9:1-2 This is the disciples first opportunity to join God's mission individually. Jesus prepared them well -- He taught them through parables, through speaking to multitudes throughout the cities, and by being a living example. Jesus needed to ensure that they were well-prepared for the time when He would no longer be able to lead them. After Jesus' crucifixion, God had plans for the disciples to each go out into the world and become teachers... in order to create and gather more students and also more teachers. God's mission has always been to reach all people and to do that, He creates a system of students reaching more students through time and geography.
This is an example for us too: whenever God gives us any gift or talent or courage we are meant to use that gift, talent and courage to uplift others. We multiply His compassion when we help it to reverberate around the world, reaching and helping many people.
9:3 It's important that they teach correctly and Jesus has advice on how to do so. Jesus taught them to go with nothing -- to present themselves as humble, modest students of God. It's important for people to see that God's children do not need anything extra in order to accomplish amazing things -- all they (we) need is Him.
The message Jesus teaches is that the material possessions of the world do not sustain us -- neither our bodies nor our souls. To accurately portray the truth of that message, His students need to be independent of love of wealth, power and fame. Jesus not not send His disciples out to impress people with their clothes or fancy prayers or anything like that... they went out with only their abundance of love and agreement with God.
9:4 He wanted the disciples to stay in homes they were invited into but then to work, tirelessly, outside of that home reaching as many people as they could. They weren't supposed to be welcomed and doted on...no, they wanted to get to work and have a safe place to sleep after a long day.
9:5 We aren't supposed to force ourselves or our ideas on anybody. If somebody uses us, rejects us, argues with us (aggressively and not constructively) we are supposed to move on. We aren't supposed to fight or beg or get walked over... God's message and His children are friends of everyone who will have them. If someone does not respect or appreciate you or your beliefs, shake them off and move yourself onward.
9:6 So out of Jesus, the first 12 disciples went out into the world and began to heal and teach. God's word multiplies when we join Him.
9:7-9 Herod was nervous because he had John the Baptist killed... the thought his adversary was gone... he thought he had won... and then news of Jesus reaches Him.
9:10 After having some personal experience in the field, the disciples gather with Jesus to tell Him what they had accomplished. They had a discussion, likely Jesus gave them advice for bumps they had... always communicate with God, He helps you to organize your thoughts and improve.
9:11 Afterward, Jesus went back to the crowd of people who wanted to hear from Him. He got back to His other business. He is a busy, focused, compassionate guy!
9:12 It started to get late and the disciples wanted Jesus to send everyone home -- they worried that if the crowd did not leave soon, they would be without food and shelter for the night.
9:13 Jesus instructed the disciples to feed the crowd. This was a lesson through metaphor. Let's explore it! The disciples are concerned that they do not have nearly enough food to feed the people.
The "bread" is the word of God -- Jesus was teaching the disciples to go into the word and feed these masses of people with the word (bread in the metaphor) and the disciples were anxious because they did not believe themselves capable of doing such a massive, important job.
9:14 Jesus took control of the situation -- as His life truly did. He organizes us when we align with Him and He gives us not just a purpose but also a plan and the will to accomplish it.
9:15 The disciples listened to Jesus. This is most important -- they listened. When you want to improve, you listen and observe. If the disciples had remained frantic and nervous, those emotions would have kept them from accomplishing and learning.
9:16 Jesus takes the word of God (bread) and makes it readily available to however many people want and need it. After He does that, He gives the word and love of God to the people who will spread it and share it and teach it to others.
We might feel small and inadequate at times but with God... truly even just one voice or idea can change the world. We've seen it happen.
That's the beauty of how God works -- He's inclusive. We are all given the honorable opportunity to work with Him. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
God supplies the means we need to create love in spaces where there is none, to shine lights in corners where there is darkness, to speak truth in the places of deceit and mistrust. How much sweeter is it that we contribute to these beautiful things which save and rejuvenate, sustain and nourish humanity than to simply have them handed to us? We must accept what is being proffered, the ability to be tools, for the benefit of our existence as a many One.
The joy of life is the joy we feel from bringing joy to others.
9:16 Jesus takes what there is and multiplies it. Continue the metaphor: Jesus begins with only Himself... and then He creates 12 more teachers... and from them more, and more... through time and space on the Earth it spreads. He gives us the material, the wisdom, the determination, the ability to give to others on God's behalf.
Notice that Jesus does not just directly give the bread (teachings/word of God/love of God) to the crowd Himself, He hands it to the disciples to participate and to help Him in this beautiful mission.
