Dealings

Read Matthew 9:9-12

“...Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said,

 “it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

But go and learn what this means: 

‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice. 

For I have not come to call the righteous,

 but sinners.”

                                                                        Matthew 9: 10b-12

Our dealings with our fellow man will be judged by God. We are told very clearly not to judge anyone in Matthew 7:1. This I firmly believe is because of the great commission given to us by Jesus in Matthew 28.
We cannot reach a sinful world if we judge them. We cannot reach the sinner if we are unwilling to have a dialogue with them. It is impossible to win a soul to Christ if we are constantly closing doors to a group of people.
By yelling from the pulpit or in the media “your wrong and we are right” we are closing doors.
The Pharisees who were criticizing Jesus could never have shown the tax collector or sinner the way to heaven. They probably wouldn’t have gone near them. Even if they did the attitude they showed to the tax collector was so negative that they more than likely would have shunned them.
Yet the tax collector was in need of God.
We have to be so very careful with regards to how we treat people. The purpose of the gospel is to bring salvation to the world. To show God’s love.
Remember it is God who reached down to us sinners first. Showing his love toward us. Not us who reached up to God.
Quite often those who are sinning have no idea they are. Their concept of God is far from what the scriptures tell us. They are in sin and like it.
None Christians all to often see Christianity as a bunch of don’t. A life style that forbids them from doing what they like. They see no benefit in becoming a Christian.
It is therefore the job of the Christian to keep open the dialogue between themselves and the rest of the world. It is the only way we can convince them that the concept of Christianity they have is mistaken. That God offers more for them than the world could ever do.

Something to think about
Over the years I’ve heard of Christian workers in especially very large companies getting together at lunch breaks for a bible study. I think this is laudable. It makes a statement that they believe.
I myself have shunned away from such things.
A long time ago a pastor told me the best way to evangelize in the work place was not to hang around with Christians all day long but rather be yourself. Mingle with the other workers. Sit with them have coffee with them become their friend.
In doing so you open a dialogue between them and you. You gain their trust. Eventually doors will open and God will give you an opportunity to witness.
I’ve put this into practice over the years and found it to be so true.
Question:
How do you witness?

Train a Child.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
                                                                                                       Proverbs 22:6

