Today's Gospel

Test Your Tolerance

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Mark chapter 9 verses 38 through 40. John said to him, "Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him because he was not following us." But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is for us." It's a beautiful reading. Does something jump out at you, a word, phrase or an idea? The concept that jumps out at me today is one of Jesus' disciples trying to control this thing,

And they're like, "Well, we saw these people casting out demons in your name. And we told them, 'No, you can't do that.'" Because they didn't know who they were, or they weren't sure if they were on the up and up, or what their motives were or whatever that was. And Jesus said, "No, he that is not against us is for us." I see this in ministry all the time. I see this in our church all the time. I see people saying, "Well, this thing is the best thing," or, "This thing is the right way," and then putting down other ways, other good works, people with good hearts trying to do good work.

And I think we need to develop the maturity to be able to say, "This thing is a beautiful thing. It's really helped me. But this other thing, I don't really understand this. But I can see how that could be helpful to some other people. It's not helpful to me, but I can see how it could be helpful to other people." Because just because something isn't helpful to us doesn't mean it can't be very, very powerful in bringing people to the Lord for other people and other places on their journey.

And so I think today really is a genuine call to tolerance of a variety of ministries doing a variety of good works, impacting a variety of different people at different places in their journey. Have an amazing day, and remember, do not just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself, all that God created you to be.