You Can Take Heart in Uncertainty

Uncertainty is a difficult thing to bear. We want to know where the provision is going to come from or if we’re going to die of this disease or how this child is going to turn out or if our job will still be there next month.

But as we see in Luke 9:57–58, Jesus makes it clear that his disciples must be able to bear uncertainty if they are to follow him.

“I will follow you wherever you go.”

I’m sure that whoever made this public declaration to Jesus was sincere. They likely had heard him preach and seen him perform amazing signs and wonders. 

As Jesus’s fame increased, so did the number of his would-be disciples.

What the person might not have known was that at that moment Jesus was homeless. Jesus and his cohort were traveling south from Galilee. He had set his face to go to Jerusalem, where his resolute purpose was to die. But to get there he had to travel through Samaria.

Getting the Context

Back then there was a lot of bad blood between Jews and Samaritans. More precisely, Samaritans had the bad blood. They were the result of centuries of intermarriage and religious syncretism between Jews and Israel’s former Gentile conquerors.   Continue at Jon Bloom

The Precious Word of God

How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! – Psalm 119:103

It has been a week since I returned from London when the Lord sent a group of evangelists to proclaim the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ during the 2012 Summer Olympics. While I am adjusting to the “normal routine” of life, my heart still lingers in London with all that the Lord accomplished for His glory. I miss my brothers and sisters who I labored with from the States, as well as my new friends who the Lord blessed me to meet and labor beside. While I cannot possibly remember all the good things that happened during our mission, I hope I will be able to share some things the Lord has used to teach me and grow personally as a result of the trip. I’ll share two such stories in this article (note: names have been changed to protect identities).

The Cost of Following Christ 

Trafalgar Square

On Wednesday, August 1, we set up our ministry location at Trafalgar Square, a major tourist attraction adjacent to The Mall entrance to Buckingham Palace. The architecture and statues in this area were magnificent, and the vast amount of pedestrian space provided for an excellent ministry location. 100,000 people traversing the area on the day we visited would be a conservative estimate.

Robert, Jason, and I set up in the middle of the Square and it wasn’t long before we were prohibited from preaching (we couldn’t practice any religious speech or hand out literature within the park). Eventually, Robert and I found our way over to a couple of young students named Patrik and Fahim, who couldn’t have been older than 15 years old. As Patrik is from Hungary and Fahim from Saudi Arabia, we had a bit of a language barrier but they seemed to understand well enough to have a conversation.   Continue at AiroCross