one step: Matthew 10.1

The names of the twelve apostles are these…

Many times in life, I have looked at myself, looked at the hurt in this world, looked at the greatness, purity, and holiness of God and thought, “I have nothing to give.” Other times in life, I have compared myself to the task at hand, to others around me, or gazed upon my resume and thought, “Wow! I’m ready for this!” As a strange, intoxicating feeling filled my chest, the addictive poison of pride and haughtiness invaded my soul.

Jesus picked disciples who held no reputation and lived in the shadows of obscurity.* He chose people who did not come from the field of professional religiosity, but from middle-income professions who engaged in unique, yet overtly un-special or un-desirable jobs.*

The pride that seeks to take up residence in my heart does not qualify me for service unto God. My games of comparison that ignore my faults, exaggerate my strengths, and peer into the weaknesses of others does not set me above the rest. The embarrassing and shameful desire to be known about and seen by many does not expand the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus is looking for ordinary, obscure, uneventful people to propagate the miraculous, eternity-altering good news of the Kingdom. If we took an honest estimate of ourselves, we would see how unqualified we are to serve as ambassadors of the ethics, relationships, presence, and future of the Kingdom.*

Interestingly enough, our understanding of our own inadequacy positions us to serve Jesus in His mission. This understanding of our own inadequacy sets aside the broken crutches of our own ability, demanding that we rely solely on Him.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to recognize the goodness and grandeur of God. Perhaps Jesus wants you to remember where you came from so that you can remember how good and great you are not. Maybe God is inviting you to embrace the normality of your average existence as a qualification for participation in His amazing ministry.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

Need prayer? We are happy to pray for you (ask for prayer here).

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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 241–244, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 10:1–4) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 9.8

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest

How big is your city? Around 47,000 people call La Jolla home. If my wife and I were to share the Gospel with one person per day for 365 days, we will have reached just over one percent of the population who do not identify themselves as connected to the Church (around 28,000 people). That means after approximately 100 years of doing this, we will have reached the lost of La Jolla.

When looking at this, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and discouraged. This overwhelm can cause believers like you and me to give up before trying. It takes a certain kind of person to look at Mt. Everest from the bottom and say, “let’s do this!”

Jesus does not give us a Mt. Everest to climb alone, however. When Jesus commissions His disciples, He does not tell them to go out into the world and create converts. Converts change their belief system, which is good and necessary. Jesus, however, asks for more. Jesus asks that we go out into the world and create disciples.

Disciples of Jesus don’t simply convert others, they mirror the ministry of Jesus by teaching, healing, and spreading the Good News of the Kingdom.* They create replicas of themselves; they help people to become disciples of Jesus.

If my wife and I help 10 people over the next 365 days to become disciples of Jesus, and during those 365 days, each of them help 3 others to become disciples of Jesus, then by the end of that year, we will only have reached 0.10% of La Jolla. If each of those 30 people who became a disciple of Christ continue to make disciples alongside of us, and then each of those create disciples, and then each them create disciples, and on, the entirety of the lost in La Jolla will have had the opportunity to become disciples of Jesus in less than 4 years!!

The harvest is plentiful; the workers are few.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to become a disciple of Jesus. You believe, you acknowledge, but Jesus is inviting you to follow. Perhaps God is asking you to make disciples of Jesus. Maybe the season is here for you to become a harvester in the fields. Perhaps God is sending you, or maybe He already has and it’s time to harvest right where you are planted.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

Need prayer? We are happy to pray for you (ask for prayer here).

sign up just below for a daily reminder of the one step devotional. click here to return to devotional list.

*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 237–240, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 9:35–38) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 9.7

And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well…
…“Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.

In Matthew 9, we see Jesus step into the world of the unclean. In the passage above, Jesus allows Himself to be touched by a woman with an issue of blood, and we see Jesus deliberately reach out and touch the hand of a dead girl. Scripture tells us that these people were unclean, and that those who touch them were required to recognize a period of uncleanliness themselves.

According to Scripture, Jesus would have to be recognized as unclean until evening due to the contact with the woman with the issue of blood. Because of the contact with the dead girl, He should have been unclean for seven days and needed to go through a cleansing ritual.

We know that Jesus, the embodiment of purity who washes away our sins, made them clean with His touch; He was the one influencing and not the one being influenced. In fact, Jesus did not recognize Himself as unclean at all after these encounters. We see in the next scene Jesus touching someone’s eyes to heal them. Touching someone else after touching a corps would have caused both parties to be seen as unclean. This was not the case. In fact, those whose eyes He touched received healing as well.

There is much to glean from the powerful truth that Jesus makes unclean clean, but what of the disciples? What of you and me?

