Follower of One : Missions For The Rest Of Us

Have you heard that "Fear not," or "Do not be afraid," are the most common commands in scripture? I have and I count over 90 times in the New Testamanet when the two Greek words translated "do not be afraid," in this passage are used. Often we're told not to be afraid because we see God at work. He is awesome. He is almighty. If we saw him for who he is, we won't have a choice. We would be afraid. Other times, we see God in scary circumstances. We're told not to fear because of who God is. And Jesus is telling the disciples (and us) that right here. Because of who Jesus is, we don't need to fear. We can relax.

Really Jesus? Can we? There's the Coronavirus and the economy is tanking. You may be listening to this podcast unable to pay one or more of your bills. You may have sick family members and they're living isolated from everyone else. We can all face uncertainty and experience fear. But we can also focus on Jesus, too. Jesus tells us to choose something more important than fear. He says, "It is I." We can focus on Jesus to deny our fear.

Focus on Jesus today. Try to make what you know and trust about Jesus the central point of your thoughts and actions. Trust God with your circumstances, too. Our anxiety and our fear can't hold a candle to him.

Finally, please check out our online community. We are building a community where Christians can connect by occupation or by industry to encourage and mobilize one another as difference makers at work. Check out https://community.followerofone.org  to learn more and join us.

Where do we sell Jesus short? Where do we doubt? Did you ever notice when Jesus feeds the 5000, that every account tells us the number of baskets that were left over? This event is recorded in all 4 gospels. God wants us to think about this. We often focus on what we have. But when we have Jesus, we have everything we need. Jesus calls us to give and to serve. He baits the disciples with a question or a challenge to feed this many people and then he takes the 5 loaves and 2 fish and feeds 5000 people. We talked about this back in Episode 95, too. 

Where do we need to trust Jesus? And what do we need to give him that we're holding on to? Listen for Jesus to ask you to let go of something so he can use it. Take the action. Let go of your 5 loaves and 2 fish and watch what Jesus does with it.

On our most recent mission trip, we added a section to each days reading about going deeper. This widow put in all she had to live on. Let that sink in. Do you ever get where you totally trust God? Do you ever "put in all?" I don't.

Today, I want to put in all. Lord, please help me give more and go farther in my trust of you than I ever have before. We all only trust God to a point. All of us fall short. I hope today we go farther than we have gone before trusting God. We will know him better and experience more joy and significance if we bank more of our life and our resources totally on him.

What can you do today to trust Jesus more than you ever have before? Whatever comes to mind, please do it. Let's go wherever Jesus calls us and do whatever he asks us to do.

Link to Episode 142

We're in a besieged world. We all battle Coronavirus. We all battle fear and the limitations of our society today. Do we believe God will show us mercy and lovingkindness? David went through many years of isolation and running from a king who was trying to kill him. Yet he can say here that God has wondrously shown his steadfast love even in the besieged city.

Today, I hope you look forward to how we will look back on this time. Will we spend the entire time whining about our circumstances and complaining about our governmental officials? Or will we look back on some months of slowing down, looking for God, and finding ways to serve others?

We just wrapped up a Marketplace Mission Trip today. Would you take some time today and give God thanks? He will wonderfully show us his steadfast love. He picked our time and place. He is in charge. Take some time today to give him thanks and thank someone else who comes to mind. Ask God and he will give you a name.

Thank you for being a Marketplace Minister. Sign up for our next mission trip at Marketplacemissiontrip.com. Jesus will put you to work in his kingdom, at your desk or workplace. Try it out and see for yourself.

In this week's episode of the Follower of One Podcast, Mike talks with Mark Tedford. Mark is the Owner and CEO of Tedford Insurance out of Jenks, OK. He has a unique background and thought process behind integrating faith at work. Please give a warm welcome to a "local" follower of Christ!

Episode Breakdown

1:00 - Meet Mark Tedford

3:05 - Mark's Story and Faith at Work

7:35 - Apologetics Passion 

13:00 - Being Reasoned and Understanding 

16:05 - Mark's Thoughts on the Marketplace Mission Trip

20:00 - Learning about other Experiences is Important 

23:30 - Encouragement from Mark about our Faith

26:15 - Connect with Mark

Apologetics 

As Christians, our faith leads us to certain understandings that non-believers don't have. The main understanding is that what we believe is true. Apologetics stems from this oversight. At its core, apologetics is being reasoned and understanding or arguments against your belief. With Christianity, it is particularly important in the times we live. Mark discusses the need behind apologetics in his interview with Mike. How deep do you know your faith? Apologetics is not just about believing in something but knowing "why" you believe in what you believe. This is an important step in talking through your faith because it prepares you for arguments and probing questions about your belief system. Do you know why you believe in God? Do you know why its true God is in the world? We encourage you to take an assessment or learn more about lessons that can give you insight into this. It will help with integrating faith at work as well. Let us know in the comments! 

Crisis Happens on Any Day

The world is different than it was 8 months ago. It is always changing but not at this rapid a pace. One of the important things that Mark talks about is the fact that Crisis happens on any day at any time. How are you prepared for a crisis? Know that the answers don't always come on Sundays. Just like our lessons, we learn from the Marketplace Mission Trip, our beliefs don't start and end on Sundays. So, what type of obstacles are keeping you from being prepared? If something happens, where do you turn? All answers are a gift from God. 

