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35 Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. 36 When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. 37 "What a huge harvest!" he said to his disciples. "How few workers! 38 On your knees and pray for harvest hands!" 1 The prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil spirits and to tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives. 2 This is the list of the twelve he sent: Simon (they called him Peter, or "Rock"), Andrew, his brother, James, Zebedee's son, John, his brother, 3 Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, the tax man, James, son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, 4 Simon, the Canaanite, Judas Iscariot (who later turned on him). 5 Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge: 6 Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. 7 Tell them that the kingdom is here. 8 Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously. (Matthew 9:35-10:8 The Message)
Happy Monday, dear Friend! May the blessings of God be yours today as we embark on a study and devotional in His Name and word. I pray you had time to worship the Lord and to receive His blessings. I ask your prayers for the family of Mrs. Terri Hernandez, mother to Rev. Andrew, Mr. Robert, and Ms. Becky Hernandez. The Hernandez household was my residence for almost every weekend church trip during my junior and senior high school years. I hold fond memories of Mr. and Mrs. Hernandez and I pray God's comfort upon her family. I ask that you pray for one another, and pray ror yourselves.
The late Rev. Dr. E. Stanley Jones, early in his ministerial career, was asked to speak on behalf of a missionary society to help recruit new missionaries to India. Rev. Jones accepted rather unwillingly, and arrived to find a room full of young clergy to whom he preached with all his heart. It was towards the end of his sermon that he realized the only one who was going to say yes to this challenge was he himself. He at first kicked himself for having said yes to this invitation to speak, but then realized the work to which he was called was one he could do rather well. So in love was he of Jesus and the work the Lord did in India through him that one year he was elected bishop of the Methodist Church and he turned it down saying he was not yet finished with the work God had called him to do in India.
In today's passage we read how Jesus and His disciples encountered many with "diseased bodies" and "bruised and hurt lives." With a broken heart, Jesus asked His disciples to pray to God to send "harvest hands." The prayer was almost immediately answered when Jesus sends the 12 as the very answer to their prayers. They were the ones to whom the bruised and injured received to help heal their lives and bodies. Hmm. Has this even happened to you? The answer should be yes. We have sometimes prayed for a group or a need only to find the one to whom this need corresponds is we ourselves! We hear the pastor ask for Sunday school teachers, or new choir members, or greeters, or acolytes, and we look around the congregation in hopes of helping the pastor spot the victims, I mean, the target of the challenge only to realize, but sadly dismiss, that we could be the new teachers, singers, greeters, etc. If we have a heart filled with love and compassion, then the action needed can come from us.
The needs are still very much with us. We still have people who are lost, who are confused, who have not heard that the Kingdom message has come, who are dying, diseased, and untouched, demon-possessed and in need of ministries only we can provide. And how do we respond? Jesus said it plainly, "You have been treated generously, so live generously."
PRAYER: Loving Father, we have sung so often the powerful words, "Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit Divine," and yet we still do not see that we can be the answers to our own prayers, especially when it comes to loving those who seem unloving; seeking those not yet found; helping the hurt and bruised; feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those in need. We ask for new opportunities to serve, and this we pray in Christ Jesus' strong name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Pray again and again that we might be answers to our own prayers!
Receive my blessings of peace and joy,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
