“Leaning on the Word”

Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11

Today’s text is about Satan’s temptations against Jesus, which, of course, is Satan’s task. Since the beginning of time, that is what Satan does. Eve was tempted, and fell for the devil’s lies, and that was the beginning of humanity’s downfall. We weren’t created to fail, but we were created to make choices! And as Jesus told us, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!” (Matthew 26:40-41) Unfortunately, this life isn’t about our “good intentions”, our good spirit – it’s about trusting the Lord in “good faith”.

We will be considering how Jesus withstood Satan’s attempts to draw even him away from the Father’s will. Interestingly, Jewish tradition makes no reference to Messiah’s being tempted. But this exchange between the Son of God and the Source of Evil raises a question for us.
As Satan most certainly knows that Jesus is the Son of the Most High God (Mark 5:6-8 (1-20)), why would he even attempt to persuade the Christ to fail in faith? Was he so arrogant and conceited that he thought that he could defeat even the Lord? Or perhaps he thought that Jesus’ “flesh” was as weak as ours is! But he would soon discover that Jesus was perfectly strong in the Father - that he couldn’t be torn away, that he knew all the tricks that cause us to fail, and he stood strong in Who and Why he is.

So how did Jesus withstand the onslaught from evil? And what can we learn from his victory?

Read Matthew 4:1-4

Matthew’s Gospel is, for the most part, about conflict – the conflict that exists between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of earth. Joseph is conflicted regarding Mary’s unusual pregnancy, until the angel relieves his confusion. John the Baptist was reluctant to baptize Jesus, until the Lord told him that this was necessary to fulfill “all righteousness”. And now, as Jesus leaves the Jordan, the Spirit leads him into the wilderness to fast and experience temptation.
It would be, I believe, a time of strengthening for Jesus. His ministry would be made difficult by the disbelief of the Pharisees and scribes. Even his own disciples would try his patience at times, with their doubts and confusion and personal struggles. So it shouldn’t be surprising that this was a time of preparation for Jesus before he stepped into ministry to the world and offered them God’s word for their lives.

Jesus could have avoided this trying time, but he never shied away from conflict – not at the beginning, and not at the conclusion. This time is reminiscent of Israel’s journey out of Egypt, passing through the waters, and into the desert of “40”. Jesus’ time of temptation would came at the end of his 40 day fast, and while he had been strengthened and prepared spiritually for the task that lay ahead, he was also humanly hungry.

Satan attacks the humanity of Jesus, even though he recognizes the divine authority that the Lord has been given. Jesus could certainly change the stones into bread – after all he fed thousands of people from just 5 small loaves and 2 small fish! (Matthew 14:13-21) So it isn’t a matter of whether Jesus can do this thing or not – the point is where does our true sustenance come from! Is it from God, or is it from the things of earth? Satan wants the Lord to focus on his human condition, while Jesus is committed to keeping his spiritual condition first.

So what would Jesus have us learn from this? It is that throughout this life, we will experience suffering in an earthly style – we will be hungry, we will be lost and alone, we will be wounded and will feel pain, at times, we will feel like strangers to those around us, and we will certainly feel trapped and imprisoned in the life we lead. (Matthew 25:34-46) These human and earthly struggles may even last a while, but if we “feed on Christ”, if we look for nourishment of a spiritual nature, life will be fed for eternity. We need to satisfy our human needs, certainly, but we also must “.. feed on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Deuteronomy 8:1-3) And that is what must come first.

Read Matthew 4:5-7

Again, Satan plays on the human side of Jesus, or at least tries to. He knew that the words Jesus would offer to the world would be challenged and denied, so he tells the Christ to prove to the world that he is, indeed, the Son of the Most High God. After all, if the people could see the angels protecting the Lord, they just might put more trust in the words he will speak, and more people might be saved.

But Satan takes the reference to scripture out of context – he conveniently leaves out the first few verses from this reference to Psalm 91:9-13. The context is that if we live this life within the Lord’s way, we will be delivered from the sentence that evil brings and will live, protected and safe, in eternity with Him.

So the Lord resists this temptation, essentially, by responding that this isn’t the way that the Father wants it to go – that humanity must come to him, not because of the things he does, but by their desire to live the message of righteousness and eternal salvation that he brings to them. For Jesus, it must be God’s way, not the earth’s way.