I am writing this today to all those children, particularly adult children of strict Christian parents. I also write it as a warning to Christian parents who would be too strict with their children.
Recently I was at a speaking engagement. It was a secular event and had nothing to do with the church.
There were several speakers at the event. Each of us were giving a talk about a specific traumatic event in our lives and how we dealt with it.
The speaker ahead of me in particular fascinated me. Although I’d heard her speak many times before it was only now that I realized that we were in many ways opposites. And I found myself feeling sorry for her.
She was a survivor and a very successful person. I have an incredible respect for her. But what stood out in my mind about her was that although she’d been brought up in a Christian home she’d wandered away.
From what she told me her parents were very strict Christians who for all intents and purposes forced their faith on her. Rather than turning her to the Lord all it had succeeded in doing was push her further away and into the world.
By contrast my parents were what I would call open minded democratic socialist who had shunned the church of England and Catholic church respectfully.
My parents encouraged my siblings and I to search out and question things around us. Politics, and current events were spoken often at the dinner table and as we grew into our teens especially we were encouraged to participate.
My parents had high moral standards and strongly believed that one should do what we could to help our fellow man.
It was precisely because of what they instilled in me that when I was introduced to the teachings of the bible I wanted to become a Christian.
At church I was speaking to some very godly people. People who love the Lord with all their heart and are working for Him. They told me that their adult children were not serving the Lord. My children are.
I’ve compared notes with these people and found some startling differences.
Now before I go any further let me make things clear I am not a child rearing expert. Nor do I claim to be perfect, especially when it come to raising a child.
I believe however that my children are serving the Lord because of the way my parents brought me up.
The Talmud states, “Whoever teaches his son teaches not alone his son but also his son’s son, and so on to the end of generations.”
Another Jewish writer Joshua Loth Liebman wrote, “Give your children unconditional love, a love that is not dependent on report cards, clean hands, or popularity.  Give your children a sense of your whole-hearted acceptance, acceptance of their human frailties as well as their abilities and virtues.  Give your children your permission to grow up to make their own lives independent of you.  Give them a sense of truth; make them aware of themselves as citizens of a universe in which there are many obstacles as well as fulfillments.  Bestow upon your child the blessings of your faith.  These are the laws of honouring your son and your daughter.  Out of these laws will be built the Declaration of Independence for the coming generation, a spiritual and emotional independence that, in turn, will make the world free, democratic, safe, creative."
The one key thing I hear from Christian parents who’s children are not serving the Lord are, “I wouldn’t let them watch anything that wasn’t Christian.”
Instantly when I hear that phrase I think of the forbidden fruit. Children want to know what’s on the other side of the fence and why they can’t go there.
In our house there was nothing off limits on the television except pornography. My children watched Homer Simpson and we talked about it after we’d watched it.
We watched things that in many Christian households would curl their hair. But we always talked about it.
We talked about Harry Potter, as well as the tales of Narnia
When something came up at church that my children didn’t understand or as they entered their teen years didn’t agree with, we talked.
There was open dialogue and there still is to this day even though they are now adults in their own right.
Today we are proud that are children are very active in the church they attend. One even goes on short term missions trips every year or two. Using his skills to help those less fortunate. I know their grandparents would be proud of them also.
Sadly I think Christian parents turn their children away from the Lord for several reasons.
First of all I think all too often they read Proverbs 22:15 which states,
“Folly is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.” 
Then they read Proverbs 23:13,14 which states,
“Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.”
They see these two scriptures as they have to spank their child when he or she does wrong.
One commentary I read noted that the use of rod here is quite likely not an  expression for any kind of discipline. One does not always need to spank a child to discipline. There are many ways to show them they’ve done wrong that quite frankly work far better.
The one thing however when it comes to disciplining a child I see as being wrong is never, never, never, beat the child with scripture.
A friend of my son’s mother use to always lecture her son when he did wrong by quoting scripture. That young man while still friends with my son hardly ever attends church any more.
We need to build up our children. We don’t need to force anything on them. It is essential, that, we as far as we possibly can, live a good clean Christian life in front of our children.
Proverbs 4:3-13 states
“When I was a boy in my father’s house, still tender, and an only child of my mother, he taught me and said, “Lay hold of my words, with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live. Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honour you. She will set a garland of grace on your head and present you with a crown of splendor. Listen my son, accept what I say and the years of your life will be many. I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along the straight paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble. Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.”
This is what we should be instilling into our children from the day they are born. Not telling them what they can’t do.
We need to give our children as they say a little slack. Always keeping a dialogue open. Willing to answerer all their questions to the best of our ability. And above all live a Christian life before them. That they may see what is right in the sight of God. Which is all we can do, because ultimately each individual must make a personal decision to accept the salvation offered by Christ.

The Eleven O Clock Parable

It’s eleven o clock. Inside the court house a judge is about to make his ruling. A community, a nation waits.
Will the new law be legal?
Outside the court house men and women with placards chant.
On one side of the street stand a group of gay men and women. All in favour of the new law.
On the other side of the street separated by a line of police stand radical evangelicals, denouncing the new law.
One man among them screams angrily . “HOMOSEXUALS ARE GOING TO HELL!!!”
Approached by the media he says it again, “homosexuals are going to Hell.”
From my office window I watch asking myself the question, ‘is this man an Christian?”
Wasn’t it Christ who told us not only to love our neighbour but our enemy also?
Wasn’t it Christ who told us not to judge, lest we be judged likewise?
Wasn’t it Christ who said go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation?
Is this man showing love?
Is this man judging another?
Can this man be effective in reaching the whole world of which a percentage are homosexual?
Is this man even a Christian?
A question keeps rolling through my mind for which I know the answer, “Can we truly know what is in someone else’s head?
Do we really know why a person is like they are?”
For a moment I stare down at the crowd. All the time asking myself who is on the way to Hell this day, and how can I reach them for my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?
Turning away from my window I kneel down and pray, “Lord guide me this day. Let me make the right decision on this law.”

A comment

Jesus never said a gay man or woman couldn’t get to heaven. He didn’t say a bigot couldn’t either.
The Bible makes it clear that only sin separates us from God. And God through the Holy Spirit convicts people of their sins.
Salvation is a very personal thing. It is between you and God no one can tell you if you are saved or not.
Salvation is not conditional on your life style, your race or ethnicity.
It is conditional on your accepting the free gift of salvation from God.