9:17 There was (IS) enough for everybody -- there is abundance. God is creation of life and love and He has no limits.
9:18 Jesus is praying/communicating again with God. He always remains tethered with God and because of that He is such a strong, beautiful, purposeful spirit. Keep God close to you... have a running conversation with Him your entire life... He's listening, He's watching, He's guiding and sending comfort.
Jesus is ensuring that the disciples are not caught up in gossip, He asks them who the crowds are naming Him as.
9:19 There's a lot of talk going around! People think Jesus is John the Baptist, Elijah the prophet, or another prophet...
9:20 Jesus does not proclaim Himself -- He asks the disciples who they believe He is, after spending so much time with Him, learning from Him and watching Him. The know Him as the Son of God -- a manifestation of God's perfect grace on Earth.
9:21 It wasn't time for this information to travel yet... Jesus always wanted to teach through example and not through proclamations without base. He wanted people to listen and learn and heal and to realize for themselves Who His spirit originated from -- God.
God always wishes to provide an opportunity for us to have our own, unbiased, unforced opinion.
9:22 Jesus tells the disciples the details of His crucifixion... He explains that there will be a time when it is made quite clear that Jesus is sent from God. For now, it was a time of learning from His life.
9:23 This verse can sound complicated at first, and it is a deep message but it's actually very understandable: Jesus wants us to know that if our desire, our passion is to work and be with God, it will take a lot of responsibility on our part. Not only will there be responsibility, we have to put others before ourselves. God will always take care of us and when we shift out focus from on ourselves to others, He certainly pours love and protection into us.
It's a daily journey. Every day you wake up wanting to be a part of God's plan, is a day you will be working... working for others and working to be a better person. With so much wisdom and guidance, we are expected to use it to be patient, purposeful, honest, and compassionate.
9:24 Jesus wants us to know that we cannot be both self-centered and selfless at the same time. A person who deceives others, hurts others, or uses others to gain for themselves will lose their eternal life -- that way of life is not acceptable to God. Those who live selflessly, not impressed or in pursuit of fame and wealth and control will gain eternal life. God's love is selfless and kind and full of life and nature -- it does not need any of the false-happiness wealth, control and power that exists on Earth.
9:25 Jesus wants us to know that even if we have the control of the entire world, the wealth and fame of the entire world, our time having it will be a tiny little blip in the grand scheme of life. To have all of those things, a person would have stolen, cheated, deceived, fought to get it... and they would have lost their eternal life. God does not take anything away from people... people walk away from God when they chose a different path.
9:26 If anyone is ashamed or rejecting of compassion, Jesus is going to be ashamed of that person -- because their choice to be evil has hurt so many people.
9:27 Jesus speaks of His crucifixion and subsequent transfiguration into the spiritual world. A few of the disciples would be able to witness Jesus risen in His spiritual, eternal form (in the next few verses we will learn of this).
9:28 Jesus, Peter, John and James went together to a private place to pray.
9:29 Before their eyes, Jesus began to transfigure into His spiritual self. Beautiful!
9:30-31 The prophets Moses and Elijah, in spiritual form, joined Jesus and began to discuss the upcoming events of His life (and Earthly death) with Him.
9:32 God's spiritual dimension is amazing and difficult to comprehend from Earth's dimension. These three disciples were in awe but also in complete shock, not fully understanding what was happening around them.
9:33 These disciples first response was to make a place of prayer to the 3 transfigured souls -- this lets us know just how impressive and amazing the scene was. They were filled with faith.
9:34-36 God was with Jesus in every moment. His love for this soul who would bring love and purpose to the entire world is magnificent. Hear Him, He has so much to teach and give.
The disciples were quiet about what they had seen, not only because they were still working through it but also because Jesus taught them that there was a specific time and opportunity for this piece of knowledge -- which would be shown to the world following His crucifixion.
9:37 Jesus comes from the mountain to rejoin with the multitude of people we needed Him.
9:38-39 A man appears who needs Jesus' help saving his son. His son suffers from seizures and the father is so upset having had to watch his son struggle with this illness.
9:40 This was a boy the disciples were not able to help.
9:41 Jesus is concerned because He needed and wanted the disciples to develop their faith during His time with them. We do not know the particulars of the difficulty the disciples had but we know that Jesus gave them complete authority over their faith... the only time they could fail was if their faith was not strong enough. We must realize that with God everything is possible if it is His will... we cannot allow ourselves to be easily discouraged; we have to be strong and willing and resilient.