It’s true that on several occasion, Jesus will offer his disciples more insight into his Godly nature than he does to the people in general, but even at that, they continue to struggle in faith until after Jesus’ resurrection occurs. (Matthew 14:22-33)

What is our lesson in this? The proof that Jesus is who he says he is isn’t given as the world would like it. We would all be far more comfortable if we were shown visible and physical proof. But it isn’t - it is given by the word of God. And the protection that comes to us is one that leads to life eternal, and not just to a comfortable life in a human sense.

Don’t put Almighty God to the test – instead, trust him and his ways!

Read Matthew 4:8-11

The third temptation is about authority. But Jesus life in the flesh is all about humility, and not a demonstration of authoritative might. Satan is trying to get Jesus to put himself first above humanity’s needs – to consider his own comfort instead of our salvation. The Lord is being offered absolute authority over the entire earth – he would be more powerful and more respected than any Roman emperor or any king that had ever lived or ever would. And all he had to do was surrender his eternal Kingship, his worship of God, and to place his life in Satan’s hands instead.

And he turns to scripture once again, and quotes a line from the Shema – Deuteronomy 6:4-15. Love God, serve God, fear God, worship God, and turn away from every other god that comes from the world, for their way will only lead to destruction.

If Jesus had accepted this offer, he could have avoided the pain and humiliation of the cross, but in doing so, he would have destroyed the relationship that he had in God, and would have given himself over to annihilation and eternal death. And if we give ourselves over to the heartless ways of the world, we, too, will lose out on all that God has put in place for our eternity.

And Satan leaves, planning to return at a later time.

The devil tries to trick us, just as he did with Jesus. He causes us to doubt the incredible and endless love of Almighty God. He tells us that we can ignore certain difficult and undesirable commandments in scripture, just as he perverted the word of God in the Garden of Eden and every day since then. He offers us immediate gratification in this life, in exchange for the blessings that faith in Christ will bring in the days to come. He lies to us, he tells us that there is plenty of time left, he makes us hesitate, he makes us procrastinate, and he convinces us that we should never trust in something that we can’t see.
Why would this “fallen angel” do this? What will he gain? Simply this - to bring hurt and harm to the God whom he refuses to honor. He couldn’t care less about us – he only wants to draw us away from our God.

But if we immerse ourselves in the word of God, if we place our hope and trust in all that he has given us, if we give our love and allegiance to Christ and Christ alone, then Satan will also leave us and will take his lies with him – at least for a while, until we find ourselves in a vulnerable situation once again. And that is the very time that we need the word of God to sustain us, the time when we need a relationship with Jesus to pull us through, the time when we need to be yoked with Christ. (Matthew 11:28-30)

Will you let him carry the heaviest part of your load today? Will you accept the incredible life that he offers you, by faith in him, today?

“The Lord’s Message”

Scripture: Isaiah 42:10-17

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been considering the Lord’s call on his people – the call to carry His word to others throughout the earth. We saw that this mission is far more than just talking about Jesus with like-minded people – that it is also for those who are radically different than we are. For Israel, it was to be a blessing to the Gentiles, which they were extremely reluctant to do. It was to live our lives in God’s way which might very well go against the conventional societal, and even ecclesial, wisdom.
We considered the thought of what it means to be a Christian – a follower of the way that Jesus traveled and proclaimed. It means that we live and celebrate a life lived in Godly justice and peace, and not in those attributes that the world thinks are right. We discovered that there is a drastic difference between the world’s “right and wrong” and the Lord’s “righteousness and sinfulness”. Christ was never hemmed in by convention, and we, too, are not to let the “four walls” that we have built up around our faith restrict our mission of being messengers of the gospel. The message of salvation that others are in desperate need of is in our court, and we must never be negligent in carrying out our responsibility to Jesus.

Today, we consider just what this message is that the Lord wants us to carry to the “gentiles” of our lives.

Read Isaiah 42:10-13

The prophet tells us that a “new song” is in the making, and that this is the praise that we are to share. The same old songs of rhetoric and ritual and self-reliance no longer harmonize! The same old places where the songs were once glorified are no longer sufficient! The same old outreach to people who we are comfortable with is no longer our call.

