What's In A Name?

The chapter for today starts out with Jesus calling together the 12 Disciples (notice, he "called" - not "forced" them together).  In the next sentence they're called Apostles.  Already my mind is asking what the difference is.  After I looked them up I learned that:

• Disciple: Follower of some doctrine or teacher.
• Apostle: Messenger or authorized representative.

So here's 12 regular guys (some were fishermen, tax collectors, rich, poor, educated, uneducated), and as usual their names are hard to figure out.  But regardless, they're sent on their way...but NOT to the Gentiles or the Samaritans.  That raised more questions for me...so I dug in a little more and found out that:

• Gentile:  Anyone who isn't a Jew.
• Samaritan:  A race that resulted from intermarriage between Jews and Gentiles after the Old Testament captivities (2 Kings 17:24)

Jesus asked his disciples to go only to the Jews because he came first to the Jews (Romans 1:16).  God chose them to tell the rest of the world about Him, and after they preached throughout the Roman empire - Gentiles came to the church willingly.

Okay - now my curiosity has subsided...but then verse 25 mentions Beelzebub (which now has me singing an old Queen song in my head and envisioning Wayne and Garth - I digress)...so I had to look that up and I read that Beelzebub was also known as "the lord of flies and the prince of demons".  The Pharisees accused Jesus of using his power to drive out demons.  The reading then leads into how to handle persecution.  Have any of you experienced opposition for your Christianity?  Probably nothing as severe as the Apostles...but still. 

Verses 10:34-39 is a real eye-opener, and something I know that I'll need to be ready for.  Verse 38 said we are to "take our cross and follow him"...oh yeah, you guessed it.  One more thing to look up.  I've heard that phrase, but never really thought about it.  I learned today that it means "to be willing to publicly identify with Jesus, to experience almost certain opposition, and to be committed to face even suffering and death for His sake".

Ok...I'll stop now.  :-)

True Healing

I don't know if the people over at Proverbs 31 Ministries knew that I would be reading Matthew 9 today (but God sure did).  If you haven't read our chapter for today, go do that ASAP...and then read this quick devotional:

• http://devotions.proverbs31.org/2011/01/time-and-again.html

Look at all of the healings performed by Jesus in Matthew chapter 9.  Jesus didn't just physically heal each of those people...His first focus was on their spiritual health, and this kind of healing can only come from Jesus' healing touch.  I just loved how the Proverbs 31 devotional said basically the same thing - to seek God first, to focus on our spiritual health first.  God can change what seems impossible.

I wanted to include the above link in today's post because I hope it brings encouragement to anyone who may have started this challenge with a real fire in their heart, but might not be keeping up with the daily reading because it IS hard to make this a new habit every day that you "make" time for.  But if your experience has been anything like mine so far - it's sooooooo worth it!!

Jesus Was Sleeping

I enjoyed reading today, going through Matthew 8:23-27 and thinking about what that verse means to my sister (see comments from Jan. 6th). 

The notes in my Bible explained how the Sea of Galilee is unique - it's 13 miles long, 7 miles wide, and 150 feet deep...and the shoreline is 680 feet below sea level.  Sudden storms can appear over the mountains that surround it with little warning, stirring up 20 foot waves.  The disciples (experienced fishermen/sailors) didn't foolishly set out in a storm, they were caught without warning and the danger was great.  Even though they had witnessed many miracles, they still panicked in this storm.  They didn't realize that Christ could control the storms of nature too. 

It holds true for us, when we're caught in sudden storms/trials in life...we just need to call on Jesus for help - and have faith that He is more than able to help us with any problem we face.

Relationship

Between yesterday and today we've read Psalm 3-6.  The one thing I've taken from these is that David felt a close and personal relationship with God.  Just looking at the themes for these four chapters shows it...

• Chapter 3 "Confidently trusting God for protection and peace." 
• Chapter 4 "Rejoicing in God's protection and peace.  We can place our confidence in God because he will listen when we call on him." 
• Chapter 5 "The lies of enemies.  God is able to defend us from lies spoken against us." 
• Chapter 6 "Deliverance in trouble.  God is able to rescue us."

David's words in these chapters tells us that when everything goes wrong, God is still there for us (3:1-3).  That God listens to our prayers, He hears us and answers (according to His will) (4:3).  That David sees the importance of regular communication in his relationship with God (5:1-3)...and that David seeks God's mercy and forgiveness for his sin (6:1-3). 

Looking at the relationships we have with people around us, do you stay connected to people you don't communicate with?   Can you trust someone you don't truly know, or rely on someone who always holds a grudge?  A growing relationship with God involves trust, confidence in Him, and an awareness of our need for forgiveness.  Making time for regular communication with God every day is the key to relationship.