Dave’s Monday Blast – September 18, 2023
Last week we were chatting about Having Grace for Others (Title taken from First15). We took a quick look at John 13:34 – 35 where Jesus was issuing a new commandment for His new covenant; love one another. In so doing, we would be dispensing the kind of grace that our Heavenly Father abundantly demonstrates throughout Scripture.
As we strive to be INTENTIONAL men of God, I think we all agree that extending grace can at times be very difficult. We live in challenging days and there are many who vehemently oppose a Biblical Worldview. Fortunately, Jesus was a master teacher and He modeled many effective methods to equip us to be about His works of grace.
Many of you know about Jonathan Cahn. He is an American Messianic Jewish rabbi, author, and novelist known for his debut novel The Harbinger (1 and 2), and his other best sellers like The Return of the Gods. Cahn has a robust YouTube presence. In a recent article he wrote: “There were no discipleship correspondence courses in Messiah’s time. They couldn’t stay home. They had to go on the road with Him. Because the majority of His lessons weren’t things that could be in lesson plans. Some of Messiah’s teaching were with words, the rest were lessons of being, doing, seeing or being in His presence. How He was when He was alone with them, when He rose up, went to bed, entered a house, wept, rejoiced, healed and performed miracles, when He was asleep in the boat or when He stayed awake in the garden. As His disciple, you need to read, hear, and be a student of His Word. But that’s not enough. You have to be with Him. When the Sanhedrin looked at the apostles, they recognized them as having been with Messiah. You have to spend time with Him, learn, behold, see, hear and follow Him. The Sanhedrin saw that the apostles spoke with authority because they were with Yeshua; Jesus. That’s the mark of a disciple. You do the same, so others will look at you and say, ‘This one was with the Messiah.'”
If we are to be His Image Bearers (Genesis 1), and of course this is what we are created to be, we need to find ways to love the people we divinely encounter in the routine circumstances of our day. I think it is appropriate to ask ourselves this question each day:
Who am I influencing today?
I love this lesson from St. Teresa of Avila
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks with compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks with compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
There you have it brothers…a sound recipe for being the best grace dispenser the Lord created you to be (Ephesians 2:10). Follow Jesus in word and deed!