Isaiah tells us that the Church must begin to step out of our old places and into ones that we have never visited before – places that extend throughout creation. Go to the sea, he says, go to the islands and the desert and the towns to proclaim God’s praise. We are to go to the villages where “Kedar” lives. And by the way, Kedar was the second oldest son of Ishmael, the illegitimate son of Abraham – the father of the Arab nations! (Genesis 25:12-18) Consider who our “Kedar” might be. Who is the one we detest or fear the most? That is the very one we are to be a witness for!
These verses are also reminiscent of Jesus’ response to the Pharisees’ demand that his disciples stop singing praise to him - he replied that if these men were silent, the stones would begin crying out! (Luke 19:37-40) While the stones and the desert and the seas might sing mighty songs of praise to our God, none of us should ever be content to let our silence be the means of their singing! That would not go well for us!

All too often, we see the people who are outside of the Church as unworthy to receive the blessings of Almighty God, and therefore we hesitate to give them the opportunity to know and praise the Lord. Remember that there was no one who Jesus refused to welcome into his present – even those dastardly “tax collectors and sinners”! (Mark 2:15-17) He wanted everyone to know of his gift of salvation – are we as generous with the Lord’s gifts as Jesus was? Are we, by our silent hesitation, withholding the glory of God from those who we decide aren’t worthy of our time or effort?

Isn’t it time to start singing our “new song” wherever we go, to whomever we meet, and in whatever place the Lord calls us to? Remember that we will never go alone – that the Lord is always with us, teaching us new song after new song as we go!
The last verse of this passage says that the Lord will go out like a “mighty warrior”. Note that the word is “like”, not “as”. The noun “warrior” is more reflective of one who conquers, one who becomes the victor. And who or what will this warrior be victorious over? His enemies. And who or what is the enemy of God? Evil. And how does God vanquish this enemy? By Christ’s atoning act at Calvary. The victorious God does not accomplish his victory over evil as a Warrior – he does it as a Servant.

And he calls us to sing his “new song”, and to carry his message of salvation to the Kedars and the arid hearts of this world – not in might and power, not as conquers, not as destroyers, but as humble servants of the Most High God.

Read Isaiah 42:14-17

The Lord is still speaking, and He tells us that he has been holding back – that He has remained quiet for eons of time, but that the time of judgment is nearly here, and the image that we receive is that of childbirth. There are more than a few Mom’s I know, when, in their last month of pregnancy, said “I wish this baby would finish growing and get out here!” (Can I get an “AMEN” from the women!)
During those 9 months of development, a child grows, and twists and turns, and bumps, and causes all kinds of changes, not only to him or herself, but to the Mom! But the one thing that the baby doesn’t do is make sound. But on the day of birth, there are all kinds of sounds – cries of pain, shouts of joy, groans and strains and weeping – and all are given in praise of the emergence of this new life.

The prophet tells us that on the day of the Lord’s Newness, everything is going to change. Those things that we have always seen as beautiful will pass away, making way for the glory that is close behind. (Revelation 21:1-22:6) All too often, we don’t like the change that is on the way, usually because we have little or no control of what is yet to be. A good example is the uproar over our new President.
Personally, I doubt that anyone knows for certain what will be coming during the next 4 years, but a lot of folks think they know. Supporters of President Trump believe that the change will be everything that they have ever hoped for, and believe that everyone of them is truly possible through the new President and his administration.
On the other hand, those who oppose the President believe that the change that they anticipate will be the downfall of the entire world, and quite honestly, they too believe that this calamity is, in every way, possible through the new President and his cabinet.
The truth is that neither faction truly knows – they only suspect what will come, and are reacting to their own suppositions! I believe that our new President will do some things that many will like, but also will do some things that, in retrospect, will not be so good. We’ll have to see.

The point of this is that even though we have scripture to read and study and discuss, and try mightily to understand it, we will never get all the details right. Oh, we might achieve a broad understanding as to what the Lord wants us to know, but there is so much that we don’t know, and don’t need to know. So we tend to create our own answers to fill in the blanks. But the Lord would have us know that He has already given us all that we need to be his servant-messengers, and that this should be enough!

And that is OK. Our task isn’t to completely understand the Lord – his nature, his works, his attitudes and reasons – we are to simply share what we do know with the world. For this message is one of hope and life, and it is the only message that has any purpose and truth for the people of earth. And without it in our lives, all will be lost, and this life will have been lived in vain.


