Shake Off the Dust

"Shake off the dust of your feet" (Matt. 10.14) - an action to indicate that they will have nothing to do with whatever place where Christ is rejected. O, how the the church has become so heavily advertised like a big department store as shown in the parable of the mustard seed (Matt. 13.31-32). She ought to retain her smallness and quality of sojourner and pilgrim (1 Peter 2.11), unknown to the world (1 John 3.1): like a vegetable plant, not a tree with roots deep into the world (Daniel 4.20,22; Ezekiel 31.3-6). If Satan devours the seed (Matt. 13.4), he only partially succeeds. He, therefore, changes his tactic by inflating the church so as to make it possible for all the birds (which denote the evil one, even Satan - Matt. 13.4,19) to come and roost.