The Essentials

[cmc]

Key Passage: Mark 6:6-13
Topic: Faith/Trust; Jesus; Obedience/Discipleship

He [Jesus] charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts (Mark 6:8, ESV).

If somehow, right now, you got an unmistakable call from God to travel the rural towns of your state and preach the Gospel, how long would it take you to prepare for such a journey? How many bags would you pack? Would you take your car in for a tune-up? Would you want a month or two to save up some money?

Jesus didn't give His disciples any of these options. Essentially He sent them out with only the shirt on their backs. The only thing He gave the disciples for their journey was a traveling companion, and the authority to heal sicknesses and drive out demons.

In a way, the disciples were getting a little taste of what things would be like when Jesus returned to heaven. When Jesus left the earth, He left it in the hands of the disciples to spread the Gospel, and the only thing He gave them then was the promise of the Holy Spirit soon to come.

But the disciples found a much greater promise in that God would always provide what they needed. In some places the disciples would have found many people willing to support them, and some places no one at all. But they were never out of the hand of God. And as long as they were there, they had everything they would ever need.



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