Did the disciples trust that Jesus was still clean? Did that voice in their heads that had been raised under Mosaic Law say, “Jesus just touched your arm. He used the same hand to touch you that He touched the little girl with. Am I unclean?” For the disciples, they had to believe that Jesus was who He said He was. They had to believe that Jesus could make unclean clean. If they did not believe this, then they themselves were as guilty as Jesus at breaking the law. Had Jesus not really made the unclean clean, then He would be unclean from contact with these two people, and His uncleanliness would have been passed to His disciples. This would have broken their ability to interact with society for a period, and it would have required them to go through the ritual of cleansing.

Do you believe that Jesus is who He says He is? The consequences of His validity impacts your life in a very real way. Do you believe that His touch makes us clean? Do you believe that your soul can be made clean so that you can connect with others? Or do you need something else to cleanse you?

I attempted for years to cleans my mind of the lies that drove my insecurity. Crippled by insecurity, I hid behind quiet reserve. It wasn’t until I allowed Jesus to touch those places in my mind that needed cleansing that I became free and clear. I had to believe that His work was true or else every time I brushed up against someone else, I would believe that my insecurity still should have place in my life.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to believe that He is who He says He is. Maybe today is the day to stop questioning, “did He really make me clean?” Perhaps God wants you to spread cleanliness by His power. Maybe God wants the uncleanliness in our lives to end today by His power and love.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

Need prayer? We are happy to pray for you (ask for prayer here).

sign up just below for a daily reminder of the one step devotional. click here to return to devotional list.

*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 227–232, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 9:18–26) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 9.6

No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.

I have had several pairs of jeans that at one point or another I would consider “my favorite.” One fateful day, While wearing a pair of my most favorite jeans, I did a high kick (long story) and ripped the pants about as terribly as you can imagine. After many failed attempts to patch and fix the jeans, I eventually had to give up on them. Though a patch is a good idea at times, and works for a season, sadly, you still end up losing the jeans.

There are things that we have always considered to be true. We build our lives on these beliefs, and they sustain us for a season… until they don’t. When Jesus stepped into time and moved into history, He wanted to make His purpose clear: Jesus did not come to fit in with the old way of doing things. Jesus did not come to fit into the ways considered to be true.

Jesus made it clear that if you attempt to fit Him into your old ways of thinking, or if you try to make Jesus fit into some framework that already exists, He will inevitably break free from it like a patch on a pair of jeans. If you want to preserve the beauty of your tradition, it’s best to allow Jesus to be Jesus and just step into what He is doing as eventually, He will tear away from it.

Jesus did not come to do away with the law or Scripture, but behold, He did come to do something new. Jesus fulfilled Scripture in a way that invites us to a higher standard of living that only His Spirit can enable us to do, and it doesn’t always fit with that we have always known.

Why is this important? We must realize that to follow Jesus, we must let go of some of what we thought was true. Some of what we thought was true equates to simple lies about God, ourselves, and others. Other things that we thought were true were partially true, or good for a season, but Jesus comes as the new standard for us to join ourselves to.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to release all that you thought you knew to embrace all of who He is. Perhaps God is asking you to stop trying to get Jesus to fit your pants. Maybe God is inviting you into a new thing. Perhaps you need to stop high-kicking in tight jeans… I know I do.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

Need prayer? We are happy to pray for you (ask for prayer here).

sign up just below for a daily reminder of the one step devotional. click here to return to devotional list.

*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 225–227, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 9:15-17) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 9.5

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Scripture clearly speaks against fellowship with sinners (Psalm 1:1, 119:63, Proverbs 13:20, 14:7, 28:7). Growing up, I followed this command very well. I kept my self so distant from people that I identified as sinners that in many ways I avoided the contamination of sin. Sadly, and ashamedly, I also avoided opportunity.

All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but repentance plays a part in making room for all at the table. Even the contemporary Jewish teachers of Jesus’ time taught that people should not look down on those who once sinned but have repented. Surely Jesus did not look down on those who heeded His words to repent, but He took things a step further.

Jesus did something different: He sat down for fellowship with sinners. This was something that the Jewish teachers of the law could not understand. These men could not even step into the home of sinners, much less sit a table with them for a meal.*

Jesus, always going to the heart of the matter, understood that the warnings against dining with sinners existed to help the children of God not to be influenced into sin. Jesus didn’t sit at the table with that risk. Jesus did not sit at the table with sinners to be influenced; He sat at the table to influence.*

As believers, we must beware of the table with sinners. It is a place where we can be influenced, but it is also a place where we can influence. To live a life completely separated from sinners may miss what Jesus invites us to do. As administrators of the ministry of Jesus, we may need to go to the sick as Jesus did as they are the ones in need of the Physician.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to step up to a table with sinners to show the love of God and to influence them toward Christ. Perhaps God wants you to get up from the table with sinners and hit the reset button. Maybe it’s time for you to dine with believers for a season as sin has influenced your thinking. Perhaps it’s time to move amongst the sick to bring the healing that the Great Physician so desires to bring.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

Need prayer? We are happy to pray for you (ask for prayer here).

sign up just below for a daily reminder of the one step devotional. click here to return to devotional list.

*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 221–222, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 9:11–17) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).