Good morning. Jesus then
calls His 12 disciples. He gave them authority to cast out unclean spirits, and
to heal every kind of disease and sickness. He tells them to not go to any
place except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They are to preach that
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. They are to heal the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse the lepers, cast out demons; freely they have received, and freely they
were to give. They were to do exactly the same things that Jesus was doing. God
gave to us freely, and we are to give to others freely. People who are not of
God charge for their services. That does not mean that we do not support
ministries. They were not supposed to take along provisions for their journey –
they were to trust God to supply. “ I send you out as sheep in the midst of the
wolves; therefore be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves. Beware of men;
for they will deliver you up to the courts, and scourge you in their
synagogues.” There will be opposition to the preaching of the word of God.
People of the world do not want to hear the truth. It would be easy to get
fearful in that situation. But Jesus told them to not become anxious about how
or what they would speak; But it would be given to them in that hour what they
were to speak. For it was not they who spoke, but it was the Spirit of their
Father who would be speaking in them. We also are not to worry about what we
will speak. We are to rely on the Holy Spirit to give us the words to defend
the Gospel. For it is the Gospel we should be defending and not ourselves. Father
thank You that You give the reader the words to speak in all situations. He/she
proclaims Your kingdom wherever he/she goes.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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