What is the significance of being sent out two by two? God could have sent out each disciple one per region because that would maximize their missionary reach. But why were two sent out together? Have you heard of the Partner Effect experiment where they had a group of people evaluating the length of 3 […]
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Mark 6 – Calling and faith partners (Part 2 of 3)
If we were to take this passage literally, how might we apply this? This is a perfect passage for being rich toward God and being poor toward the world. First, we have to create space in our lives to consider a passage like this. We are so busy. And we get into the habit of […]
Mark 6 – Calling and faith partners (Part 1 of 3)
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 […]
Rom 5: Enemies Loving Our Enemies (Part 5 of 5)
What is the surest way to sniff out a religious person? A religious person is someone who does the church thing but cannot forgive his or her enemies. This is where religion meets its limitation. We can attend all the events, we can control ourselves and avoid the blatant sins. We can even consider ourselves […]
Rom 5: Enemies Loving Our Enemies (Part 4 of 5)
The gospel is good news because while we were enemies of God, God did not treat us the same way we treat our enemies. God should have wiped us out. He should have done the crane technique on us. He should have punished us, he should have banished us forever, he should have ignored us […]
Rom 5: Enemies Loving Our Enemies (Part 3 of 5)
Are you still having trouble seeing yourself as an enemy of God? Can I suggest why that might be for some of us? As P. Don talked about at the retreat we just had, we put on our coat of religion and we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are not that bad.