{"id":6911,"date":"2015-09-12T00:05:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-12T07:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6911"},"modified":"2015-09-11T10:05:05","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T17:05:05","slug":"the-great-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/09\/12\/the-great-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>While the women were on their way, some soldiers who had been guarding the tomb went into the city. They told the chief priests everything that had happened. So the chief priests met with the leaders and decided to bribe the soldiers with a lot of money. They said to the soldiers, \u201cTell everyone that Jesus\u2019 disciples came during the night and stole his body while you were asleep. If the governor hears about this, we will talk to him. You won\u2019t have anything to worry about.\u201d The soldiers took the money and did what they were told. The people of Judea still tell each other this story.<\/p>\n<p>\tJesus\u2019 eleven disciples went to a mountain in Galilee, where Jesus had told them to meet him. They saw him and worshiped him, but some of them doubted.<\/p>\n<p>\tJesus came to them and said:<\/p>\n<p>I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world. (Matthew 28:11\u201320)<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\tAfter his resurrection, but before he ascended to heaven, Jesus met his disciples in Galilee and spent time teaching them.  But facing the resurrected man that they had seen die on a Roman cross, some of them still entertained doubts.  The Bible contains many stories about those who saw God do amazing things, who then turned around and grumbled and griped.  We\u2019d like to think that if we had been there, if we had seen such marvelous miracles, then we would be set for life: we\u2019d never again doubt God, never again disobey, never again complain about any suffering we ever experienced: we\u2019d live our lives on the mountaintop.<\/p>\n<p>\tBut what we see, in fact, is the way things really are, in the real world.  As Abraham told the rich man,  if people don\u2019t believe the Bible, then they won\u2019t believe just because someone comes back from the grave (Luke 16:31).  Doubt is where we live, it is who we are.  It is human nature to doubt, rather than to trust.  No matter what God does, no matter how marvelously we see him act, we will always be tempted to doubt, especially as time passes and we begin to take whatever God did for granted.  The novelty quickly wears off.  We must work hard and constantly strive to renew our trust.<\/p>\n<div class='kindleWidget kindleLight' ><img src=\"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/plugins\/send-to-kindle\/media\/white-15.png\" \/><span>Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the women were on their way, some soldiers who had been guarding the tomb went into the city. They told the chief priests everything that had happened. So the chief priests met with the leaders and decided to bribe &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/09\/12\/the-great-commission\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6911"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6913,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6911\/revisions\/6913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}