Cooperate and Serve! Mark 9 (Leviticus 13-14)

May the mumbling commence!

Got to love Leviticus!  Two chapters devoted to infectious skin diseases and mildew.  It is for days like these that it is great to be reading a combination of Old and New Testament.

Do you have a competitive streak?  There are many sports going at full swing now – football, basketball, and hockey.  So, how do we best compete for the Lord?  Read from Mark chapter nine:

After they arrived at Capernaum, Jesus and his disciples settled in the house where they would be staying. Jesus asked them, "What were you discussing out on the road?"  But they didn't answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest.  He sat down and called the twelve disciples over to him. Then he said, "Anyone who wants to be the first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else." 

Then he put a little child among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, "Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes my Father who sent me." 

John said to Jesus, "Teacher, we saw a man using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he isn't one of our group." 

"Don't stop him!" Jesus said. "No one who performs miracles in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me.  Anyone who is not against us is for us.  If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I assure you, that person will be rewarded.” (Verses 33-41)

Cooperation is the key.  Service is the key.  Cooperation and service are the two things that will help you climb the ladder of success in the kingdom of God.

And we must cooperate and serve those people we are closest to.  That can be hard because we know their faults… and they know ours.  Sometimes it is very difficult to cooperate and serve those we know best.

But we also must cooperate and serve with those people we do not know.  When we see someone serving Jesus that we don’t know, we shouldn’t be jealous.  We shouldn’t seek to stop them.  We should celebrate their efforts and join their efforts whenever we can.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out