38 ‘Teacher,’ said John, ‘we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.’
39 ‘Do not stop him,’ Jesus said. ‘For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for ‘WHOEVER’ IS NOT AGAINST US IS FOR US. Mark 9
Jesus corrected His disciples for stopping someone using His Name to help people. Interesting, that an unsaved man (before the crucifixion) could still deliver people by the authority in Jesus’ Name. Also Jesus acknowledged that the man had done something miraculous through His Name.
Anne and I met someone very different yesterday when we’d gone out for a walk. We walked around an outdoor shopping precinct and then went for some tea in one of the cafes. While there a man in full length blue robes and a silver cross hanging around his neck entered with his son-in-law. As they passed close by our table I spoke to him and he told us he was from Nazareth, the very place where the Lord grew up. I told him we had been there and they were quite surprised. We chatted for a short time and then he said, ‘God bless you’ and we wished the same to him.
This man was probably a Greek Orthodox priest visiting his daughter in Ireland. It was nice to chat to a stranger and end with mutual blessings in the Lord’s Name. I believe that our meeting, though brief, was a God given appointment as we never walk in that area, just on this one occasion. (The great east-west schism between the Catholic and Orthodox Church took place in 1054 and is still not fully restored to this day! CAN BE EASY TO DISAGREE, BUT HARDER TO MAKE UP.) Religion loves to argue and bicker, often about trivial things. Many times people forget what they argued over, though still separated years later.
4 “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” Daniel 12
One of the marks of the last days in the Book of Daniel is, ‘increased travel’ and both we and this priest have experienced such travel. My hope is that one day in eternity we may meet again and remember our brief connection in a small cafe in N.Ireland.
May the Lord bless and keep you today, just as the priest wished Anne and I. Immanuel, God is with us.