As with most of my life I look for ways to bring to summation what takes me 1000's of words into a few words, just so I can say a 1000 more words about those words. But in short, my life has really come down to 6 words. They are found tucked into Matthew 10 as Jesus is sending out the 12. Funny how we see things a new for the first time sometimes. As I came back to these six words again last night with a group of college students I looked past the little picture and saw a bigger image.
As much as I love chapter and verse divisions in the bible sometimes they hinder us from seeing the gospel story as a story, but often veiwing like a collection of stories. At the end of Matthew 9 Jesus looks out and sees Israel as helpless and harassed, sheep without a shepherd. Then immediately after that in the story Jesus sends out the 12 with these six words tucked in: "freely you have received, freely give."
Simple, short, to the point, but filled with so much. These six words make you and me responsible for what we have been given - time, talent, treasure, wisdom, knowledge. Every teaching, devotion, sermon, revelation that has been given. We have the responsibility to give that away.
Those six words have shaped, developed and been buried inside my heart. So the challenge for us is this: what are you giving away?
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