Read Mark 16:19-20: 19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it
Today's the last day of General Conference 2012. It is a day of good-byes, farewells, and hasta la vistas. Many are the new friends and acquaintances that we have made in the last ten days. Last night I thought this has been a very long conference bur reminded myself that this was a shorter GC than in years past; last time someone made a motion to reduce the number of days we spend together to save money and try to be more efficient. For the last three days a pie chart has been provided showing how much of the "pie" we have "eaten," the un-eaten parts being the petitions not yet dealt with, and we're sadly very behind. Our adjournment time for today is 5:30 p.m. and we will have lots to do and some petitions may just die because we did not have time to deal with them.
Today's passage is about Jesus saying goodbye to His disciples. Mark does not record those words Jesus spoke to them, but they saw Him ascend to heaven and went to sit at the right hand of God. But they did something about that farewell for verse 20 says, "And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it." That is, Jesus' work continued even when the visible Christ could not be seen; yet in their willingness to serve and share the Good News, they could "see" that Jesus was with them in the "signs" that went with that work.
Changed have been made to our structure and the hope is that we are not streamlined enough to "Make disciples to transform the world." I believe we can if we take Jesus with us and proclaim like we have not yet done, the great things Christ has, is, and will do in our midst. We have to evangelize in ways that show the pre-Christians the power of God's love. We begin by being the Church of Prayer that we once were. Our lives should reflect a connectedness to God and our acts of mercy and outreach in our churches show that indeed we are willing and able to be God's hands and feet here in the world.
PRAYER: Loving God, as we say goodbye to sister and brother delegates, may we know we are united in Your love; may our days after this time together bring fruit to Your Reign here on the earth. Bring us new power, new compassion, new love and may we truly reach the world as we make new Disciples to Transform the World. We cannot do it alone, we are too weak, but we depend on You. In Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
