ListenDaily - 08 June 2009: Matamoros
Good morning friends! Early this Saturday morning, I will be leaving Delaware, along with a group of youth and adults from my church, for a week of serving Christ in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico., the first of two trips this summer. The second is to Goldsboro, North Carolina. The Matamoros trip is planned for the 13 - 19 of June. During that time, may I ask you to pray for the following?
For our safety
For each of us to grow in Christ
For His Name to be glorified and His Kingdom expanded
In preparation, I thought the "Great Commission" passage was an appropriate one to study.
"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:16-20 NIV (find any passage at www.Biblegateway.org)
"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted."
This passage describes the time after Jesus had risen and just before His ascension. He had addressed the eleven remaining apostles (remember, Judas was gone) and told them to meet Him here. The obeyed, they came, they saw Jesus, worshipped Him -- "but some doubted."
Exactly what did they doubt? After all they had experienced with Him, could they possibly have doubted who Jesus was? Or was it their own ability to carry on that they doubted? Or were they doubting that there would still be a presence of God with them, if Jesus was leaving?
I don't know. It could be any or all of those, all three, or something else. Whatever it was, "some doubted."
Our church has raised money and supported our missions team in many ways. We have met as a team, prayed together, worshipped together. We have been prayed for. We have studied the Word. Now, it is time to go. I wonder, if some doubt. I mean, if the Eleven, who walked side by side with Jesus, who saw Him perform miracles, who saw Him alive after being dead, if some of them doubted -- do we not have the same potential? And not just mission trip teams, but churches as a whole -- do we not suffer from doubt? Might we doubt who Jesus was? Our ability to carry? If we have the presence of God with us?
What can we do about that doubt? After all, we live twenty centuries later that those who saw Him.
Give it to Him. Give Jesus your doubt. He is still here to take it. When some of the Eleven doubted, Jesus comforted them, "...surely I am with you..."
He added these words, knowing we would have doubts as well: "...surely I am with you always..."
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Questions to ask yourself:
1. Will you pray for our mission trip? 2. Do you have concerns about your own doubts? 3. Have you offered your doubts to Jesus?
INTERESTING THOUGHTS:
"You wonder why people choose fields away from the States when young people
at home are drifting because no one wants to take time to listen to their problems.
Ill tell you why I left. Because those Stateside young people have every opportunity to study,
hear, and understand the Word of God in their own language, and these Indians have no opportunity whatsoever.
I have had to make a cross of two logs, and lie down on it, to show the Indians what it means to crucify a man.
When there is that much ignorance over here and so much knowledge and opportunity over there, I have no question in my mind why God sent me here.
Those whimpering Stateside young people will wake up on the Day of Judgment
condemned to worse fates than these demon-fearing Indians, because, having a Bible,
they were bored with it---while these never heard of such a thing as writing."
Jim Elliot
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