BEING CALLED TO LIVE THE LIFE
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
We are never called to live the life that is a God centered more than we are today. In the book of Matthew 9:9-13 Jesus gives us an account of one he ate with publicans and sinners. Even though Matthew was a Jew, he was also a tax collector who collected taxes for the Roman Empire. These men were known for cheating others because they made their living on a commission basis of how much tax they could collect. It was a standard practice for the Stax collectors to charge more taxes than was necessary, and then pocket money from the overage. My point is here when Jesus called Matthew to be one of his disciples, Matthew got up and followed him, leaving a lucrative career behind. When gun calls you to follow or to obey him we need to do it with this much abandonment as Matthew. Sometimes the decision to follow Christ requires difficult or painful choices. Like Matthew, we must decide to leave behind those things that would keep us from following Christ.
I say these things at this time because this is just another facet of our need to get serious about living our lives under the complete care of God's Holy Spirit. There is another thing to look at with this relationship, because when Jesus ate his meal and visited Matthews home Jesus hurt his own reputation; at least he heard the reputation that he had among the leaders of the church and the men of the community. When Jesus found Matthew Matthew was cheating the people that Jesus found him and changed him. We should not be afraid to reach out to people who are living in sin, God's message can change anyone. There is a tremendous difference in those people who talk a good talk in church service, and the way they live their spiritual lives on every other day of the week. Just like some of the people in our churches today the Pharisees constantly tried to trap Jesus and they thought his association with these low lifers was the perfect opportunity. They were more concerned with their own appearance to holiness than with helping people with criticism then encouragement, with outward respectability than practical help. God is however concerned for all people including the sinful and hurting one's. I particularly like what Jesus response to these church leaders was in Matthew 9: 12 when he said "on hearing this, Jesus said, it is not the healthy who needed Dr., but the sick. But go and learn what this means; I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
It would do all of us well to remember the whole purpose for Christ's first visit among us was one of mercy, love, forgiveness, and healing. There is something that we all need to remember in the development of our life in Christ, and that is those who are sure that they are righteous will never be able to be say because the first step in following Jesus is acknowledging our need and admitting that we don't have all the answers. Jesus was consistently accepting people from temporary level of society, and Matthew was given a new life, and his God given skills of record-keeping and attention to detail were given a new purpose. Just like Matthew, once he had been accepted by Jesus he began immediately trying to bring others into contact with Jesus. We may not have the answers but we know who does, and for us in order to fulfill our purpose in Christ we must first of all the witnesses to the light that God shines through us as it reflects from our relationship with Christ. We are indeed each one called out by God to hear this message, and to respond to it. There will be a few of us who were picked up and used through God's Spirit for reasons and purposes that many times we cannot comprehend and yet still we see the results of the fruit of God's Spirit at work in us. We will never be perfect it in this life but the message that we deliver is already perfected through God's Holy Spirit. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
We are never called to live the life that is a God centered more than we are today. In the book of Matthew 9:9-13 Jesus gives us an account of one he ate with publicans and sinners. Even though Matthew was a Jew, he was also a tax collector who collected taxes for the Roman Empire. These men were known for cheating others because they made their living on a commission basis of how much tax they could collect. It was a standard practice for the Stax collectors to charge more taxes than was necessary, and then pocket money from the overage. My point is here when Jesus called Matthew to be one of his disciples, Matthew got up and followed him, leaving a lucrative career behind. When gun calls you to follow or to obey him we need to do it with this much abandonment as Matthew. Sometimes the decision to follow Christ requires difficult or painful choices. Like Matthew, we must decide to leave behind those things that would keep us from following Christ.
I say these things at this time because this is just another facet of our need to get serious about living our lives under the complete care of God's Holy Spirit. There is another thing to look at with this relationship, because when Jesus ate his meal and visited Matthews home Jesus hurt his own reputation; at least he heard the reputation that he had among the leaders of the church and the men of the community. When Jesus found Matthew Matthew was cheating the people that Jesus found him and changed him. We should not be afraid to reach out to people who are living in sin, God's message can change anyone. There is a tremendous difference in those people who talk a good talk in church service, and the way they live their spiritual lives on every other day of the week. Just like some of the people in our churches today the Pharisees constantly tried to trap Jesus and they thought his association with these low lifers was the perfect opportunity. They were more concerned with their own appearance to holiness than with helping people with criticism then encouragement, with outward respectability than practical help. God is however concerned for all people including the sinful and hurting one's. I particularly like what Jesus response to these church leaders was in Matthew 9: 12 when he said "on hearing this, Jesus said, it is not the healthy who needed Dr., but the sick. But go and learn what this means; I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
It would do all of us well to remember the whole purpose for Christ's first visit among us was one of mercy, love, forgiveness, and healing. There is something that we all need to remember in the development of our life in Christ, and that is those who are sure that they are righteous will never be able to be say because the first step in following Jesus is acknowledging our need and admitting that we don't have all the answers. Jesus was consistently accepting people from temporary level of society, and Matthew was given a new life, and his God given skills of record-keeping and attention to detail were given a new purpose. Just like Matthew, once he had been accepted by Jesus he began immediately trying to bring others into contact with Jesus. We may not have the answers but we know who does, and for us in order to fulfill our purpose in Christ we must first of all the witnesses to the light that God shines through us as it reflects from our relationship with Christ. We are indeed each one called out by God to hear this message, and to respond to it. There will be a few of us who were picked up and used through God's Spirit for reasons and purposes that many times we cannot comprehend and yet still we see the results of the fruit of God's Spirit at work in us. We will never be perfect it in this life but the message that we deliver is already perfected through God's Holy Spirit. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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