We are all invited to walk with Him daily.
As I was reading the Gospel of Mark’s version of Jesus calling the twelve disciples, Mark’s language had me taking a second look. “And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out demons.” Mark 3:14-15 NASB
First of all, Jesus had a lot of people hanging around Him. He was healing people and casting out demons and taking on the religious establishment. He was the proverbial rock star and He had a following.
But, Jesus knew the importance of community and He knew you can’t have fifty best friends. So, He created what we like to call in modern terms, a small group, that He could get to know intimately and who would in turn get to really know Him as well.
The text says, “so that they would be with Him,” not hang around sometimes when they had extra time, or drop by on the way home from work, or casually visit on Sundays. He wanted them to be with Him all of the time, so that they would have the faith and ability for Him to send them out to preach and cast out demons, (which is basically, fighting Satan.)
The term preach has taken on a negative connotation these days. No one likes to be preached to and we don’t like to be considered preachy. But, when I looked up the word preach in my Concordance, it defines it as proclaiming or sharing the Gospel or Good News.
Now, sharing the Good News doesn’t sound negative at all, does it?
I think we have to return to the text in order to truly share the Gospel. We have to live it. In other words, we have to practice what we preach. The world sees our actions and they stand out much more boldly than our words.
If we want our actions to proclaim the message of Jesus, then we have to spend time with Him regularly, not just occasionally. If we ever find ourselves asked the question, “What would Jesus do?” we need to have some idea what the answer might be. He has so much to teach us and we have so much to learn. But, it’s only through a true intimate relationship with Him, that we can be who we are meant to be with Him.
When we are with Him, we can forgive and love. When we are with Him, we can know joy and peace. When we are with Him, we are free, and then this broken world can look into our faces and see Jesus because we are out proclaiming the Gospel and taking on the enemy.
It’s the Great Commission and we are invited to participate. Let’s be with Him.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