Reach out into the world, for our time of silence is over! Sing that New Song of Jesus Christ, and invite others to sing along with you. Carry that song to places beyond where you have always walked, and sing it to a whole new community of people who have yet to learn that the enemy Evil has been defeated, and the victor is the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell them how God came to earth to pay the price for our sin. Tell them of his sacrifice on Calvary, and how the prophets had proclaimed it thousands of years before. Tell them how He has changed your life and made it better. Tell them about the beauty that is on its way, and how it will not only dazzle our eyes, but will boggle our minds.

Don’t wait for the stones and trees and lakes and deserts to proclaim the Lord and His goodness – He would much rather that we do it!

“Faithful Service”

Scripture: Isaiah 42:1-9

So what does it mean to be a Christian? What is it all about? Is it simply believing and accepting the words of scripture? Or is there more to it?

James 2:26 would have us know that faith by itself – having a heart knowledge only – is not enough. He tells us that for faith to be true, it must be active. As we discussed last week, the Lord doesn’t just call us to believe in him – Jesus also expects us to respond to his teaching.
Scripture calls those who live in Christ “servants”. As far as I know, there has never been a servant in the last several thousand years who was expected to simply love his or her master! They are expected to give honor to the master, certainly, but they are also expected to do those things that they are told to do.

As Christians, we are called to share the message and teaching of Jesus Christ throughout the world by both word and example – by both word and example! And if we ever become complacent in our faith, thinking that there is sufficiency in the phrase “by grace [we] have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8-10), it is time for us to reevaluate what faith must include.

It is true that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ, but our response to the Lord’s saving grace comes in the way we live out our faith. So what is the message and life that we are to introduce to the world?

Read Isaiah 42:1-4

Have you ever heard the expression “fake it ‘til you make it”? It is intended to justify the good things that a person does outside of faith in Jesus Christ. The implication is that our good works are nearly as good as the fullness of faith, and that it will be honored when we finally arrive at Christ’s throne. The truth is, however, that until we have clarified our life through faith in Jesus Christ, and understand how and why and for who we offer our good works, we are only doing them to gain praise for our own lives, and not for God. And that makes us our own false idol! Or maybe even a false god?

Servanthood is established through both God’s covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15), and by the new covenant that is inherent in Christ Jesus (Matthew 26:27-28; John 14:6-7). And we become servants of the Living God when we give our lives to Jesus. And what do these four verses tell us about the task of the Lord’s servants? It appears that it is primarily to bring justice to the earth. (Micah 6:6-8)

But this raises the question as to what God’s justice is all about. In our court system, the term justice can be applied to either the freeing of a person who has been wrongly accused, or to their conviction when they are guilty – “Justice has been served”. Either way, the truth becomes synonymous with justice. I believe that God’s justice is totally different.
Our “just” God is a God of liberation, not conviction. The Lord has no need to be condemning – we already stand condemned by the lives we lead! John 3:17 tells us that Jesus did not come to earth to convict us – he came to save us, to free us, to be the means of forgiveness for our sinful and unworthy lives. But neither have we been freed to live a life of contentment! We are liberated from condemnation and saved to live in a covenantal relationship through Jesus Christ. (Ezekiel 37:26-28) That is what Godly justice is all about.

The Lord’s brand of justice and peace is what we are to proclaim to the world. We don’t need to scream it at the top of our lungs; we don’t need to beat others into submission to Jesus – we are to simply live a faithful and just life and treat others – encourage others – invite others - not so much by our words as by our life, to consider the brand of justice that is offered to us by faith in Jesus.

Read Isaiah 42:5-7

Now it seems that the Lord’s call is to take Israel, and the Church (!), far beyond the four walls that we have set up to surround our faith. God has created all that there is, and has given breath and life to all of humanity, and has called us to walk with him to spread the Good News to all who haven’t received it yet. Israel, and we, are being called to a life of righteousness – that is, a life that brings honor to the Lord.

The prophet even proclaims that we will be the example of “covenant” that others will see and learn from. And not just for those who live a life that is similar to ours, but for all who are still living apart from the Lord. He uses terms like blindness, and imprisonment, and darkness to describe those who have yet to know the grace of our Almighty God. These are the very ones who the servants of God are to be a covenant for. And when others accept us for bringing the message of salvation in Christ, it is the same thing as accepting Christ Himself, and the same thing as accepting our Triune God. (Matthew 10:40-42) It is then that we truly become the servants of the Lord.

