Daily Butter 8/1: Return on Investment

My little addition to Our Daily Bread (8/1/2011):

“But love your enemies, do [what is] good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is gracious to the ungrateful and evil” (Luke 6:35 HCSB)

I really appreciate Marvin Williams’ reminder in today’s ODB challenging us to ask ourselves daily “What good thing can I do today in Jesus’ name?”  When we do our good deeds in Jesus’ name, it’s not the recipient who is indebted to us but He will repay the efforts and Jesus promises that the reward is great. This is tremendously counter culture, so let your light shine.

Since I missed writing on 7/31, I’ll add a note here about my “homework” from the Sunday morning sermon passage in Mark 5:1-20 : While Jesus repeatedly is recorded as telling those He’s just healed to be quiet about Him, He tells this man set free from a legion of demons to stay and tell in spite of his begging to leave with Jesus. I immediately got to wondering what made the difference. The commentaries I referenced for my answer pointed to the fact that “the region of the Gerasenes” is inhabited by Gentile rather that Jewish people and therefore no need to worry about premature cries of “Messiah.” But I looked and saw that he’s not so different from us. Here is a man Jesus set free living among a people who are so afraid of what Jesus could do to their “bottom line” that they expelled Him from their entire society. Just as Jesus left Peter behind also against his plea to join Jesus on His journey (see John 13:33-38) so that he might become one of the foremost leaders of His church (in spite of or because of the stumble of his foretold denial) that has preserved this hope for us today. The United States, as much as it hurts to say, seems to have “outgrown” its Judeo-Christian foundations and those of us who have been set free through Christ are called to do the same thing. It matters not if society won’t let His word in the schools, courts or legislatures, they can take away all of that and yet just like this man rescued from the tombs, we still have our greatest testimony:  I was once… till I met Jesus, and now I am…!

He told him, "Go back home to your own people, and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how He has had mercy on you." So he went out and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and they were all amazed. (Mark 5:19b-20 HCSB)

Andy Jentes