Good Morning Girls
Read Luke 14:7-14 SOAP Luke 14:11, 13-14
These Pharisees were really only doing what is normal for their culture. It certainly hasn't changed much today - we tend to want to be valued by important, rich, or influential people. Success is often determined by how popular you become or what type of people want to associate with you. But Jesus turns this thinking upside down - telling us to associate with the poor, crippled, lame, & blind. Love is often unreciprocated, but it is rewarded at the resurrection. Father, help me to love the unlovable, knowing that my only reward may be given at your return.
Good Morning Girls
ReplyDeleteGod in His mercy set up laws for the poor and the needy and we can find some of these in the book of Exodus 22:22-24, “Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless” and in Deuteronomy 15:11, “For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land. My point in this that when you are helping others then you are not so self-absorbed in just you, you, you….did I say YOU (I’m counting myself also).
When you can put others needs before your own then you are truly being Christ-centered, not self-centered. We certainly live in a “what can you do for me society” and we find ourselves only focusing on those people that can benefit our lives. But what would happen if we begin to focus on those who could do absoultely nothing for us and bring them into Gods’ kingdom and help them flourish in God’s word. I read this statement in a book that Leonard Ravenhill wrote that has always stayed with me, he said “one day some simple minded person is going to pick up the bible and read it, believe it and change the world”. This is one time I really have to be selfish and and say "Lord let it begin with me".
Have a blessed day Ladies :-)
Awesome Susie.
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