9:42 Jesus easily and effectively healed the child because His faith is strong and perfect. The message to extract from this is that God will always provide to those who will have the faith to trust Him. God waits for our permission to enter our lives... if we only have little faith, He can only do so much. We must believe.
9:43-44 Everyone was amazed and celebrated but Jesus needed the disciples to remain focused -- this was a serious mission. He wanted them to know, much before hand, that Jesus would be brought to "death" by His adversaries. Always be focused.
9:45 They did not yet understand. They weren't ready for this knowledge and God was patient with them... when they showed that they could not yet handle this information, He held it from them a little longer until they could.
In the next verse we will get an idea of how immature the disciples still were -- they still needed guidance. They were still missing some of the main points of God's message of humility.
9:46 The disciples start arguing with each other trying to decide who will be labelled the best student.
9:47 To answer their dispute, Jesus teaches a profound message. Jesus sits with a child...
9:48 He explained to the disciples that the greatest person in God's house is the person who does not care at all about how they rank. Jesus explains that in order to be considered great by God... you must give your whole self to others who need you. The person who gives everything, and therefore becomes the least on Earth, becomes the greatest to God. Like Jesus did, the person who devotes themselves entirely to helping others is the brightest star.
Jesus continues to teach us to be humble and compassion above all other things.
Still, there are messages the disciples have not yet learned. Let's explore another in the next verse.
9:49 The disciples see somebody working in God's name, helping God's children. The disciples immediately reject this person. This is something the world does today quite often -- people create exclusive clubs and churches and gatherings and forget all of their common sense! Any person, doing a good deed, is a person of God.
9:50 Anyone who works with God is with God... there is no special group from which a person has to belong in order to be loved by Him. This person who the disciples thought* they had the authority to forbid was clearly a faithful, compassionate person who heard Jesus' teachings, absorbed them and worked with God to spread it to others.
*Do not become arrogant and lose your common sense.
There are many interpretations of our Spiritual God. There are different books but when the core of those texts is compassion, it's the same God... it's the same message. Be inclusive. Diversity is good for the intelligence of the world... we have so much to share with each other.
9:51-53 The time for Jesus to journey toward the place where He would be crucified came and Jesus began to go there, with purpose and courage. Jesus was thrilled to carry out God's word and He feared nothing. However, Jesus was not received well by the people.
9:54 The disciples, still largely missing the point, ask Jesus if the city of people who rejected Him should be consumed by fire.
9:55 Jesus is stunned... He shows them a bit of tough love -- truth dispensed with a vigor. They had still failed to understand what their God stood for -- certainly not cruelty.
9:56 Jesus did not come to destroy men's live but to save them. Jesus continued on, uninterrupted by this challenge in His plan. He knew what was coming, He was prepared by God and ready to accomplish it regardless of difficulties.
This statement is something people often forget about God: He loves and creates. He is forgiving and patient to all people. His message is a peaceful one. Those who reject them reject their own lives... He doesn't take them away, they give it away! His mission is to help us, to listen to us and guide us. He knows we have troubles and shortcomings -- He loves us, He understands and works with us so that we can grow.
9:57 This and the following verses are a bit deep in message. Someone said to Jesus that they would follow Him to wherever He went.
9:58 Jesus was explaining to this person that to join Him is to join a lifelong, arduous journey. While on Earth, Jesus had no resting time. His time was too valuable to spend resting. He worked every minute of His life. Anyone who wanted(wants) to follow Him must realize the responsibility to grow and work each day.
9:59-60 This is also a metaphor: someone wants to follow Jesus but before they do they want to do a bit more with their lives. This person was trying to be in two places at once -- either your mission is with God or is with yourself in the world. This person wanted to go back and perform traditional rituals following the "death" of their father. This can symbolic of someone wanting to join God's mission... but waiting to have a bit of self-centered fun in their life first. When you hear with understanding, your journey begins there -- not later.
We are all alive in God, eternally, if we want it... work to bring that to others without delay.
9:61 Likewise this person wants to commit to God's work but... first they want to do a few other things. God needs fellow workers now, not later. A procrastinator is not a help to God.
You know from learning from Jesus that He has an endless supply of compassion --- if these people's desire was simply to perform selfless acts for loved ones, Jesus would have supported it. No, they wanted to journey back and forth... to pray to God but not to actually live the word. That's unacceptable.
