A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (September 24, 2018)
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:29-30)
It is quite interesting to reflect on the relationships that Jesus had while walking on this planet. The people He hung around with and befriended did not fit the normal kind of people a King would hang with. Important people usually hang out with the in-crowd. They hobnob with the rich and famous. They are more interested in what people can do for them rather than what they can do for someone else. Jesus never did that. Outward appearances did not move Him. He looked at a person’s heart. He looked at what they could be rather than what they were. He saw the potential in every individual and spoke to that God given potential.
The first disciples were fishermen. The Apostle Paul was a persecutor of Christians. Mary Magdalene was a demon possessed woman. The Samaritan woman was a woman that had been married and divorced five times and was presently living with a man that was not her husband. What did Jesus do in all these cases? He taught and mentored those individuals and they turned the world upside down. He used Paul to take the Gospel to the Gentiles and write most of the New Testament. The first person Jesus appeared to after His resurrection was Mary Magdalene and Jesus tasked her with telling the men. The Samaritan woman started a revival in her own city.
Now, let me ask you a question. Where were these disciples recruited? Was it out of a church? No, it was out of the world. We talk a lot in today’s society about inclusiveness, glass ceilings, and prejudices. We think all those areas could be corrected if we just had the right people in political office or had the right laws. Guess what, Jesus is the answer to all of those problems. He was the most inclusive person ever. He looked into a person’s heart and saw what a person could be if they would just give Him their heart.
Our ministry has seen many of these type transformations while serving as chaplains to the business world. People are searching for the truth. They look for it in everything from addictions to various religions. Some look for it in money and success. They know they are missing something, but they just don’t know what it is.
We recently spent the weekend with a precious young couple that came out of a very restrictive religion and are now enjoying the taste of what freedom really is in Jesus. God is doing miracles in their lives and it is a wonder to behold. I think that is why Jesus replied the way He did to His disciples when they returned to Jacob’s well after Jesus had talked to the Samaritan woman. The disciples had gone to buy some food but when they returned Jesus was not hungry (John 4:31-34). He told them that His meat was to do the will of the Father. That was what satisfied His appetite and He had just accomplished that by ministering to the woman at the well. Her life was changed forever!!!
The only time in the Bible you see Jesus really upset with people were with religious people. We need less religion and more relationship with Jesus. As our relationship with Jesus grows and matures all these other avenues of perceived satisfaction will become of less and less importance. You will start seeing who Jesus wants you to minister to. You will see lives transformed and bondages broken. You will see true freedom and liberty that can only come from the Holy Spirit.
Religion is not the answer. Relationship with Jesus is the answer!!!
