I always admired Jesus for his clarity, his breadth and his capacity for synthesis, as in these twelve words.
It amazes me how he defined in a few words some issues that have caused us to spend enormous amounts of hours, paper and saliva.
According to John Maxwell "Educators take something simple and make it complicated.
The communicators take something complicated and make it simple ».
Source
Saving my distances with this author (I think there are many educators who also take the complicated and make it simple) is valid the phrase to reflect on that more than once we have complicated the words of Jesus taking them to an inexplicable extreme.
These extremes, more than "high thoughts" show a "very low obedience", since they are simple commands and the commands (even a child knows) are not in the first instance to reason but to obey them.
Perhaps we have been falling into some ties that have led us to devote ourselves to "doing theology" with words of Jesus instead of simply "putting them into practice".
On one occasion Jesus summarized for his followers (those who want to obey more and speak less) the purpose of his Church in twelve words.
These words contain the remedy for many of the diseases of the church today.
In Mark 16:15 He said: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature"
ID: Remedy for inaction and apathy
WORLDWIDE: Remedy for self-centeredness and to serve ourselves.
AND PREDICAD: Remedy for the lack of objectives of our mission.
THE GOSPEL: Remedy to err on the subject.
TO ALL CREATURES: Remedy to discrimination.
WHAT HAVE BEEN THE ATTITUDES OR ANSWERS OF THE CHURCH BEFORE EACH WORD OF JESUS?
INSTEAD OF GOING, WE WAIT.
Going is the simple action of moving to the place where the other person is.
Going is also an attitude that we choose understanding that responsibility is on our side.
Going requires leaving a place where I am today (my thoughts, my comfort, my life, my home, my temple, my neighborhood, etc.) to approach the need of the other.
Now make a list of all the activities of your Church and see how many of them the Church goes to the people and in how many you expect people to come.
This simple list serves to evaluate if we are a Church that fulfills this first and simple order of Jesus.
If you want to obey, read on, otherwise you can begin to theorize or interpret the meaning of the word IR.
INSTEAD OF LOOKING «ALL THE WORLD», WE LOOK AT OUR CHURCH.
To paraphrase Ronald Allen in his book "The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church", "the church that from the beginning does not look outwards (other neighborhoods, other countries, the world) has begun to walk the dangerous path of selfishness"
According to Federico Bertuzzi in his book "The awakening of the missions", there are 318 churches to reach every people that today does not have the gospel.
If only more churches would obey Jesus and include the world in his mission, surely God's desire that the gospel be preached "to the end" would already be fulfilled.
It is never too late to teach a child the dangers of selfishness and the blessings of sharing.
Begin today to guide your Church to support missionaries to take the gospel to the whole world.
INSTEAD OF PREACHING WE ARE LOOKING FOR OPTIONS (HELPING, TEACHING, PRAYING).
Let it be clear that helping, teaching and praying are clearly Biblical values and commands of Jesus for us, the error is in replacing the times of preaching, of going out, of speaking, of going to people.
Not for nothing Jesus stressed the activity of preaching.
It is very easily replaced by other activities (vigils, recitals, worship, walks, etc.) that have nothing wrong but can not replace the clear and direct action of exposing the gospel to other people.
The central objective of Jesus, Peter and Paul was to preach and teach the gospel, and around it revolved the rest of the activities, they had a clarity of objectives that led them to be effective.
INSTEAD OF TALKING ABOUT THE GOSPEL WE TALK ABOUT FASHIONED THEMES.
The gospel is the good news we must communicate, nothing else will satisfy the spiritual hunger of the people.
To err in the subject that we must communicate will bring us headaches, Jesus says it simply, we should not complicate ourselves.
We can recognize that there are currently tools that can help the human being in their behavior problems, but it would be good to recognize that we have not been given permission to mix them with the gospel. In any case, we call everything by its name and we will be confusing the people and maintaining our fidelity to the message that Jesus wanted us to give.
INSTEAD OF GOING TO ALL CREATURES WE DISCRIMINATE THE GOSPEL AND PEOPLE.
According to these words, the idea of Jesus was that no one should be left out of the reach of the Church's purpose for any reason.Is your Church looking at its neighborhood, neighboring neighborhoods, how to support missionaries in other countries, etc.?Are we willing to look at the Work of the Church with the perspective of Jesus?
Are we willing to simply obey their orders? Or maybe we feel more comfortable in the place of analyzing their words?
It's time to decide.You will say What does this have to do with cells? Simple.
Cells are only a tool within a Church that is willing to obey and exist as Jesus dreamed.
Cells help a purpose, which is for the Church to carry out its work more adequately.
Wanting to use cells as "magic key" or "to achieve our own desires" will only lead us to new frustrations.
Before embracing the cells as a tool, we must embrace the simple purpose of Jesus for his Church, and by obeying him verify that when "his commands" become "our practices" everything is simpler than it seemed.
Let us always try to follow the counsel of the Word of God (1 Timothy 6: 3) of "conforming ourselves to the healthy words of our Lord Jesus Christ" and so we will be less exposed to the constant question that he asks us in Luke 6:46.
A hug in Christ.
Very true @susanalara. If only more churches obeyed Jesus and included the world in his mission, we would have a better future in our children, young people ... it is never too late to teach help and reflection.