Mon.’s Devo - Commissioned and Sent Out

Read Luke 10:1-16 Jesus appointed 70 elders to go out to every city and bring in the harvest. Then he gave them specific instruction: they were not to bring money, any pouch for food, nor shoes because God was going to use the body to supply all they needed. When they got to the town they were going to minister to, they were to look for a house to stay in. When they entered it they were to proclaim peace over that house and stay there the entire time they were in that city. They were to eat what was set before them and usher in the kingdom of God by healing the sick. If that city didn’t receive them, they were to go into the streets and proclaim that they were wiping off the dust from that city from their feet. Their judgment will be worse than that of Sodom. Sodom was a town of sexual perversion and vile sin but it’s sin does not compare to having the light of the world right in their midst and rejecting it. Tyre and Sidon had been corrupted by commercial prosperity which will receive a lighter judgment than Chorazin and Bethsaida because the latter saw first hand the mighty miracles of Jesus and still rejected him. Mark 1:32-34 talks about all the mighty things Jesus did in Capernaum. Even after seeing them, the people had hard hearts. Then he summed it up with this: if they receive you, then you know they are receiving me but if they hate you then they hate me and God. That is a good test for us also. If we walk in the spirit then we either draw people of like hearts or we stir up the demons inside those who don’t have like hearts. What we have to remember is that it should have nothing to do with us. Jesus was rejected and a man of sorrows and we are asked to share in his sufferings so that one day we can share in his glory. Lord, help us to not allow the devil to trick us to thinking this life has to do with us and our popularity. We are here for your renown only.