12 At that time Jesus went off to a mountain to pray,
and he spent the night praying to God. 13 The next morning, Jesus called his
followers to him and chose twelve of them, whom he named apostles: 14 Simon
(Jesus named him Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon (called the Zealot), 16 Judas
son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who later turned Jesus over to his enemies. Luke 6:12-16,
New Century Version
I’ve been working on my next
devotional. I’m not sure about the title yet, but it will be 40 days of reading
about how Jesus began His ministry and how He called His apostles.
I picture a group of a
hundred people, all men and women who have been following Christ, all anxious
to hear Him speak and witness His miracles. Jesus looks over the crowd and
begins calling names. (“Simon, come on down!”) Did these men know what they
were getting into?
As I read over this list of
names, I started looking up more facts on these twelve men. All but one were
originally fishermen. Quite a few of them were related and many of them knew
each other before meeting Jesus. Some of them had families. But every one of
them gave up everything they had to become the closest friends of Jesus. All
but one of them died tragic deaths.
If Jesus called your name
would you answer? Has He already called your name?
Lord God, thank You for sending Your Son to live among
us and to sacrifice His life for us. Lord, send the Holy Spirit into our lives
so that when Jesus calls our names we are ready to follow. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment