Wednesday, April 27, 2016
“The King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you,
to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least
of them, you did it to Me” (Matt. 25:40).
Hey Gang: As exulted leader of the
Village, I was invited to speak many times and share the successes we were
seeing at the Village. Each time that I was in route to where I would
speak I prayed, “Lord, give me something fresh that I can share to this group
that will hit their hot button.”
On one such trip I stopped at a Burger King to get my
usual burger and fries and noticed a poster on the wall. It was in the
early days of the Star Wars craze and the poster announced in very bold print “Your
choices determine your destiny.” I said, “Thank you Lord” and dug
into the burger and fries.
But, shortly after hitting the road, I received a tap on
the shoulder from the Throne Room saying that there was a prerequisite to that
saying. It should read, “Your values, determine
your choices which in turn determine your destiny.”
Getting back to the Scripture of the morning, the question
arises, “Did What? When hungry you fed me, thirsty, you
gave me water, a stranger you befriended me, naked you clothed me, when sick
you came to me and in prison you visited. But Lord when Did I do those
things to you? What a fabulous answer He gave, “When
you did it to the least…” – you did it to the Most -the Lord of
Glory!”
I was forced to go to Walmart the other day and, as per
usual, I was thirty fifth (just joking) in line and it seemed every person in
front of me had some sort of problem. One had to be blind to not realize
the cashier, probably a grandmother, was feeling very defeated and down.
When my turn finally came I smiled and said, ”Good
morning. How are you this morning?” And then a saw a miracle – she
looked up and began to smile. Now, if I were to guess, I believe that
dear lady had a much better morning after that.
I love the little words of the Bible, the ifs, ands, thens,
the therefores, and most of all the “I will’s. They
tend to be the trigger words of the Bible that precede a truth that God wants
His kids to pay special attention to. Now, you take the challenge to
invest the time to look at every one of these words in the Bible and you will
be into every book and nearly every chapter and verse.
The Book of Revelation has become a much taught, discussed
and read book, especially as the alligators continue to rise in our culture and
all that can be shaken is being shaken. Jesus began His dictation of the Book
of Revelation with a fabulous promise: “Blessed is he who reads and
those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written
in it, for the time is near” (Rev. 1:3). Does that light a
fire in the depths of your heart to dig into the meat and potatoes of
Revelation?
I believe there are many special and very wonderful
blessings hidden in the Book of Revelation. For me, personally, I believe
one of the blessings is, if you study each verse and follow the road maps that
lead to other verses that add to and clarify what Jesus is saying, you will
find at the end of the story you have been in every book in the Bible.
I want to share one other word in the Scriptures that has
become very special to me. That word is “measure”. Jesus, in
the Sermon on the Mount, taught this: “Do not judge,…for in the way you
judge, you will be judged, and by your standard of MEASURE, it will be
MESASURED to You” (Matthew 7 :1-2).
Now turn with me to Luke 6:38 and notice the good doctors
challenge: “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour
into your lap a good measure – pressed down, shaken together, and running over.
For by your standard of MEASURE it will be MEASURED to you in return”.
Now I ask you, when Jesus said, “You did it to the least
of these my brethren” does that connect with Paul’s words in his second
letter to the Corinthians when he said, “He who sows sparingly will
also reap sparingly and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully,
each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under
compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver”. (2 Corinthians 9:6-11).
If God judges you on “What you have done with Jesus
in your life” using the “MEASURE” criteria, will you pass muster on
the “You did it to the least of these” MEASURE?
Blessings,
Gramps