The Way to Heaven

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
                                                                                                                        John 3:16-18.
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
The above verses make it abundantly clear what Christians believe with respect to getting to heaven. There is only one way to get to heaven, through Jesus Christ the One and Only Son of God.
The Apostle Paul writing to the Romans states,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and (those who believe Jesus is God’s One and Only Son) are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus”
                          Romans 3:23,24
John’s epistle quoting Jesus, makes it clear that,
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
          John 10:10
Paul writing to the Corinthians said,
“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”
                                                                                                                           1 Corinthians 15:3,4
John writes,
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
           John 1:12
Paul makes it clear that we do not have to work for our salvation it is a free gift from God himself to mankind.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
                                                                        Ephesians 2:8,9
Knowing you are going to heaven is as simple as a prayer. I have included such a prayer below,

A Salvation prayer
Dear Heavenly Father.
I recognize I am a sinner. That I fall short of what you want for my life. Please forgive my sins. I recognize and believe that Jesus Christ is your One and Only Son. That he died for my sins.
I ask Him now to come into my life and show me how I can love and serve you better.
Amen.

Think about it.

In the Morning of My Life

 In the morning of my life

 I will look to the Sunrise

At a moment in my life 

When the world is new.

And the Question

I shall ask only God can answer.

Will I be brave and strong and true,

Will I fill the world with love my whole life through?

Will I fill the world with love my whole life through?

In the evening of my life

I will look to the sunset

At a moment in my life 

When my life is through.

And the question I shall ask only I can answer 

Was I brave and strong and true.

 Did I fill the world with love my whole life through?

 Did I fill the world with love my whole life through?

                                                                                                  By Leslie Bricusse
                                                                             From the Musical Good by Mr Chips
I seen the Musical Good by Mr. Chips in the late sixties just after its release. For some reason the words of the song written above have lingered with me all of my life.
The questions posed in the song seem to me worth answering.
I am now approaching my fifty-ninth year on this earth. I have seen massive technical advances from the first satellite in space to man on the moon, to robotic ships sending pictures form the surface of Mars and around the various planet, to the establishment of the internet and the massive social media complex we now have.
I watched from my perch here in Canada as a teen the horrors of the Viet Nam war.
I watched as the Americans turned the dogs and fire hoses on black demonstrators who were peacefully demonstrating for their basic human rights.
I grew up in a household in which my parents were not Christians as I would define them but they but never the less were active in trying to make the individual person better.
All of his life my father was an active trade unionist and did manage to get better wages and benefits for those he worked with.
He taught me that it was the individual that mattered and should be lifted above all other things.
When I became a Christian in my late teens I could see through the teachings of Jesus that my father was correct.
Jesus always catered to the needs of the individual.
Although I was saved through a Baptist church I became involved in what some called the Jesus movement. I was frequently called a ‘Jesus freak’.
It’s a movement that crossed denominational lines and sought to return to the roots of Christianity.
In the case of those I associated with we were searching for our  Jewish roots.

Jesus was Jewish He lived by Jewish ethics
One principle of Judaism that I firmly believe needs to be a mainstay of the Christian faith is ‘Tzedakah’.
Tzedakah is a duty that all Jews are called to perform.
In English it is translated Charity. In Judaism however giving to the poor in not viewed as a generous or magnanimous act, it is considered an act of justice and righteousness. The performance of one’s duty giving the poor their due
Philip Bernstein said of Tzedakah,
"If there is one area that identifies and unites Jews, no matter what their personal beliefs and practices, it is Tzedakah.  Tzedakah is more that charity or philanthropy, noble as they are, more than man’s humanity to man, exalted as that is, more truly it is righteousness and justice.  Without these qualities civilization would perish.
It is the highest ideal in Jewish teaching—for it is the highest application of Jewish ethical values.  It is Judaism in action—and Judaism is inherently and deeply a religion of action, a way of life, a way of living.”
I believe the ideal of Tzedakah is an ideal of Jesus. One only has to look throughout the New Testament to see Jesus and His disciples putting this into effect.
The apostle Paul wrote.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.... And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
        1 Corinthians 13:1-8a,13 
True Love is the ideal of Christianity it is this love I believe I and all Christians must live by.
It is something I believe I need to strive for everyday of my life so that I can answer the questions posed in the song lyrics quoted above with one word, ‘yes’.
As this new year begins it is something I believe all within the church needs to look at.
Are you filling the world with love? Because love as corny as it may sound can and does change the world.

A post script.
I got the following list from a web sight written by Tracy R. Rich on tzedakah. It lists the ways to give from the least to the best.
I place it here for all Christians to think about.
1. Giving begrudgingly
2. Giving less that you should, but giving it cheerfully.
3. Giving after being asked
4. Giving before being asked
5. Giving when you do not know the recipient's identity, but the recipient knows your identity
6. Giving when you know the recipient's identity, but the recipient doesn't know your identity
7. Giving when neither party knows the other's identity
8. Enabling the recipient to become self-reliant