Connect with Mark Tedford

Mark's LInkedIn

Tedford Insurance Website

Tedford Insurance Facebook

Tedford Insurance Twitter

Connect With Follower Of One

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Our world is broken. Sometimes we have to keep asking. Notice the first story in this chapter is about a woman who won't stop asking, and the last story in this chapter is about a blind man who also wouldn't stop asking.

But our world is broken. If you ask God to use you in the lives of other people, if you ask God to give you the ability to lay up treasure in heaven, he will answer. 1 John 5:14 says if we ask according to his will, he hears us. I'm not so sure about asking him for money or wealth or even healing by themselves. But I do know Jesus also promised us in Luke 11:9, "ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you." And each of those words is the equivalent of "ask and keep asking," "seek and keep seeking," and "knock and keep knocking."

Jesus is in the business of making himself known. He was approaching Jericho on his way to the cross. But because this person kept asking, Jesus asked him what he wanted and then he healed the man. I wonder how many other blind people in Jericho didn't speak up. I wonder how many didn't act like they had nothing to lose.

The Follower of One Podcast is listener-supported. Would you consider making a regular contribution to our ministry to enable us to mobilize more marketplace missionaries? Check out our website at Follower of One and click on the Donate button at the top of the page. Thank you for your mission and your generosity as we help others experience the joy of making disciples and following Jesus at work.

We think if we just had more money, we would be happy. Can't money purchase the things we really want? Why was this rich ruler sad? The passage says he was sad because he "was extremely rich."

Answer honestly. Do you fear being so very rich and very sad? This man was extremely rich. We talked about humility yesterday. God makes the most important things cost something more than money. Often the joy of following Jesus is only found when we give our resources away. If God has given us much, we're in a position to give more and experience his joy. But instead, we hang on to the things he gives us and we become sad.

What is God challenging you to give away today? Can you trust him enough to freely give? Remember, Jesus' call to us sounds silly in worldly terms. But when we trust him and do what he says, we experience his rewards, and he promises those rewards for eternity, too.

I'm not qualified to talk about humility. As the person in the center of my world, humility frustrates me. The Bible gives me plenty of warnings about being the center of my own universe, and this passage is key.

My only view of God is Jesus. This passage is a challenge. Jesus creates this parable to make a point. If we lift ourselves up, we'll be brought down. But if we can keep ourselves secondary to others, serving others, behind others, we will eventually be lifted up. I look forward to a day when Jesus says "well done," or "good job!" I hope for that day. But based on this story, it won't happen because I'm critical of others. It won't happen if I obey the rules? It only happens when I consider others more important than myself.

This "sinner" had a more accurate understanding of his position than the Pharisee. Salvation doesn't have anything to do with us. It has everything to do with Jesus. At the end of the day, there are only two places in God's kingdom and out. We all start on the outside and there but for God, is where we would stay.

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What is life? And how can we keep it or preserve it? Jesus sneaks a quick comment into this discussion about his return, but this comment tells us much about life. "He who seeks to keep his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it." (Luke 17:33 NASB). He says this in another setting in John 12:25.

If we try to hang on to our own selfish ways of living and doing things, we lose. If we give it away, and he says "hate", if we hate our life, we preserve or keep it. I think of this similar to the living sacrifice in Romans 12:1. If we try to hang on to our life and maintain control of our life, we lose it. We lose the opportunities God gives us to lay up treasure in heaven. We lose the chances we get to follow Jesus. We lose the chances to trust him, make him visible and we lose the opportunities to experience his joy.

Do you live with overflowing Joy? I think if we did, more people would ask. So if your coworkers, customers, and friends aren't asking you about the radical things you do in service to others, maybe you're fooling yourself. Let's ask God to show us how to lose our life and our control of our own life so that we might keep it.

Want to pray about this with some like-minded friends? Check out the Faith at Work Prayer Network on Facebook or LinkedIn. Our next monthly prayer call is in a week, every 2nd Wednesday. You can register for that call right here.

Some verses come in compact, yet explosive packages. This 3-word verse may be a good one for us to memorize. When I look at the church the way the world sees it, we seem to tolerate quite a bit of love of the world. We want our freedoms. We want our guns and we want our privacy. We have so much we want from our wealth and our resources and our government. We want our retirement and our health insurance. The list goes on and on.

Jesus adds these 3 words in a monologue about when he will return. His return will be sudden. It will come out of nowhere (Luke 17:20) when no one expects (vs. 26-29). Lot's wife looked back toward Sodom. She really wanted to stay in the city when God was destroying it. As a result, she became a salt statue.

In the middle of this story, he reminds us that if we look back or if we long for the stuff we have instead of longing for his return, and his kingdom, we may just get what we want. In everything, the kingdom of heaven is hidden. We must want it without clearly seeing it or understanding it. If we all saw it for what it was, we would have no choice. Faith is acting with incomplete facts and trusting God.

Is God challenging you to let go of something so you can experience more of him? If so, remember Lot's wife. One of the choices we have to follow Jesus will be our final opportunity.

Does this podcast help you? Would it help you to be connected with other believers who share the same desire to live their faith full-time? If so, please consider a donation to Follower of One to help us take this ministry to believers all over the globe. A regular monthly contribution of $20 will help us promote this community so we can find and engage more Christians as everyday disciple-makers.