This person wanted to go back and join his friends and family who lived contrary to Jesus' teachings, not because they wanted to guide them but because they sort of liked that way of life... focused entirely on themselves... that won't work.
9:62 Living life with, through, for God and His children is a full-time commitment. You cannot say one thing and do another. You have to make the decision to be with Him and stay focused on it with passion and determination. A hypocrite will never accomplish anything but deception and chaos. A hypocrite teaches an illogical message. A person of God is always truthful, transparent and compassionate.
The message Jesus teaches is that the material possessions of the world do not sustain us -- neither our bodies nor our souls. To accurately portray the truth of that message, His students need to be independent of love of wealth, power and fame. Jesus not not send His disciples out to impress people with their clothes or fancy prayers or anything like that... they went out with only their abundance of love and agreement with God.
9:4 He wanted the disciples to stay in homes they were invited into but then to work, tirelessly, outside of that home reaching as many people as they could. They weren't supposed to be welcomed and doted on...no, they wanted to get to work and have a safe place to sleep after a long day.
9:5 We aren't supposed to force ourselves or our ideas on anybody. If somebody uses us, rejects us, argues with us (aggressively and not constructively) we are supposed to move on. We aren't supposed to fight or beg or get walked over... God's message and His children are friends of everyone who will have them. If someone does not respect or appreciate you or your beliefs, shake them off and move yourself onward.
9:6 So out of Jesus, the first 12 disciples went out into the world and began to heal and teach. God's word multiplies when we join Him.
9:7-9 Herod was nervous because he had John the Baptist killed... the thought his adversary was gone... he thought he had won... and then news of Jesus reaches Him.
9:10 After having some personal experience in the field, the disciples gather with Jesus to tell Him what they had accomplished. They had a discussion, likely Jesus gave them advice for bumps they had... always communicate with God, He helps you to organize your thoughts and improve.
9:11 Afterward, Jesus went back to the crowd of people who wanted to hear from Him. He got back to His other business. He is a busy, focused, compassionate guy!
9:12 It started to get late and the disciples wanted Jesus to send everyone home -- they worried that if the crowd did not leave soon, they would be without food and shelter for the night.
9:13 Jesus instructed the disciples to feed the crowd. This was a lesson through metaphor. Let's explore it! The disciples are concerned that they do not have nearly enough food to feed the people.
The "bread" is the word of God -- Jesus was teaching the disciples to go into the word and feed these masses of people with the word (bread in the metaphor) and the disciples were anxious because they did not believe themselves capable of doing such a massive, important job.
9:14 Jesus took control of the situation -- as His life truly did. He organizes us when we align with Him and He gives us not just a purpose but also a plan and the will to accomplish it.
9:15 The disciples listened to Jesus. This is most important -- they listened. When you want to improve, you listen and observe. If the disciples had remained frantic and nervous, those emotions would have kept them from accomplishing and learning.
9:16 Jesus takes the word of God (bread) and makes it readily available to however many people want and need it. After He does that, He gives the word and love of God to the people who will spread it and share it and teach it to others.
We might feel small and inadequate at times but with God... truly even just one voice or idea can change the world. We've seen it happen.
That's the beauty of how God works -- He's inclusive. We are all given the honorable opportunity to work with Him. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
God supplies the means we need to create love in spaces where there is none, to shine lights in corners where there is darkness, to speak truth in the places of deceit and mistrust. How much sweeter is it that we contribute to these beautiful things which save and rejuvenate, sustain and nourish humanity than to simply have them handed to us? We must accept what is being proffered, the ability to be tools, for the benefit of our existence as a many One.
The joy of life is the joy we feel from bringing joy to others.
9:16 Jesus takes what there is and multiplies it. Continue the metaphor: Jesus begins with only Himself... and then He creates 12 more teachers... and from them more, and more... through time and space on the Earth it spreads. He gives us the material, the wisdom, the determination, the ability to give to others on God's behalf.
Notice that Jesus does not just directly give the bread (teachings/word of God/love of God) to the crowd Himself, He hands it to the disciples to participate and to help Him in this beautiful mission.
9:17 There was (IS) enough for everybody -- there is abundance. God is creation of life and love and He has no limits.
9:18 Jesus is praying/communicating again with God. He always remains tethered with God and because of that He is such a strong, beautiful, purposeful spirit. Keep God close to you... have a running conversation with Him your entire life... He's listening, He's watching, He's guiding and sending comfort.
