Hey Gang: You have been bought and paid for by
Christ. You belong to Jesus. How much does that make you worth? God says
not only are you accepted; you're valuable.
O, I am not talking about what your bottom line is in worldly
assets. People who were wealthy yesterday
by world standards have lost all in the devastating floods and fires that have
plagued our land in recent weeks.
There is the story of the rich young
ruler, actually he was the land lord of several tenement houses in the slums of
one of our larger cities. He made big bucks on the backs of the least
fortunate. His story was surfaced when a
small child was bitten by rats and died.
The inspectors learned that he had not invested one dime into making
their lives more bearable, by repairing even the very needed items in each
apartment that we would call necessities.
The media took the man to the cleaners
and called him everything that is the book and few things that are not
there. But, in investigating for her
story, a reporter did some interviewing of residents in the tenement and, down
in the corner apartment of one of tenements, she found an elderly lady that was
known throughout the tenement simply as ‘Grandma’.
She, the reporter, was absolutely
amazed that everyone in that tenement gained hope and encouragement from this
little old lady who lived in the corner apartment in level one. Now, if I were to ask you, “In God’s eyes, who
was the person of value to Him, the wealthy tenement owner or the little old
lady who did not have two pennies to rub together?”
Let’s take a side trip and put some
meat on that question. In John 15:13 we
read, “Greater
love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends”.
In Luke 6:38 we are admonished to “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”
In Matthew the twenty fifth chapter we
read the words of Yeshua, “The King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are
blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world” “What is that
kingdom? Jesus, on the cross, said to
the thief who repented, “Today you will be with me in paradise”. Jesus in another place gave the criteria for
His blessing: “I
was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in (like the old grandma in the corner apartment of
level one) and
when naked you clothed Me.”
What say you? Jesus closed this
teaching by saying, “Truly I say to you to the extent that you did it to one of
these brothers of Mine, even the last of them, you did it to Me.” (vs.
40).
So, my friends, who do you believe will
receive the blessings of the Father, the rich old tenement owner or the grandma
in the corner apartment down on the first level? We are forbidden to judge. “But by their fruits we will know them” (Matt. 7:16).
Blessings,
Gramps
No comments:
Post a Comment