Coming out of a really tough season? Feel like you’ve experienced your Heavenly Father’s discipline? Don’t draw back into a “shell” of fear! Get out there and sow some Spiritual seed in faith!
“Restore our fortunes, O Lord! … Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! Those who go out with weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing their sheaves with them!” (Psalm 126:4-6)
According to the Bible we all are sinners and need to GET RIGHT WITH GOD! … “For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified (made ‘right with God’) as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24)
So who is REALLY “right with God?”
Not self-righteous, arrogant, religious snobs who look down with disdain on others!
Jesus told a parable about people like that – read it this morning during my time of “coffee with the Lord!
“Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt: ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee (a scrupulously religious person) and the other a tax collector (culturally viewed as a wicked, despicable sinner). The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God I thank you that I am note like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get…” (Come on, use your imagination! … this guy was religious arrogance personified, don’t you think?)
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven! He beat his breast and said, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner!” (Can you picture it – humble, contrite, genuinely sorrowful for his sin!)
So of the two, who was REALLY “right with God?” Jesus did not leave us in doubt! “I tell you, this man (the humble, despised, repenting sinner) went down to his house justified (right with God), rather than the other, for EVERYONE WHO EXALTS HIMSELF will be humbled! BUT THE ONE WHO HUMBLES HIMSELF will be exalted!” (From Luke 18:9-14)
Gotta tell you, I NEVER – NEVER want to be like the first guy – the self-righteous religious snob! We are all sinners! We all need a Savior! It’s the humble who realize their abject moral and spiritual poverty without Christ that God “justifies” (and makes “right with God”)!
Just a word of caution to my “faith healer” / “faith formula” friends from an ol’ guy who regularly prays for the sick to be healed (James 5:13-15)… Healing in Scripture is NEVER a matter of “Spiritual entitlement!” Instead, most often in Scripture it is the gracious response from God to this cry uttered in faith… “HAVE MERCY UPON ME…!) That is why it has always been my practice to “pray in faith for the sick and suffering and leave the results to God.”
Coffee With The Lord 