Jesus is ensuring that the disciples are not caught up in gossip, He asks them who the crowds are naming Him as.
9:19 There's a lot of talk going around! People think Jesus is John the Baptist, Elijah the prophet, or another prophet...
9:20 Jesus does not proclaim Himself -- He asks the disciples who they believe He is, after spending so much time with Him, learning from Him and watching Him. The know Him as the Son of God -- a manifestation of God's perfect grace on Earth.
9:21 It wasn't time for this information to travel yet... Jesus always wanted to teach through example and not through proclamations without base. He wanted people to listen and learn and heal and to realize for themselves Who His spirit originated from -- God.
God always wishes to provide an opportunity for us to have our own, unbiased, unforced opinion.
9:22 Jesus tells the disciples the details of His crucifixion... He explains that there will be a time when it is made quite clear that Jesus is sent from God. For now, it was a time of learning from His life.
9:23 This verse can sound complicated at first, and it is a deep message but it's actually very understandable: Jesus wants us to know that if our desire, our passion is to work and be with God, it will take a lot of responsibility on our part. Not only will there be responsibility, we have to put others before ourselves. God will always take care of us and when we shift out focus from on ourselves to others, He certainly pours love and protection into us.
It's a daily journey. Every day you wake up wanting to be a part of God's plan, is a day you will be working... working for others and working to be a better person. With so much wisdom and guidance, we are expected to use it to be patient, purposeful, honest, and compassionate.
9:24 Jesus wants us to know that we cannot be both self-centered and selfless at the same time. A person who deceives others, hurts others, or uses others to gain for themselves will lose their eternal life -- that way of life is not acceptable to God. Those who live selflessly, not impressed or in pursuit of fame and wealth and control will gain eternal life. God's love is selfless and kind and full of life and nature -- it does not need any of the false-happiness wealth, control and power that exists on Earth.
9:25 Jesus wants us to know that even if we have the control of the entire world, the wealth and fame of the entire world, our time having it will be a tiny little blip in the grand scheme of life. To have all of those things, a person would have stolen, cheated, deceived, fought to get it... and they would have lost their eternal life. God does not take anything away from people... people walk away from God when they chose a different path.
9:26 If anyone is ashamed or rejecting of compassion, Jesus is going to be ashamed of that person -- because their choice to be evil has hurt so many people.
9:27 Jesus speaks of His crucifixion and subsequent transfiguration into the spiritual world. A few of the disciples would be able to witness Jesus risen in His spiritual, eternal form (in the next few verses we will learn of this).
9:28 Jesus, Peter, John and James went together to a private place to pray.
9:29 Before their eyes, Jesus began to transfigure into His spiritual self. Beautiful!
9:30-31 The prophets Moses and Elijah, in spiritual form, joined Jesus and began to discuss the upcoming events of His life (and Earthly death) with Him.
9:32 God's spiritual dimension is amazing and difficult to comprehend from Earth's dimension. These three disciples were in awe but also in complete shock, not fully understanding what was happening around them.
9:33 These disciples first response was to make a place of prayer to the 3 transfigured souls -- this lets us know just how impressive and amazing the scene was. They were filled with faith.
9:34-36 God was with Jesus in every moment. His love for this soul who would bring love and purpose to the entire world is magnificent. Hear Him, He has so much to teach and give.
The disciples were quiet about what they had seen, not only because they were still working through it but also because Jesus taught them that there was a specific time and opportunity for this piece of knowledge -- which would be shown to the world following His crucifixion.
9:37 Jesus comes from the mountain to rejoin with the multitude of people we needed Him.
9:38-39 A man appears who needs Jesus' help saving his son. His son suffers from seizures and the father is so upset having had to watch his son struggle with this illness.
9:40 This was a boy the disciples were not able to help.
9:41 Jesus is concerned because He needed and wanted the disciples to develop their faith during His time with them. We do not know the particulars of the difficulty the disciples had but we know that Jesus gave them complete authority over their faith... the only time they could fail was if their faith was not strong enough. We must realize that with God everything is possible if it is His will... we cannot allow ourselves to be easily discouraged; we have to be strong and willing and resilient.
9:42 Jesus easily and effectively healed the child because His faith is strong and perfect. The message to extract from this is that God will always provide to those who will have the faith to trust Him. God waits for our permission to enter our lives... if we only have little faith, He can only do so much. We must believe.
9:43-44 Everyone was amazed and celebrated but Jesus needed the disciples to remain focused -- this was a serious mission. He wanted them to know, much before hand, that Jesus would be brought to "death" by His adversaries. Always be focused.
