Tools are essential to anyone who works in the construction industry. Without tools, nothing would be built. I’m a plumber, so tools like tape measurers, drills, pitch levels, and sharpies are needed for what I do in my trade. Other careers use different tools. Teachers use books and computers. Doctors use needles and syringes. Every career, or even hobby, requires the use of some sort of tool. Whenever you start a career, your boss usually gives you the most essential tools you’ll need for the job. For your boss not to supply the needs for the job, it would be a waste of time and money because nothing would be completed.


This is why in Mark 6: 7-9 Jesus does something that is very unlike a man to do in a leadership role. He tells the disciples, who he paired by two, to take nothing with them but a staff as they were witnessing. “ No script, no bread, and no money.” They were to have complete faith in God that he would provide all the necessities for their mission. That includes food, the spirit to guide them, and a warm place to lay their heads at night.


Do we have faith like the disciples who dropped everything they knew to follow the Lord? Now they have to go without tools and spread God’s Word. Talk about faith! Would we have called Jesus crazy like his own kin in the beginning of the chapter? Would we walk away because we didn’t have money, food, and a roof over our heads? Would we also walk away because we feared men more than Jesus? We psych ourselves out thinking about how to witness to someone. We might think 'what if I don’t know an answer to one of their questions?'

 Like Jesus did with the disciples, pair yourselves with a brother or sister in Christ. Go door knocking together to help each other in many different ways. Fearing man is something I also struggle with, but we have to remember like the disciples, we too have the Holy Spirit to guide us. Have complete faith in Him.

So what did the disciples preach as they went from town to town? They preached repentance. “ And they went out, and preached that men should repent (v. 12).” They preached repentance like Jesus did in Mark 1:14-15 and like John the Baptist did to Judaea in Matthew 3:1-2 . Paul also preached repentance in Acts 17:30: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” I think a great way to bring up salvation and repentance to someone who is living in the dark is by using the 10 Commandments. The commandments bring to light the sins they have committed, and in doing this will lead them to realize that they need a Savior from their sins. Repent and trust in the Savior.

“Another proof of the conquest of a soul for Christ will be found in a real change of life. If the man does not live differently from what he did before, both at home and abroad, his repentance needs to be repented of and his conversion is a fiction.” - Charles Spurgeon