{"id":280,"date":"2015-11-04T08:43:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T13:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/for-them-for-us\/"},"modified":"2019-04-09T01:51:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T05:51:00","slug":"for-them-for-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/for-them-for-us\/","title":{"rendered":"For Them, For Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the one who is not against us is for us. (Mark 9:40 ESV)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus’ disciples encountered somebody doing good work in the name of Jesus who was not a follower of Jesus. It bothered them that this person would dare to do whatever they were doing in Jesus’ name, so they tried to stop that person from doing whatever he or she was doing. However, Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about it. Have you ever wondered why?<\/p>\n

Jesus’ train of thought starts with the idea that people who do things in the name of Jesus will witness, first-hand, the power of His name (v39).<\/p>\n

The application and implication of this idea is extraordinary.<\/p>\n

That is to say that when we bring nonbelievers into the work of Jesus’ people (think making disciples of all nations by proclaiming the good news, healing the sick, and feeding poor) they will soon believe in what Jesus can do.<\/p>\n

This will cause that person to believe in Jesus. It is a minor miracle on its own, to see a non-believer believe. Secondly, Jesus trains his disciples to see that people who are not explicitly against the followers of Jesus are actually a benefit for His followers (v40).<\/p>\n

Jesus says, “they are for us.” Sure, they may not necessarily be our best partner in our God given mission on this planet, but they certainly aren’t the enemy causing us enmity.<\/p>\n

The question is then, how are we treating the people who are not explicitly not against us? Are we treating them like they are a hindrance?<\/p>\n

Are busting out against them? Or are we treating them as potential new believers?<\/p>\n

Are we loving them with the same care Jesus had for people like you and me?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the one who is not against us is for us. (Mark 9:40 ESV) Jesus’ disciples encountered somebody doing good work in the name of Jesus who was not a follower of Jesus. It bothered them that this person would dare to do whatever they were doing in Jesus’ name, so they tried to stop … Continue reading For Them, For Us<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":587,"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nyhanmaum.org\/EM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}