Miracles and their scarcity in today's world: a simple diagnosis

When Jesus sent His disciples on their first ever missionary trip, He told them not to secure financial support for themselves before they go. They were not to carry a purse or bag. Rather, they should rely solely on the goodwill of their hosts. According to Jesus, “a labourer is worthy of his wages.” You may wish to read the account in the Bible (Matthew 10:5-15).

The thinking here is that the disciples were offering valuable service to the residents of the cities and villages that they were visiting, and as in all professions, they were entitled to remuneration for their work. Their work though was of a different sort. In all these places where Jesus sent them out, they were to “heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers and cast out demons.” Wow! In our world today, people would pay a lot to have these ‘services’ rendered to them. Yet these services were not for sale. “Freely you have received; freely give,” was the commandment of the Master (verse 8). His only requirement was that those that benefited from these amazing acts should provide bed and board for his messengers (verse 11).

The idea here is this: are we losing out on seeing dramatic miracles in our world today because we despise God’s messengers? We withhold support for missions and missionary work, and so there is no release of the message. The messengers shake off the dust of their feet – an expression that tells us that they retain no memory of ever having come into contactc with us. Not even the lightest thing from us (our dust) clung to their bodies; they received nothing from us whatsoever – and they move on. I am convinced that if people are more supportive of mission work, they will see more of mission power, gifts and grace released towards them and others. Be blessed today. Amen.

Making a case for Judas?

Consider the list of the 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ in the Bible Gospel of Matthew chapter 10 verses 2-4.

2These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

“These are the....... apostles…… and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” While reading the list of the Apostles of Christ, I could not help but feel sorry for Judas, and wondering how the chronicler of these events could have been so unfair to him. It appears that Judas Iscariot will always be remembered as “the one who betrayed Jesus”. Yet Peter denied Jesus and all of the disciples forsook Jesus when He was arrested by the Roman authorities. Why are their transgressions not appended to their names like Judas’ own was? Then I understood.

What Judas did was a result of pure evil at work, not just a human foible. And you do not appease evil. To try and rehabilitate Judas in any way would amount to attempting to whitewash evil and call his betrayal by a lesser name. Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was orchestrated from the heart of hell itself. In one account, it is written that in order for Judas to betray Jesus, “Satan entered him”. Judas became Satan, personified. In optics, the reason we see objects very distinctly and recognise familiar images without ambiguity is that the boundaries of each image reflect light in straight lines into our retina. The boundaries are clear, sharp and focused. If we try to make Judas out to be a misunderstood, weak and vulnerable poor saint rather than see him as the devil incarnate that he was, at least in that moment in time, we will be blurring the lines between good and evil. And that cannot bode well for our spiritual health, much like seeing the world in blurred images cannot be good for our physical health. Be blessed today. Amen.

Rigged to win

My blog today is based on ruminations from a section of the Bible from Ecclessiastes 11:6, as follows:

Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

I am fascinated by the above scripture clip because it teaches us a principle about how God has rigged this world to favour human beings, especially those who believe in Him. The writer encourages us to be bold, adventurous and decisive about taking risks. I know that he is talking about sowing seed, but every farmer knows that the act of sowing seed is all about taking risks. The Preacher says this much in the quoted passage when he says “for you do not know which [seed] will succeed….” Venturing out of our comfort zones in search of profit or joy or fulfilment can be risky. We do not know which move will yield results. And that is where the encouragement lies. The writer of our passage says (and I paraphrase) “you don’t know which investment will succeed, whether the early stock (morning) or the late bond (evening), or whether both of them will succeed!” In other words, you may bloom early or bloom later or bloom at both seasons of your life. However, you will bloom. Your dividend will come sooner or later. One thing is sure – YOU CANNOT LOSE. Throw yourself then, headlong into life, making the best of every opportunity. Be blessed today. Amen.