He is risen!

For those of you who would like to know a bit more about us, we've updated the About Us page on our website with some info about the business that Ingrid and I ran together and also some other personal stuff. Enjoy and let us know if you have any questions. (Image by Maria Doina Mareggini - on Pexels - Public Domain)

In Mark chapter 6 we have the story of how Jesus sent the Twelve out on a ministry trip to proclaim and demonstrate the arrival of the kingdom of God: Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits. These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. (Mark 6:7-13 NIV) I was always puzzled why Jesus instructed the disciples not to take along any provisions or money for their journey. And then one day it struck me that Jesus was preparing them for the enormous task they would face after he had ascended to heaven: to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19). They would need faith to trust that Jesus was truly “with them always, to the very end of the age” (see Matt 28:20). And the way to develop faith is simply to start trusting God, here and now. Once you see that God can indeed be trusted, you’re willing to trust him even more. I think it was John Wimber who used the analogy of diving into an empty swimming pool to illustrate what having faith (trusting God) is like. You’re standing on the diving board over an empty swimming pool, and the manager of the facility promises to turn the faucet on and fill the pool as soon as you’ve jumped off the diving board and are headed down towards the concrete bottom of the pool. Is the faucet big enough to quickly fill the pool? Can the smiling pool manager really be trusted to open the faucet in time before my face hits the concrete? Well I certainly wouldn’t trust another human being in such a situation! But I would — and have many times — trust God like this., because God can always be trusted. And his faucet (power) is big enough to do anything, because nothing is impossible for him (Mark 10:27). Of course you shouldn't try to jump like this unless God actually says "Jump." But you don't need to wait for a voice from heaven before you step off the diving board — there's lots of places in Scripture where Jesus tells his followers to jump. Training for ministry, any form of ministry, can — and should — involve risk. Again, I think it was Wimber who once said that “faith” is spelled R-I-S-K. This understanding brings a different perspective to the Mark 6 passage above, showing us that Jesus was not just sending the Twelve out to do a share of his work, he was training them so they would be ready for carrying on his mission to the world. Think of it as their first training exercise, sort of like boot camp — but with live ammunition. I’ll visit this passage in Mark again in my next post. —Mitch (Image found somewhere on Reddit)