here.”

Jesus, in his humanity, can’t do it alone. There are about half a dozen of villages around Nazareth, so he “sent them two by two.” Why? Because “two is better than one”? Yes, and more. Send out in pairs is important for mutual support and encouragement. Two also good for decision-making and reliable witnesses (as Deuteronomy 17:6). Sometime I feel sad when some of the churches send preachers or missionaries off their own. Many evangelists are solo operators too. Friend, don’t do it all alone. Christians must not be a one-man show. Soloist is not the pattern of discipleship. Collaborate with others, working together, partnership in the service of him. We have Jesus’ authority over the evil spirits – he is with us.  

Are you ready for mission? Let me helps you to understand how to apply Jesus’ instructions – today. Mark 6:8-9 simply means: We are to travel light, bring minimum provisions as we go, don’t over-do on preparations and don’t be fussy about where to stay or wear. Eugene Peterson paraphrase these verses this way, “Don’t think you need a lot of extra equipment for this. You are the equipment. No special appeals for funds. Keep it simple. And no luxury inns. Get a modest place and be content there until you leave” (The Message). Preparation is important, but not as important as the preparation of your heart and mind. “You are the equipment.” Remember, even if you’re seem to be alone, Jesus is with you. He is your eternal partner. So don’t be afraid.

Then Jesus said, “Wherever you are welcomed, stay in the same house until you leave that place. If you come to a town where people do not welcome you or will not listen to you, leave it and shake the dust off your feet. That will be a warning to them!” (Mark 6:10-11). This is a heavy stuff. Basically, Jesus is saying that if there are people who will welcome you, stay there. If not, go away. Don’t make a scene. In doing mission and evangelism, we need to have the urgency. Urgency means we have to go (that is, we go not wait). Urgency also means “that there is no time to waste on those who are plainly not interested… who are totally unreceptive.” (quote from Crossway Bible Guides: Mark by David Hewitt). Unless God is specifically calling you to reach out to a certain area and people, you must stay. But generally for the unresponsive, please move on to other places and disassociate with them. “Shake the dust off your feet.” We have more places to go, we have to move on. This is a command, this is urgent!

Are you ready for mission?

There will be conflicts, rejections and persecution.

But don’t lose heart – Jesus be with you. Share the joy of Christ.

Go on, you have Jesus’ authority to teach, preach and heal. Amen.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

It's Time to Move On; Sometime, the Answer to Old Relationships is New Ones

One day God said to Prophet Samuel, “You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as king of Israel, so fill your flash with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king” (1 Samuel 16:1, NLT). Samuel grieved the loss of King Saul for so long that God had to visit him. Of course he is sad because he was the one who anointed Saul as king. I assume he felt like a looser and very disappointed that as prophet he have failed to advice king Saul. More than that, the relationship between Samuel and Saul is falling apart. God is telling him now, “Samuel, it’s time to move on.” In life, you have to get over the past and move on.

Do you know? You can be breathing now but probably you’re not alive. Some of us are dead long time ago, only some are really living their lives. Some are lost in the past, some are here today. Some talk only of the past because they stop living at a certain point of their life. Any time you discuss and reliving the past as though it was the present, it mean you have allowed the past to steal the present right out of your hands. Don’t do it! “Samuel, it’s time to move on.” Rise up and take it back. God is telling Samuel to “Go” for he have provided a new king. Do you hear that? God is doing something great among the people of Israel. Likewise, God is provided everything that you need to start all over again. Enough mourning, go and trust Him.

Sometime, the answer to old relationships is new ones. Here is you choice: you can keep mourning what nobody can change or you can start living in the present and begin to plan for the future. God is telling us through this verse, “It’s time to move on.” There are friends and someone special who are just waiting to be part of your life the moment you decide to live again. Choose to start living the present with God. Stop reliving events that are dead and gone. In fact, stop arguing with people who aren’t even listening! Take all your God-given time, your love, your energy and give it to the future for “it’s time to move on.”

As Prophet Samuel obeyed, God provided a new king, King David.

And a new relationship is born.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

When Jesus Rules in Our Lives, then the Right Witness will Follow

“[Don't] be afraid and don't worry. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. But you must do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak evil against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ”

(1 Peter 3:14-16, NLT)

Many Christians worry about the matter of witnessing. As fulltime worker in student ministry I always heard questions (or rather self-talks) such as “Am I really able to give an answer to those who ask me about Christ?” “I don’t know if I can defend the hope I have in Jesus” “How can I fully explain my faith in Jesus when my non-Christian friends ask me?” Well, as much as knowledge and correct doctrines are important, the place to begin your preparation is not the head but the heart. My pastor like to emphasis: “Set Jesus Christ apart as Lord and Saviour in your heart!” When Jesus rules in our lives, then the right witness will follow. As FES Malaysia 2014-2017 Prophetic Calls #3 beautifully summaries: “To live under the Lordship of Christ”. That’s it! First, Jesus in our heart, then witnessing will come naturally from us. “Whatever is in your heart,” Jesus says, “determines what you say” (Matthew 12:34).