We can be part of the means by which another person receives freedom from their own brand of darkness, by offering them an understanding of what Jesus has done on behalf of them. Jesus told us that by faith in him, we will do the same things that he has done, and that we will be able to do even greater things. (John 14:12-14) Believe it!

Read Isaiah 42:8-9

The Lord is a jealous God. He will neither acknowledge, nor accept, nor honor, nor glorify any other god, and his jealousy is, again, different from that of earth. Our version of jealousy is more attuned to a selfish rage over a failure to achieve glory for our self and the things we do. God’s “jealousy” is one of protection for his own, and a watchfulness so those things that are not of him will be exposed and revealed for what they are – false gods and idols. (Exodus 34:12-16)

The past is the past, and those times when our faith weakened or failed are gone. God has put a “New Way” into place that supersedes the old. The old way was the Law, and we will never be able to satisfy its demands. But the truth is that we also fail in the New Way – the way of Jesus Christ. But in this new way, God has created an additional aspect that will help us in our failures.
He has created “forgiveness” in a new way. In the old way, we had to earn forgiveness by our good deeds and sacrifices, but in the new way, Jesus has earned forgiveness for us. Our deeds and sacrifices can never good enough, never perfect enough, but when the forgiveness was achieved by God in Christ, it was good enough, and it is perfection incarnate.

That is what being a Christian entails – it is faith and trust in Jesus Christ, it is an understanding of his gift of salvation - to the extent that we are able to understand, and it is a sharing of God’s message and grace with all who will listen. It’s about going wherever the people may be and not waiting for them to come to us; it is about believing that when the Lord calls us to a particular task that he never expects us to go alone – that the Holy Spirit will be with us and will work through us; it is about a realization that we will never know everything and will never be able to do everything, but we will be given understanding for all that we need to know, and will always be able to do what we are called to do – never by our own abilities, though, but by the Lord’s.

Faithful service through faithful servanthood is about making ourselves joyfully available to God’s working through faith, and sharing that joyful faith with others. And it is as simple as that, if we will only try it! Give it a try today.

“The Message and the Call”

Scripture: Acts 10:34-43

The early church knew that they were to carry the word of God to others, but who that was and how far they were to go with the word was, for the most part, an unknown. Jesus had told them that they would do, by faith in him, all that he had done, and that they would do even greater things! (John 14:12-14) That was not only unbelievable, it was also a little frightening!

But the book of Acts would bear out that prophecy, and the word of God would spread throughout both the Jewish and Gentile worlds like a wildfire. For the most part, we think of Acts as an account of Paul’s ministry and those that branched from him. But the first few chapters included many more examples of ministry than just that of Paul the converted. In this chapter, we read of Peter’s encounter with Cornelius – an officer in the Roman Army. Prior to this event, gentiles were avoided by Jews at all cost. Of course, we read of several instances when Jesus ministered to gentiles, and each time, the disciples were apparently shocked at his seemingly acceptance of these outcast people.

Now it is Peter’s turn to not only see his Lord reach out to those considered as unworthy, but for him personally to discover that these “sinners” were actually to be included in God’s plan of salvation. But what would he say? How would he truly know? How far would he be willing and able to go?

Read Acts 10:27-29

Peter goes into the gentile home, and he discovers that the house is full of people – all waiting to hear what he has to tell them about Jesus. He readily admits that he – a Jew – is traditionally forbidden to have any kind of relationship with non-Jews. He isn’t to speak to them, he isn’t to enter their home, and he is absolutely forbidden to eat with them. If he does, he will be judged to be unclean. But the Lord has given him a new commandment in verse 28b – “God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.”

Peter had experienced a vision in which a sheet, filled with all kinds of animals, was lowered down from heaven. He was to eat them – clean and unclean alike – and he objected. But the Lord places a new thought within him, that God and God alone determines what is clean and unclean - not Peter and not any mortal being.

In Matthew 7:1-6, Jesus cautions us that if we presume to judge others, then we will be judged in the same way and to the same degree. I don’t know about you, but I would rather know the Lord’s mercy instead of his judgment! So Peter has learned this valuable lesson – that it is the worldly actions that we experience that are to be considered unclean, or sinful. In Matthew 15:16-20, Jesus offers a list of acts that make us unclean, and in Galatians 5:19-21, we are offered an additional list of those that are of the sinful nature. We are to be discerning of all forms of sin, but are never to judge the impact that those sins may have on the potential salvation, or lack thereof, of any person. Jesus Himself showed compassion and love for sinners, but never for their sin. And we, too, are to detest and avoid the sin of this world, while loving and embracing the sinful people within it.

