Mission fields
Yo, yo, and hello to everyone out there! I hope and pray you all had a great weekend.
There are couple of things I wanted to discuss this morning. The first thing, I was reading in Matthew 9 today and was struck by an event that is recorded in verses 21-28. Allow me to sumerize the event. Jesus goes to the region of Tyre and Sidon. When He gets there a Canaanite woman sees Him and begs Him to heal her daughter. But He ignores her. She keeps following Him and begging Him to come with her and heal her little girl. Then the disciples tell Him to send her away. Then Jesus turns to her and says "I was sent only to the lost people of Israel". Then she falls down on her knees in desperation and begs Him to heal her daughter and help her. And He says, "It's not right to take the children's bread and give it to their dogs". And she says, "Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table". Then Jesus says, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted". And her little girl is healed from that moment on.
This seems awefully cruel of Jesus to act this way to this woman. Why all of this ignoring of this poor lady? I remember one of my college Bible professors at Harding (Ross Cochran) say, He was setting her up to succed. I agree. Let me tell you why. Jesus says this woman has great faith for keeping at begging for Him to heal her daughter even when it seems that He wasn't intersted in her or her daughter's illness. It seems curel, but He was drawing out her faith in Him, and that is what pleased Him so much to see. So He grants her request.
Secondly, I just read an email report about North Korea that they are living in darkness for so long. That there is so much world news that has come from that country that shows how much they need Jesus, the true light in their land of darkness. North Korea is part of Asia which is possibly one of the most populous continents (if not the most populous continent) in the world. I remember hearing that Asia has 65% of the world's population living there. So many people there need Jesus. Now, who's going to go? Maybe I should go. Maybe someone reading this should go. I don't know. I personally have never been good at language learning, or maybe I'm just making excuses.
I guess I better let y'all go now. God bless you all in Jesus' name!
Zack
ps. "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field". Matthew 9:37-38.
There are couple of things I wanted to discuss this morning. The first thing, I was reading in Matthew 9 today and was struck by an event that is recorded in verses 21-28. Allow me to sumerize the event. Jesus goes to the region of Tyre and Sidon. When He gets there a Canaanite woman sees Him and begs Him to heal her daughter. But He ignores her. She keeps following Him and begging Him to come with her and heal her little girl. Then the disciples tell Him to send her away. Then Jesus turns to her and says "I was sent only to the lost people of Israel". Then she falls down on her knees in desperation and begs Him to heal her daughter and help her. And He says, "It's not right to take the children's bread and give it to their dogs". And she says, "Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table". Then Jesus says, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted". And her little girl is healed from that moment on.
This seems awefully cruel of Jesus to act this way to this woman. Why all of this ignoring of this poor lady? I remember one of my college Bible professors at Harding (Ross Cochran) say, He was setting her up to succed. I agree. Let me tell you why. Jesus says this woman has great faith for keeping at begging for Him to heal her daughter even when it seems that He wasn't intersted in her or her daughter's illness. It seems curel, but He was drawing out her faith in Him, and that is what pleased Him so much to see. So He grants her request.
Secondly, I just read an email report about North Korea that they are living in darkness for so long. That there is so much world news that has come from that country that shows how much they need Jesus, the true light in their land of darkness. North Korea is part of Asia which is possibly one of the most populous continents (if not the most populous continent) in the world. I remember hearing that Asia has 65% of the world's population living there. So many people there need Jesus. Now, who's going to go? Maybe I should go. Maybe someone reading this should go. I don't know. I personally have never been good at language learning, or maybe I'm just making excuses.
I guess I better let y'all go now. God bless you all in Jesus' name!
Zack
ps. "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field". Matthew 9:37-38.
posted by Zack | 8:40 AM
2 Comments:
Hey Zack,
Good thoughts bro. Another thought I had, related to Jesus with the Canaanite woman, was that He was training her to be persistent in prayer. Persistence and patience in prayer is certainly something Jesus taught elsewhere in the gospels, and through this encounter the woman was able to learn the value in persistently asking her Lord for something. The lesson could have sunk in to those observing this encounter as well.
Amesome Rob! I like that. Yes, Jesus taught a parable about that (the persistant widow). Thank you Rob. God bless!
Zack
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