Stay or Go?

Mark 6:11-12    And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!” 12 So they went out and preached that people should repent.

I have been awake with a heavy heart this morning for the lost. Personal examples have abounded recently, those in my circle, some close to me, that just don’t “get it”. People that have known me at my worldliest, known me at my worst, and I have testified of the change in me through Christ. Invitations in more than one way denied, still bound by the grasp that the world and sin has upon them. It truly hurts when you so desire for those whom you have known forever to still be lost in sin or false hope. That is a pain I cannot find the words for.

This chapter in Mark is one that many new converts and all that come to live their lives as disciples struggle with; why don’t those close to me understand? Jesus had grown up a simple carpenter’s son, hiding his deity, and then began to preach and fulfill the calling on his life as God. He was rejected by those close to him, and he simply moved on. Christ sends his disciples out to evangelize and heal the sick in this chapter in Mark. He tells them to go unprepared, only to take the Good News that lies in them. Mark 6:8 He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff–no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts– 9 but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics. Those that God had prepared their hearts to receive him through their message would provide for all their needs. They were told to abide in the Spirit and discern those they encountered; to know whether to stay or to keep moving on.

That is hands down one of the hardest things in ministry; the idea of moving on. I have heard of my friends in India speaking of this; you just keep sharing and sharing until someone answers that tug of God on their heart. Then you invest in that person, and urge them to begin to share and seek to make disciples themselves. The only thing that we can continue to do for those that deny, is pray to God for them to humble themselves and repent. It is never our words that save, only our words that delivers the message that can. They must soften their hearts to God’s tug on them and repent. Mark 6:11 And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!