Peter as quoted above was dealing with false accusations against the Christians. In his day, the Romans believed all sorts of strange things about believers, lies that the enemy had invented. Peter was like saying “Don’t be afraid of their accusations or their questions, if Christ is Lord of your hearts, and if your conscience is clean, you have nothing to fear.”  

Don’t be afraid and worry. A prepared heart is the secret of a powerful witnessing. The Book of Wisdom said this, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (Proverbs 4:23). Enemies hate this, God love it – a consecrated heart and a clean conscience. A prepared heart will lead to an authentic witness, a witness that will never leave you ashamed. I told this to my student-friends, it is not by thinking up arguments or clever wordings that we should witness to the lost, but first, by living a life with Christ as Lord. People nowadays are easily distracted, very confuse and information overload. God’s Word is powerful but their ears are deaf until “they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.” Then, after they see your changed lives, only then they will open their hearts to hear the Good News from you.

Prepare your heart before you witness to others

Let Jesus be the centre of your life and you must live under his Lordship

Then, when it is a time for you to witness, “it is not you who will be speaking -

it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Matthew 10:20)

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Change and Be the Change

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you” (Romans 12:1-2, The Message)

If you allow God to change you, you will change the world around you. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts, emotions and hearts but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn’t have – or maybe even have thought about. For me that inner, within, inside out change must come from Christ. New lenses from Christ's perspectives.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP. 

Actually, There are Two Bibles

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (Psalm 119:105, NIV)

The Bible and a mirror. How many Bibles do you imagine? In a sense, just one but in another sense, two. As you look into the mirror, who do you see? Self. Yes, it reveals self. You are able to see yourself. What you look like. One day, I took a picture with a boy. I showed him the picture and asked which one of us is more handsome. He shook his head and said, “No!” He had no idea he was so handsome.

As you look in the Bible whom do you see? Who is revealed in the Bible? Yes, God. God is revealed as Father who loves and provides for his children. He is revealed as God in Christ who loved us and gave himself for us. He died to take away our sins. Christ was buried but rose again and is alive now. Christ promised us that we will rise from the dead just like him to be with him in a better, more glorious world. Through the Bible, God is revealed as the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and comforts us in sorrow, empowered us for service, guides us in the right directions and strengthens us in our temptations.

Which of these two Bibles is more important? Obviously, yes, the real Bible is more valuable. It helps in this life and leads the way to a better life with him tomorrow. Let me ask another question: Which one do you look in more often? How often do you look in the mirror? Every day, when you brush your teeth, when you comb your hair, when you wash your face. Yet you agree that the real Bible is more important?

Which one do you keep before you most? I hope you look in the real Bible longer at a time. You should study this to learn about our great awesome God and his plan for our lives. This is a sort of “Google map” to show us the way through life and to God’s heavenly kingdom. We want to know more about it that we may help our friends and neighbours to know, experience and love God in Christ too. Which on these two Bible is more important for you now? God’s Word or the person you see in the mirror?

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

All the Best in Your Exam!

The Wrong Messiah (Free Books Inside)

“You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple.

He was rejected by people, but was chosen by God for great honour” (1 Peter 2:4, NLT)

Introduction for The Wrong Messiah

Jesus came from the wrong social class, the wrong place and the wrong profession. He ate with the wrong people, championed the wrong causes and attracted the wrong kind of supporters. He even spoke with the wrong accent. In fact, everything about Jesus of Nazareth was wrong. Then, how could this odd-job man be God’s Messiah?

Jesus was barely fits into any of his people of his day thinking and expectations of Messiah. He didn’t fit any of their Messiah categories. He died (so people thought) a failed revolutionary leader. He was a peasant, not a king, and when people tried to make him a king, he ran away. Far from smashing Israel’s enemies to pieces, he said we should love them and not even call them rude names. After his death not much changed, except that the fishermen who followed him started a cult. There was no new age. Looked at dispassionately, Jesus was complete failure by any measure.

To his opponents, Jesus had none of the qualifications that a Messiah should have. To them, he was a wino who kept bad company, had no respect for tradition and who ended up dying the most shameful death possible. Just how wrong can a Messiah be?

And yet, despite that, those who followed him, those who, some fifteen years after his death got nicknamed Christians, came to see Jesus as the Messiah. They believed that the person who just didn’t fit – the cornerstone which the builders rejected – turned out to be the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed of God. They were convinced that he was right all along. And this book The Wrong Messiah: The Real Story of Jesus of Nazareth by Nick Page is an attempt to find out why.

Get You Copy of The Wrong Messiah

For this month of January 2015: Free Monthly Book, I would like to offer two new books (for serious students and disciples of Jesus & for the curious minds of Christian faith) if you just comment below “I want to read this book because…” (no less than 10 words). E-mail me your name, phone no. and postal address for me send the book. This offer is available until 30^th January 2015. May the Lord moves your heart to know Him more and more.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.