The Christian life is a matter of faith from start to finish, but if it doesn’t make any difference to the way you live, then it’s merely an ornament, an unnecessary bit of baggage to carry: a mere belief. Living faith shows. It acts. It lives out its life day by day. In it is food … air … light ……

Jesus had so much to teach the world. So much to do for the world. So much to provide, and for all time. And what did he do? He called a handful of the most unlikely men and set off with them into the villages and towns of an off-centre province in the Roman Empire to meet people where they were. That would be regarded by our modern business management methods as crazy. He had no infra-structure, no hierarchy, nor organisation, no official launching, no advance publicity. It was ‘Let’s go and do it!’ and they did: or rather, he did.
What did he actually do? He lived the rule of God right there among the people. The sick he healed:the possessed he freed the enslaved he delivered: the religiously self-satisfied he rebuked:the hungry he fed, and everywhere he proclaimed by deed and by parable that it is God who rules, not the devil, and that no man need stay the way he is. The power to change was there, and was free. In God’s rule, there is a future for everyone willing to have a change of heart.There is hope for all who trust Jesus enough to let him rule them, and nothing is impossible. With Christ nothing impossible.

Have Christians, and churches in the West, lost that simple living faith which gets up and does the Jesus things? Have we lost the sense of daring mission? At the beginning of Mark’s gospel it records:
“When John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news”. As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.” Mark 1: 14-18

A Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, who came declaring war on the realms of darkness and evil, and who called ordinary, ungifted people to go with you into battle, call us again to go with you into the real world, and there, dare to do the deeds of your kingdom.

Now read Luke 11: 14-32.