Who Do You Think You Are?

Luke 9:49-50 And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbid him, because he followeth not with us. (50) And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us it for us.

Here, we have John speaking to Jesus about an encounter he had with another man who was casting out devils and doing miracles in the name of Jesus. John rebukes him and tries to get him to stop because this man was not and would not follow THEM (read the encounter in Mark 9:38-40 for this detail). This happened just after the disciples who WERE following Jesus could not cast out the demon that tormented a child (Luke 9:37-43).

I believe the Lord Jesus teaches the disciples, and us today, two great truths:
#1 - He that is not against us is for us.
#2 - It doesn't matter if people will not follow US (Mark 9:38), what matter's is if they are following and serving Jesus.

It is as if Jesus was saying, "Who do you think you are?" It is not about us, but it is all about the Lord Jesus Christ. May we stop worrying about what camp or fellowship or church this preacher or that preacher associates with, which school they support, etc., and just come to the conclusion that "he that is not against us is for us." And when a fellow servant of Christ is able to accomplish great things for the Lord, even those things that we at the moment cannot, lets rejoice together instead of trying to tear down and stop the work of the Lord.

Proverbs 16:18

Well, its not Monday, but here is what happened on Saturday at our Walk-a-Thon:

We had a group of teens and some adults meet at church, and then we drove to the Garden City Park. This is a large park with a large playground, ice rink, swimming pool, and multiple ball fields. There is a track that goes around the circumference of the entire park, and it totals 1.2 miles from start to finish. Well, one of the teenagers said before we got there that they would walk around 10 times, which if you do the math equals 12 miles. All the others said, "Oh yeah, we will do it too."

As the only adult that was walking around with them, well....I couldn't let a bunch of teens out walk me. Fortunately for me, another man, Al, came along and walked with me and the teens. He was late because that morning he already walked 3 miles at a Walk-For-Life event at the Tiger's ballpark in downtown Detroit. Long story short, as we continue to walk, the kids start quitting one after another until there were only two left - me and Michael, who will be a senior in High School next year. He finished eight laps, then stopped. Al and myself walk one more mile, then I turn to AL and say, "No more...or you'll have to carry me back."

At this point, I should probably back up and tell those who don't know me that I am not in the greatest of shape....well, I'm in shape - round! 9 laps, or approxiamtatley 11 miles was probably more than I've walked all year, so now my shins and feet were killing me. My head wanted to keep going just to prove to the teens that I could, but my body won over. I knew that if I didn't stop, I would not even be able to get out of bed the next day for church. As I was limping...I mean, walking back to the church van, I thought of this verse:

Proverbs 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

One more lap, and I would have fallen! I was letting my pride write a check that my legs were not willing to cash. Yet, so many people around us do this song and dance everyday. Many people know the truth of God's Word and know that Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for the atonement of sinners - yet they will not admit that they are sinners in need of a Saviour. And if they will not before the day of their death....than destruction awaits as they will fall into the everlasting flames of a God-less Lake of Fire for eternity: Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was caast into the lake of fire.