“My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”
~ Luke 8:21
Hi James and Ellen,
When your grandpaa plans a short-term ministry team trip, your grandpaa always makes sure that there is every day in the short-term team’s itinerary and schedule briefings, a debriefing and a devotional/celebration time. Your grandpaa thinks that these daily scheduled times to stop for a short period of time in the morning and then especially in the evening to confer what the day and the next day will look like, discuss the prior day’s and the day’s activities and spend a few moments to reflect on an incident, a person and/or truth that is recorded in the Bible are the most important times of the trip. During recent short-term trips that ministry teams from the United States made to Guatemala that your grandpaa led, your grandpaa used during his devotional times episodes that involved Elisha. Since your grandmaa and grandpaa began to work in 2004 at OC International’s headquarters – which is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, your grandpaa has enjoyed leading the devotional time during the ‘Introduction to OC’ orientation sessions that your grandmaa was given the responsibility to oversee and teach. The department that your grandmaa and grandpaa are in at OC-IMC – which is what OC International’s headquarters in Colorado Springs is called, has a scheduled meeting every Thursday morning. This weekly meeting always begins with a devotional and prayer time. The guys and gals who are in the department that your grandmaa and grandpaa are in are listed on a schedule to take turns to lead the devotional time as well as to lead the meeting. It was your grandpaa’s turn last week Thursday to lead the personnel department’s devotional time and meeting. Your grandpaa decided to lead the devotional time around the thought that what if God – as God the Son – Jesus – while He went to towns and places in and around the Sea of Galilee, had a daily briefing, debriefing and devotional time with the twelve guys who He arbitrarily chose to mentor? Your grandpaa wanted to have the guys and gals who would be in this weekly personnel department meeting try to envision Jesus interacting with His eclectic gang of twelve guys – conveying to them what He was intending to do that day and the next day, asking for their thoughts about what they had seen happen the prior day or during that day and leaving the twelve guys with some spiritual insights.
Your grandpaa used the incidents that Doctor Luke wrote about in Luke 8 as possible debriefing material that Jesus could have used with His band of twelve guys to help them get a handle on Who He really was. Your grandpaa was tempted to assign each guy and gal at last week’s meeting the name of one of the twelve guys who Jesus picked to mentor. Your grandpaa thought that it might be interesting for the guy or gal to respond as best as he or she could as to how his or her assigned disciple acted. Pete seemed to have been an extreme extrovert – who really seemed to like talking. John seemed to have been a rather quiet guy – who really seemed to want to be liked by Jesus. Tom seemed to have had trouble accepting what another guy said – who really needed to see with his own eyes what was being said. Andy seemed to have had a passion to tell other guys about this guy Jesus – and Who he really wanted other guys to follow. Simon seemed to have been a military zealot or a freedom fighter – who may possibly have thought of Jesus as the answer to his perception of the injustices that his people group guys and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals where experiencing. Jud – the gang’s treasurer, seemed to have had a motivation that was only for himself – as he would be the guy who for a payoff turned his back on his loyal mentor.
Your grandpaa can picture Jesus selecting a quiet place to be alone with His pack of twelve guys – to debrief with them about the last week or so that they had spent together. Jesus is on His second tour of the Galilean area. Jesus begins the time by asking relevant queries to the twelve guys who He chose to be the guys who He would invest a lot of His time and energy into to prepare them for when . . . as these would be the guys who would take His message of hope to the rest of the known world. Jesus asks the twelve guys how they had felt when He told the Galilee Sea to calm down – and the Galilee Sea did. Jesus asks the twelve guys how they had felt when after they had arrived in the Gerasenes region, He told a legion of spirits to stop causing a guy to act crazy and to go and do their thing in some nearby pigs – which they did causing the herd of pigs to run pell-mell into the Galilee Sea where they drowned. Jesus asks the twelve guys how they had felt when as they were going to the house of a synagogue ruler – Jairus, to check on Jairus’ dying twelve year old daughter, a gal who had been sick for twelve years with a bleeding problem having touched His garment’s hem – causing Him to suddenly having to stop because . . . and then telling the gal that she no longer had a bleeding problem because He had healed her. Jesus asks the twelve guys how they had felt when after they arrived at Jairus’ house and were told that the guy’s daughter had already died – and then hearing Him say that the gal was not dead – that she was just asleep and He . . . and she was alive again. Jesus then asks His twelve guys about the parable that He told them as He began this evening debriefing time. The parable was about the value of preparing lives for sowing the Word of God. When Jesus was asked about His ma and about His bros, Jesus said what is in verse 21, “He replied, “‘My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.’” Jesus also told His twelve guys that they were to let their light – their lives, shine. What do you think that Jesus’ twelve disciples were thinking when Jesus finished asking them for their thoughts about what He had done and what had He told them. Your grandpaa thinks that the twelve guys’ heads had to have been spinning.
Luke 8 (681)