Then drew near to him all the publicans and SINNERS for to hear him [Jesus]. And the PHARISEES and SCRIBES murmured, saying, “This man receives SINNERS, and eats with THEM (Luke 15:1, 2)… Just as it was in Jesus’ day, it’s the SAME WAY in the CHURCH today. It’s EASY to spot the DIFFERENCE between RELIGIOUS people and the DISCIPLES of Christ, because RELIGIOUS people are only concerned about THEMSELVES and what THEY can get out of SERVING God. Even in the CHURCH today we have a HANDS-OFF policy where SINNERS and the UNGODLY are concerned. We don’t want any ASSOCIATION with them whatsoever, and if it weren’t for the fact we must all live together, we’d TOTALLY AVOID CONTACT with them altogether. This is why WITNESSING and EVANGELIZING for Jesus has become a DYING BREED in the Body of Christ. We aren’t going out of OUR WAY to REACH the LOST with the Gospel of SALVATION the way Jesus Himself did – yet we continue to LIE to ourselves that “Christian” means to be “Christlike.” We spend MORE TIME in CHURCH amongst ourselves HIDING from and AVOIDING the WORLD than we ever spend actually REACHING OUT to and BEFRIENDING them so that God might SAVE them. We don’t want to be TAINTED by the CONTACT for FEAR that our GOOD will be EVIL SPOKEN OF and cause us to become SUSPICIOUS of each others SALVATION. Thank God that He hasn’t given us the spirit of FEAR that we cannot AVAIL ourselves to WELCOME, RECEIVE, EAT WITH, or CONVERSE with – SINNERS! We must not forget that we, too, were once in that SAME BOAT of SIN until some BOLD DISCIPLE of Jesus’ brought us the Gospel to RESCUE us.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 03:52:05 +0000