72 Friends

Luke 10:1-9:

At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.'”

Blog:

I don’t know about you, but I happen to know a lot of people just by the nature of where God has planted me.  But I can’t say that I have a lot Friends who would get up at 2 AM to come and pick me up if my truck broke down an hour away.  What I’ve learned after over half of a lifetime is that my vast sea of Friends dries-up pretty quickly to a few small pools of water when it comes to who are my very close Friends – the ones that would do anything for me.  And this holds true for most of the folks that I know, as well.  It’s staggering to think that in just under 3 years of His earthly Ministry, Jesus Christ had so many close Friends (Apostles, Disciples, others) that He could literally ask any of them to do just about anything and they would do it (like the 72 Messengers in the Gospels).  St. Matthew (Levi) left his tax collection table in an instant; St. Peter dropped his nets and left his boat in an instant, too…  While there were many folks who didn’t do what Jesus was asking them to do, there were many that did and His Spiritual Charisma has been getting Believers to act on His commands and requests ever since.  Today, there roughly 2.4 billion close Friends of Jesus (Christians) in the world.  And, as before, we’re all called to go out into the world proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus “like lambs among wolves”.  It doesn’t require money or sandals to do the work of God, but it does require everything of us.  So, in a Spirit of total surrender, let’s keep focused on the Prize of Eternal Life waiting for all of those who have left “everything” in order to preach the Word of God in whichever way we’re Gifted to do so.  Whether we’re doing that from a Pulpit, the Altar, a desk, or a hug, the Eternal Finish Line is in our view when live with Biblical Principles in obedience to God.