What a Team

"One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and He prayed to God all night. At daybreak He called together all of His disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Here are their names:
Simon (whom he named Peter), Andrew (Peter’s brother), James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon (who was called the zealot), 16 Judas (son of James), Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed Him)." Luke 6:12-16 NLT

I look at the list of men that Jesus commissioned to be the founders of His Church. These are the men that would carry on His work after His death, resurrection, and ascension. These were common men. Blue collar worker, tax collectors, political activists. They fought, they didn't always get it when Jesus spoke, they struggled with their faith, they were selfishly ambitious, they were deserters and deniers. They were the board of directors of the early church. What a team!

God doesn't always do things the way we do. In the cooperate world a company will search high and low for the best equipped person to fill a position. God calls people that are not always the most qualified. In fact most of the time He chooses people that are in desperate need for God to move in their lives to accomplish His will. He doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called.

There is also great diversity within the Church. We come from different lifestyles, experience, tradition, personalities and bias. We need to practice love and grace with each other. This requires submitting to the work of the Holy Spirit and yielded lives. When those first apostles submitted completely to Christ and the ministry to the Holy Spirit, the world was turned upside down as the Kingdom of God advanced in power.

The time is different, but the calling is the same. What a team!