August 19, 2024

Passage Read: Luke 9-10
Meditation Verses: 10:10-16

Thought

We are only messengers. Perhaps the Lord would allow us to do miracles, but the most important thing is the message. If people or a town or village or city does not listen to and receive the message of the kingdom, they will be worse off in the judgment than all these unbelieving and wicked cities of old, which did not hear of God. Anyone or any people who do not listen to and believe the Gospel are worse off even than the people of Sodom! And Jesus actually tells His disciples to testify against anyone who refuses to receive and believe the Gospel! How is that good for maintaining relationships in the hope that they might repent at a later date? Should we have invented a new and gentler evangelism, that allows us to settle down and befriend unbelievers, that allows us to have long-term relationships with them? In so doing, have we watered down the urgency and importance of believing in Jesus?

Application

I am so afraid of offending people with the Gospel, and one of my justifications is that they might believe in the future and I don't want to be mean and leave a bad taste in their mouths. I come across as so weak and the Gospel so insignificant. My view of God, my view of the Gospel, my view of people are all wrong! I still see things from a worldly point of view, instead of from a heavenly point of view. Because to see it as God does really will cost everything I have. I can't stay put, I can't settle down, I have to make enemies wherever I go. I don't have to hate anyone, but I need to make clear that those who reject the Gospel have rejected Jesus, the Lord of all creation, and that after a first hearing if they want nothing more to do with it!