Shake off the dust

May 23, 2026

In a previous post I talked about some instructions that Jesus gave his followers when he sent them forth on their first ministry trip. One additional instruction Jesus gave to them was this:

"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" (Mark 6:11).

This instruction — to shake off the dust from their feet — used to bother me, because it sounds like the disciples would be saying "To hell with you!" as they departed from towns that didn't receive their message. And since the message of the gospel is supposed to be good news (Mark 1:15) it seems somewhat discordant for them to say something like that.

The key however to understanding Jesus' instruction is the phrase "as a testimony against them". The idea is that when harvest time arrives at the end of the age, God will send forth his angels to gather his wheat into his barn (see Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43). And when the angels come to those who rejected the message, the people of that town will likely cry "But we never even heard about this good news! Give us a chance please to repent!" Then the angels will point to the dust still lying on the ground and say, "See? There is the evidence that you were given opportunity to repent! But you rejected those the Lord sent you!" And so they will have no excuse.

Of course all this happened two thousand years ago and all of those towns and the people that were in them are long gone. So the focus here can't be on the final Day of Judgment, but on the judgment that happened a few decades later when the Roman legions under Titus swept across Judea and beseiged Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish temple (see Matthew 24). For while with the coming of Jesus God's future kingdom now breaks through intermittently into our present age with signs and wonders and with healings and deliverance, so also the future judgement by the Son of Man breaks through from time to time into our present evil age.

(Image: Sandals - from a Renaissance painting, artist unknown)

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Who we are

May 17, 2026

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)

First exercise in ministry training

May 13, 2026

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)

Peter's Humility

May 6, 2026

In chapter 10 of the Book of Acts, Peter proclaims the good news about Jesus to a Gentile named Cornelius and his relatives and friends. As Peter is doing this, the Holy Spirit falls on them, and Peter immediately has them baptized. Then in chapter 11 Peter has returned to Jerusalem and is explaining to the church why he had baptized uncircumcised Gentiles. Peter answered them by telling them about the vision he had, how Cornelius had been visited by an angel, and how the Spirit of God had fallen on them in the same way as it had on them at Pentecost. Then Peter concludes by saying: “So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?” (Acts 11:17) “Who am I, Lord?” What humility to say that! And this from a man who had experienced Christ in so many ways! I think Peter probably learned humility after he had denied Christ three times. He had been outspoken and bold before, but now he knew the true measure of himself. This is the kind of rock that Christ built his church on. It’s also the kind of rock Christ wants to use today for building his church: men and women with no ego, obedient to God and dismissive of themselves. I’ve known a few great men and women who have had such humility. But only a few. It reminds me of a song from way back in the days of the Charismatic Renewal, it’s based on James 4:10 and goes like this: Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord And He shall lift you up higher and higher And He shall lift you up Blessings everyone. -Ingrid (Image: Claude Vignon - The Repentant Saint Peter - 1643)