9:45 They did not yet understand. They weren't ready for this knowledge and God was patient with them... when they showed that they could not yet handle this information, He held it from them a little longer until they could.
In the next verse we will get an idea of how immature the disciples still were -- they still needed guidance. They were still missing some of the main points of God's message of humility.
9:46 The disciples start arguing with each other trying to decide who will be labelled the best student.
9:47 To answer their dispute, Jesus teaches a profound message. Jesus sits with a child...
9:48 He explained to the disciples that the greatest person in God's house is the person who does not care at all about how they rank. Jesus explains that in order to be considered great by God... you must give your whole self to others who need you. The person who gives everything, and therefore becomes the least on Earth, becomes the greatest to God. Like Jesus did, the person who devotes themselves entirely to helping others is the brightest star.
Jesus continues to teach us to be humble and compassion above all other things.
Still, there are messages the disciples have not yet learned. Let's explore another in the next verse.
9:49 The disciples see somebody working in God's name, helping God's children. The disciples immediately reject this person. This is something the world does today quite often -- people create exclusive clubs and churches and gatherings and forget all of their common sense! Any person, doing a good deed, is a person of God.
9:50 Anyone who works with God is with God... there is no special group from which a person has to belong in order to be loved by Him. This person who the disciples thought* they had the authority to forbid was clearly a faithful, compassionate person who heard Jesus' teachings, absorbed them and worked with God to spread it to others.
*Do not become arrogant and lose your common sense.
There are many interpretations of our Spiritual God. There are different books but when the core of those texts is compassion, it's the same God... it's the same message. Be inclusive. Diversity is good for the intelligence of the world... we have so much to share with each other.
9:51-53 The time for Jesus to journey toward the place where He would be crucified came and Jesus began to go there, with purpose and courage. Jesus was thrilled to carry out God's word and He feared nothing. However, Jesus was not received well by the people.
9:54 The disciples, still largely missing the point, ask Jesus if the city of people who rejected Him should be consumed by fire.
9:55 Jesus is stunned... He shows them a bit of tough love -- truth dispensed with a vigor. They had still failed to understand what their God stood for -- certainly not cruelty.
9:56 Jesus did not come to destroy men's live but to save them. Jesus continued on, uninterrupted by this challenge in His plan. He knew what was coming, He was prepared by God and ready to accomplish it regardless of difficulties.
This statement is something people often forget about God: He loves and creates. He is forgiving and patient to all people. His message is a peaceful one. Those who reject them reject their own lives... He doesn't take them away, they give it away! His mission is to help us, to listen to us and guide us. He knows we have troubles and shortcomings -- He loves us, He understands and works with us so that we can grow.
9:57 This and the following verses are a bit deep in message. Someone said to Jesus that they would follow Him to wherever He went.
9:58 Jesus was explaining to this person that to join Him is to join a lifelong, arduous journey. While on Earth, Jesus had no resting time. His time was too valuable to spend resting. He worked every minute of His life. Anyone who wanted(wants) to follow Him must realize the responsibility to grow and work each day.
9:59-60 This is also a metaphor: someone wants to follow Jesus but before they do they want to do a bit more with their lives. This person was trying to be in two places at once -- either your mission is with God or is with yourself in the world. This person wanted to go back and perform traditional rituals following the "death" of their father. This can symbolic of someone wanting to join God's mission... but waiting to have a bit of self-centered fun in their life first. When you hear with understanding, your journey begins there -- not later.
We are all alive in God, eternally, if we want it... work to bring that to others without delay.
9:61 Likewise this person wants to commit to God's work but... first they want to do a few other things. God needs fellow workers now, not later. A procrastinator is not a help to God.
You know from learning from Jesus that He has an endless supply of compassion --- if these people's desire was simply to perform selfless acts for loved ones, Jesus would have supported it. No, they wanted to journey back and forth... to pray to God but not to actually live the word. That's unacceptable.
This person wanted to go back and join his friends and family who lived contrary to Jesus' teachings, not because they wanted to guide them but because they sort of liked that way of life... focused entirely on themselves... that won't work.
9:62 Living life with, through, for God and His children is a full-time commitment. You cannot say one thing and do another. You have to make the decision to be with Him and stay focused on it with passion and determination. A hypocrite will never accomplish anything but deception and chaos. A hypocrite teaches an illogical message. A person of God is always truthful, transparent and compassionate.
