6Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. 7Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits. 8These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. 10Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.” 12They went out and preached that people should repent. 13They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. ~Mark 6:6-13
What is your first impression when you read this?
Pretty crazy. Not relevant today. Not applicable in my situation.
Your answer to that question reveals your attitude toward the Word of God.
I agree that it is crazy if you think it’s all about this life. Then, these words are outrageous. Esp. for us growing up in America, with all of our background and education, it seems inconceivable to live this way.
I want you to ask yourself — what would I consider a crazy investment of my life? We have one life so what would be a wise or unwise investment of that one life?
If there is no God and there is no life after death, then each person can pursue whatever he or she will make them happy. For some, it is career. For others, it is family. And whatever you deem as the most important goal or pursuit of your life, you will end up pouring out most of your life for that goal.
However, if there is a God and there is an eternity, then it would be crazy to be so focused on this life that we don’t consider the next life.
The Bible says it’s not all about this life. It’s about the next life. If it is all about the next life, living for anything other than God in this life is utter folly.
There is a parable of a rich, young man who spent his whole life storing up grains in his barns and he had so many grains that he had to build bigger barns so that he could store more grain.
And because he was so busy amassing grain, he had little time for God. And suddenly, his life ended and he had to account for how he had spent his life. So the Bible calls this young man a fool because he did not invest in the right thing while he had the chance. And the point of this story is to be rich toward God, meaning placing him as the highest priority of one’s life, not amassing wealth.
If that is not a parable for all of us, I don’t know what is. We are in danger of being rich toward so many things in the world, and as a result, we become poor toward God.
Being rich toward God means making him the most important person in our lives and because he is so important, we spend time with him, we invest in our relationship with him, it means saying “No” to many others things that can take up our time and our hearts so that we can be rich toward God.