Experiencing God- Ordinary Doing Extraordinary 27

"Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness."
Gospel of Matthew

If anything we can learn from scripture is the fact that God calls and uses very ordinary people to do extraordinary things.  Stories in both the Old and New Testament illustrate that if we remain faithful to God, then God can turn even tragic circumstances into opportunities for growth, and into opportunities to serve Him in ways beyond our understanding at the time. 

In the Old Testament, we have the story of Joseph who was sold into slavery to the Egyptians by his brothers who were jealous of their father's love for him.  By remaining faithful to God, Joseph not only recovered his status as a family member, but also was instrumental in saving them all from starvation as God created the circumstances for these actions to be carried out.

"To remain faithful, and to continue to place our complete trust in God" is the one quality that separates those who have been called by God to be disciples of Christ from those who are not.

In the Gospel from Matthew above, Jesus is calling forth his twelve disciples, and giving them authority over unclean spirits, the ability to cast them out and cure all kinds of diseases.  What are the qualities of the ones He called?  It's not what we would consider today to be qualities of leadership.  In the choice of the twelve apostles, we see a characteristic feature of God's work.  Jesus chooses very ordinary people, but people with faith.  They were all non-professional, no wealth or position.  They were chosen from the common people who did ordinary things, who had no special education or social advantage.  Jesus wanted people who could take an ordinary assignment and do it in an extraordinary way.  He chose those people, not for what they were, but for what they would be capable of becoming, through faith, under the grace and direction of God.

When the Lord calls us to serve, or when we look for those we feel will best serve in God's plan, we must not think that we have nothing or little to offer.  Neither must we think that of others.  The Lord takes ordinary people, but extraordinary in faith, to work at building His Kingdom among us.  The Lord looks at faith, not credentials.  God looks for those who will be faithful, like Joseph, even through adverse and uncertain times.  If you look at the one apostle who failed Jesus in his Christian mission, he was the one who was unable to see the mysterious unfolding of God's plan, and decided to follow his own way of doing things.  He was the one who failed to trust God's wisdom, but trusted only in himself. 

Do you trust God's plan for His church today? 

We do this by remaining faithful to building God's Kingdom, not by our design, but by His. 

Experiencing God - Persistence and Faith 24

"Great is your faith!  Let it be done to you as you wish"
Gospel of Matthew

I've always found the story about Jesus' encounter with the Canaanite woman a very unusual one.  Jesus and his disciples are in the region of Tyre and Sidon, towns outside of Jewish territory.  They are in a place located in current day Lebanon, north of Israel.  What were they doing there, we do not know; but while there, they are noticed by this woman who they refer to as a foreigner, a Canaanite who lived in that area. 

This woman was in a somewhat desperate situation; her daughter was seriously ill, and she was looking for help from whatever source she could find it.  She addressed Jesus as "Son of David", so she must have known about Jesus, even to the point of recognizing Him as He and his apostles wandered by.  Anyway, it was her persistence in following Jesus, and her persistence in begging for help that began to annoy the apostles to the point they asked Jesus to give her what she wanted to get rid of her.

The woman's persistence is a reminder to us of what Jesus had previously said about prayer in the Gospel.  You will recall that Jesus said that if your neighbor would not loan you a loaf of bread in the middle of the night because of being a good friend, then by being persistent with your request, the friend will likely comply just to be able to get some sleep.  It is with this same type of persistence that this Canaanite woman pursued Jesus and His apostles.  And Jesus' compassion comes out in His response to her, although the dialog that went on between them is unusual to us.

Some would say that Jesus responded to her in this fashion to test her faith.  And even though the words to us seem insulting, her response revealed not only the desperateness of her situation, but the greatness of her humility.  Her thoughts and concerns were not on herself, but with her daughter; and she recognized in Jesus someone who could help her daughter; so personal pride was set aside and did not become an obstacle to grace.  I've recently read that humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.  I believe it is here that we have the most to benefit from this Gospel reading.

Despite our unworthiness, despite the fact we often miss the mark when it comes to our outward performance, when we approach God with humility, we discover His compassion and love for us.  We discover the compassion of Christ reaching out to us, meeting us in our need.  Jesus' response to us is the same as His response to the Canaanite woman:  "Great is your faith.  Let it be done for you as your wish."  It is in our humility that the barriers between ourselves and God are broken down, and we come in touch with the compassion of Christ which heals our brokenness, creates a new being, and sends us on our way.