PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Luke 10:1-7
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’” (Luke 10:5)
Jesus sends his disciples to bless the people with a message of peace.
The following question is used in the Evangelism Explosion (EE) method:
‘Why should God let you into heaven?’
EE gets people to question themselves and to fear for their eternal destiny.
Jesus comes preaching the good news of the kingdom, not the bad news of hell.
Jesus doesn’t send his disciples to get everyone into ‘heaven’.
Don’t get me wrong; those who do not promote peace will not find peace (shalom/heaven).
But the message of Jesus starts with the blessing of grace, not the pressure of fear.
The Lord has used EE to draw many people to himself… that in itself is grace.
But our calling is to be agents of grace, mercy and peace, not condemnation.
As we bless people first, we give them an opportunity to respond to grace.
No matter who you meet, whoever the Lord sends you to – peace, don’t pressure them.
This is how I sense the Lord calling me to relate to sinners – as a graced sinner.
‘Peace’ is the first thing Jesus said to me; may it be the first thing I say to others.
PRAYER
Lord, thank you for blessing me with peace long before I understood the full extent of my sinful need. Thank you for your message of grace, mercy and peace with which I can bless others too.
“Peace to this house” Lord thank you for reminding me to wish blessing first no matter the circumstance. What do we have to lose? When you’re with us, if they do not promote peace, then “it will return to us” and we’re on to the next. Send us helpers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5d4pdujFh4 This is a song written by friends of mine and it so comforted me at the time my partner was dying. The blessing of peace to all I meet (even virtually) today.
Depend upon the Lord. Proclaim His Good News. Bring His peace to all who you meet and greet. The Lord will do the rest. Be His Word in word and deed. Be living letters – being read by all – epistles. Living for Jesus the Jesus way. All for Jesus also today.
1 Far and near the fields are teeming
with the waves of ripened grain;
far and near their gold is gleaming
o’er the sunny slope and plain.
Refrain:
Lord of harvest, send forth reapers;
hear us, Lord, to thee we cry;
send them now the sheaves to gather,
ere the harvest-time pass by.
2 Send them forth with morn’s first beaming,
send them in the noontide’s glare;
when the sun’s last rays are gleaming,
bid them gather ev’rywhere. [Refrain]
3 Thou whom Christ the Lord is sending,
gather now the sheaves of gold;
heav’nward then at evening wending,
thou shalt come with joy untold. [Refrain]