28:17 - It seems strange that Matthew would put "but some doubted" into the middle of this victorious event in which Jesus has come back to life as he promised and is giving his disciples their mission before he leaves. But for me it is very uplifting because even though some of Jesus closest friends doubted him when he was right in front on them...they were still able to overcome their doubts and live completely sold out lives for him in the end. Like every Christian, doubts creep into my life and verses like this help me to push on, trusting that God will give me the strength to live for Him. (I also like how transparent the biblical writers are when they present their stories...how easy would it have been to leave that part out and make the story all "happy-YAY-Jesus-is-back-times"?)
28:19ff - Here it is - you never have to spend your life worrying over what to do - where to go - what decisions to make - why am I here? It is all laid out for us in black and white: go and make disciples of all nations. It doesn't matter where you are or what you are doing (As long as it isn't evil!) - you are supposed to be making disciples. That's it. That's our job. If you are a full-time your minister...a high school student...a college student...a pharmacist...a zoologist...a garbage man (Sorry sanitation disposal specialist) - you need to be making disciples. We've been given a mission...we are the plan - period - we are it...we are to go and expand God's kingdom here on this earth. Pretty simple, but pretty stinking hard at the same time. Go get to work.
*We start in on Mark tomorrow.
4 comments:
Read this chapter a lot – never thought about the disciples who saw Him and still doubted. I probably would have too. “There is no way...”
“Go.” One of the hardest commands in the history of the world.
“I am with you always.” Probably the greatest reassurance ever given in that same moment.
j
Hey Brando! Made it! Even though it is 11:15 PM and I have to wake up at 6 tomorrow morning! Checking in. It's weird, I didn't even think about this until I sat down to check out the weather for Saturday. God just led me right to ya! =P I'll try and do this every night but I can't promise anything.
A question I have is How? How do I go be a deciple? What do I say? What do I do? I'm always so dependent,sometimes, I just want someone to tell me how to, or what to do. How do I go and tell someone about Jesus? Maybe I'm too shy, or it's just I don't know what to say!?! Joel O. needs to write a book on How to go tell people about Jesus! .. maybe he did already? lol
You just live your life as much like Christ as possible. Let your life speak first and after that focus on making spiritual friendships. Discipleship is not about meeting someone one second and telling them all about how they are going to hell without Jesus in the next second. It is about making friendships and actually getting to know people and letting them get to know that Jesus means everything to you. Keep your eyes and your heart open to people who are open to talking about faith or people that seem like they really have questions. And most importantly, understand that we do not disciple on our own...we need the Spirit of God within us. Pray that God will give you the words you need and He will give them to you.
I don't understand it completely, but I am incredibly grateful for the Holy Spirit in our lives. He is very helpul in my life and reading Jesus say "I am always with you," just helps me remember that he'd planned this all along.
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