Scripture - Mark 9:40 For he who is not against us is on our side.
Observation - In this portion of scripture Jesus is dealing with the disciples about someone getting involved in ministry that is not traveling with the disciples. This man was driving out demons and ministering to people and the disciples tried to stop him - but Jesus said "whoever is not against us is for us" - I get the feeling from the words Jesus is asking "Whose side are you on?" You are either for Jesus or you are against Him. There is no in between - kind of goes back to that lukewarm scripture. Too often we try to stop people from doing ministry because they haven't been with us - but what we end up doing is pushing them to the other side.
Application - Once we determine that we are for Him. We should let people grow into their ministry maturity. I can see the disciples assessing the situation with this man and determining that he isn't doing it right, he isn't saying it right, he isn't telling it right - when people only get it right when they are allowed to do it wrong enough. There was this story of this new employee that was working with this very large customer. The employee put together a transaction for this client and it was placed incorrectly. The deal ended up costing the his company over $1 million dollars. When the new employee realized what was done - he began to pack up his office and leave the company. The owner came by and asked - "what are you doing?" The employee responded - "I am leaving, you couldn't possibly want me here after a mistake like that?" The owner asked "Are you going to do it again? And did you learn anything?" The employee responded "Of course, I will never do that again" The owner said "Then get back to work - we just spent over a million dollars training you".
People need a chance to fail in order to succeed.
Prayer - Father help me to see the failures as an opportunity to learn and to grow. To invest in those that are working in your business and remembering that they are not against you but for you.
Observation - In this portion of scripture Jesus is dealing with the disciples about someone getting involved in ministry that is not traveling with the disciples. This man was driving out demons and ministering to people and the disciples tried to stop him - but Jesus said "whoever is not against us is for us" - I get the feeling from the words Jesus is asking "Whose side are you on?" You are either for Jesus or you are against Him. There is no in between - kind of goes back to that lukewarm scripture. Too often we try to stop people from doing ministry because they haven't been with us - but what we end up doing is pushing them to the other side.
Application - Once we determine that we are for Him. We should let people grow into their ministry maturity. I can see the disciples assessing the situation with this man and determining that he isn't doing it right, he isn't saying it right, he isn't telling it right - when people only get it right when they are allowed to do it wrong enough. There was this story of this new employee that was working with this very large customer. The employee put together a transaction for this client and it was placed incorrectly. The deal ended up costing the his company over $1 million dollars. When the new employee realized what was done - he began to pack up his office and leave the company. The owner came by and asked - "what are you doing?" The employee responded - "I am leaving, you couldn't possibly want me here after a mistake like that?" The owner asked "Are you going to do it again? And did you learn anything?" The employee responded "Of course, I will never do that again" The owner said "Then get back to work - we just spent over a million dollars training you".
People need a chance to fail in order to succeed.
Prayer - Father help me to see the failures as an opportunity to learn and to grow. To invest in those that are working in your business and remembering that they are not against you but for you.
