My least favorite job of the week falls on bath day for the Great Danes. No, I’m not responsible for the actual bathing. They outgrew me long ago. My husband has managed that task since our son married. My job is to wash their bedding. I hold my breath as I stand on the edge of the porch and shake their waterproof fur blankets. I’m able to hold my breath longer than I ever could as a kid swimming underwater.
On a good day, I make it from the porch to the washer, stuff the blanket in and slam the door before inhaling. Comical, I know. Maybe even a little silly unless you’ve actually smelled their blankets at the end of a week! But today as I loaded their laundry and sat down to write, I found this to be very fitting imagery for the scriptures I planned to share.
Jesus describes shaking off the dust as a warning. When He sent messengers ahead to all the places He would go, they were to announce His arrival saying, “God’s kingdom has come near to you.” Literally, they were saying, “Jesus is coming among you! He’s almost here! Make your hearts ready to receive Him.” Their message was the same one heralded by John the Baptist as foretold by the prophet Isaiah.
“Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,
“Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places.
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.
The Lord has spoken!””
Isaiah 40:3-5 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.40.3-5.NLT
If the people had been more familiar with the scriptures, maybe they would have recalled the surrounding verses as well and recognized that God was keeping His promise to them, but we must not judge them too harshly for they did not own their own Bibles as we do. Their knowledge came from repetition. Scriptures were read every Sabbath and parents were admonished to pass them on to their children each day throughout the day.
“So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine.
Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.
Teach them to your children.
Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.
Be careful to obey all these commands I am giving you.
Show love to the Lord your God by walking in his ways and holding tightly to him.”
Deuteronomy 11:18-22 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/deu.11.18-22.NLT
But God’s word had long since ceased to be a priority. Sound familiar? You cannot give what you do not possess. I first heard this legal phrase from the Latin, “nemo dat quod non habet,” used in terms of emotional maturity. A parent who has not advanced beyond a certain level emotionally cannot raise a child beyond that same level. It has been applied widely in matters of faith, but its true meaning has to do with ownership. If I do not have proof of ownership, such as a title or deed for real or personal property, I cannot transfer to another by sale something I do not rightfully own.
“And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live.
Remember, he has (put His seal on you), identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.”
Ephesians 4:30 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.4.30.NLT
The Holy Spirit is God’s seal of ownership on individual believers. No one can transfer faith to another. We each come to God through faith in Jesus, the one true Way, individually and by our own volition. The very concept of free will was God’s when humanity was formed in His image at creation. In the same way that love cannot be coerced and still be love, faith may be modeled but it can never be forced. John 3:16, the keystone verse of the Christian faith, says, “for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.”
God’s love and therefore His sacrifice was not dependent upon the choice of His creation. Revelation 13:8 refers to Christ as “the Lamb slain before the foundation, or creation, of the world.” God knew before the Fall, before the serpent called His Word into question in the minds of His first daughter and son, exactly what would be required for His love to be freely returned. And He still knows today exactly what it will take for all who will believe to make the leap to faith. His Sovereignty means that He is orchestrating events universally toward that end.
“After this the Lord appointed 72 others. He sent them out two by two ahead of him. They went to every town and place where he was about to go.
He told them, “The harvest is huge, but the workers are few. So ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field.
Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals. And don’t greet anyone on the road. (…hurry…let no one detain you…let nothing slow you down)
When you enter a house, first say, ‘May this house be blessed with peace.’
If someone there works to bring peace, your blessing of peace will rest on them.
If not, it will return to you.
Stay there, and eat and drink anything they give you. Workers are worthy of their pay. Do not move around from house to house.
When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is given to you. Heal the sick people who are there. Tell them, ‘God’s kingdom has come near to you.’
But what if you enter a town and are not welcomed?
Then go into its streets and say, ‘We wipe from our feet even the dust of your town. We do it to warn you. But here is what you can be sure of. God’s kingdom has come near.’
I tell you this. On judgment day it will be easier for Sodom than for that town.”
Luke 10:1-12 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/luk.10.1-12.NIRV
We must accept God’s extremely generous offer of forgiveness and regeneration, knowing we could never afford it and that there is absolutely no way to reciprocate. Then as Moses says in Deuteronomy 11:22, we spend our lives showing love to the Lord our God by walking in his ways and holding tightly to him. Part and parcel with this command is taking ownership of our faith, along with its “very great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.” (II Peter 1:4) Owning our faith, according to Peter, means stewarding our faith to the very end. The apostle Paul called it “working out our own faith with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12)
“In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises.
Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen.
Do these things, and you will never fall away.”
2 Peter 1:5-10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2pe.1.5-10.NLT
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”
Philippians 2:13 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/php.2.13.NLT
“But what if you are not welcomed?
Then go into its streets and say, ‘We wipe from our feet even the dust of your town.
We do it to warn you.
But here is what you can be sure of.
God’s kingdom has come near.’ “
(Luke 10:10-11)
A Fitting Reply 