And Peter does.

Read Acts 10:34-38

Peter now realizes that the lesson he has learned is more about God and far less about his mission. This is one of those “Keep the main thing the main thing” lessons. We are all called to mission in the name of Jesus Christ, but until we come to an appreciation and understanding of the heart of God, ministry will always fail. Of course, that isn’t just a single lesson that we have to learn – it is a continuous part of our Christian growth. If any of us ever comes to the point when we believe that we have it all figured out, it is then that we will be in deep trouble!

Peter’s lesson, and ours as well, is that “God does not show favoritism”. He will welcome anyone – everyone – who comes in love of Jesus Christ. That, by the way, wasn’t a lesson that Israel followed – it is one that is solely of the Lord! And many in Israel, and many in the Church of today, miss this point. Peter points out that Jesus’ initial ministry was to the people of Israel, but that this, in no way, implied that it would be limited to them. He tells Cornelius and his friends that “Jesus Christ ... is Lord of all” (v. 36). It may have all begun with the Jews, but it was in no way restricted to them.
Consider those who received his healing lessons – the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (John 4:1-42), the man infested with a legion of demons (Mark 5:1-20), a Canaanite woman who came to him on behalf of her demon possessed daughter (Matthew 15:21-28) – it was all of these, as well as many Jews. Peter now understands that Jesus was always there for all who were in need and had come under the power of Satan.

And he was there for Cornelius and his household, and he will be there for each of us.

Read Acts 10:39-43

First the teaching and healing ministry, then the ministry of salvation. His ministry was for all who would come and receive. His sacrifice on Calvary was offered to all who will come to him and seek him. But the experience and presence of Christ is only available to work through those who believe. In John 15:26-27, Jesus reveals that the Holy Spirit will soon come to enable believers in ministry. He says that the Spirit will teach the believers more about Christ, and when He does, those who receive this knowledge must carry that message to the world.

Peter is beginning to understand what this will mean for his life. He is to be as bold as Jesus when it comes to the truth of God. He is to be as indiscriminating as Jesus when it comes to the message of salvation. He is to depend solely on the Lord’s words and teaching and ways in ministry, and to never depend on his own understanding. Peter would be faithful to what the Lord called him to do, even though he was pretty uncomfortable in doing it. After all, it went against everything that he had been taught throughout his Jewish life, but now he was focused more on what God needed of him, and not on what the world expected.

And as he spoke the truth of God, the Holy Spirit came upon everyone who was in the house. And Peter baptized the entire household and all who were in it that day.

What is our church being called to do in the name of Jesus Christ? What are each of us being called to do in that Precious Name? Several months ago, our son who lived in the Seattle, Washington area, felt that the Lord was calling them to move to, of all places, Cincinnati, Ohio. But he was very comfortable in his job and church and community, so he hesitated. They had a number of problems come up during those three years of delay, and a few months ago, he was relating the most recent issue to my wife and me – one of black mold in a house that they were planning to purchase near their Washington home. When he finished telling us about the situation, I simply asked him “So when are you moving to Cincinnati?”
He has since moved to Ohio, and when we visited him and his family last week, he was relating the conversation to his new pastor, and he added, with a smile, “He didn’t offer me any compassion whatsoever!” It wasn’t that I hadn’t felt compassion for him, it’s just that these were the words that came into my mind at the time, and I think they were the Lord’s words. Nate didn’t need compassion – he needed a reminder, as well as a little prodding!

Our response to God’s call on our lives has little or nothing to do with compassion or healing or teaching or salvation or anything else for that matter. It is all about doing what he tells us to do at that time and in that place. It isn’t even about understanding the significance of what we are to do – it is about our obedience to whatever God is telling us.

Where is God telling you to go? Who does he want you to go to? Don’t worry about the task – we are to just go and do as we are told. It may not be comfortable for us, the instruction may seem to be incomplete, and it may not even be “smart” from the world’s perspective. But when it is the Lord’s will, that will always be enough.

It was for Peter, and it will be for us.