9 “Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts— 10 no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep. 11 Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. 12 As you enter the home, give it your greeting. 13 If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. Matthew 10:9-15

Jesus issued the first of many directions to those he sent out. It was a test of faith. Let others help you out because you’re doing God’s work.

The penalty for not accepting these Disciples seems harsh, doesn’t it? Worse than the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Sodom and Gomorrah didn’t have Jesus in their midst; these cities did. They would be judged based on that fact.

And so it goes with the world as we know it. When we share the Gospel with people and they reject it, that rejection is on them.

The responsibility, however, to tell them is on us.

Certainly we don’t all have to become itinerant evangelists or missionaries dedicated to the cause, do we?

Many hang onto the cliche that “we are all missionaries.”

Well, not really.

Sure, we’re all called to tell those in our sphere of influence but that doesn’t mean you’re giving up your lifestyle, raising support, and jetting off to far away lands such as Irian Jaya or Lesotho.

No, a more apt cliche is to ‘bloom where you’re planted.’

You’re where you are for a reason. You have relationships with people I have never seen or heard before.

When the early Disciples went into the towns to preach and teach, they couldn’t preach to everybody in town. Those they did preach to were people who now had an opportunity to know Christ. The Holy Spirit drew people to the truth.

Likewise, the Holy Spirit will draw people you know to the truth.