Gathering or Scattering

Are you gathering or scattering?

Matthew 12:30

He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.

We live in a world today, and amidst Christians, who like to think they can mix in a little God and a little church into their lives and be considered spiritually mature. But just a little bit of God and a little bit of His Church does not make one spiritual, but religious.

Here, in this Scripture, our Lord is dealing with the Pharisee's of His day. I say 'His day' because we have many Pharisee's in our day today. They are those who are religious, but void of any spirituality because they have never been born again. The religious of our day have forgotten about what Paul said in Romans 8:14 - For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Jesus tells these Pharisee's that if they are not gathering people to God, then they are scattering them away. I like what John Wesley said about this verse, and will leave you with that:

He that is not with me is against me - For there are no neuters in this war. Every one must be either with Christ or against him; either a loyal subject or a rebel. And there are none upon earth, who neither promote nor obstruct his kingdom. For he that does not gather souls to God, scatters them from him.

One Thing I Know

John 9:25 He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.

Let me ask you a question: Why does religion try to complicate everything so much? Here, a man who was born blind was given his sight by Jesus in a most unusual way - Jesus spit on the ground and took that clay, or mud, and used it to fix his eyes.

Now, instead of rejoicing, the Pharisees, or the religious leaders of Jesus day, came and began to question him about who Jesus was and were did he come from. And I love this man's simple response to their difficult questions: One thing I know!

There may be some things that we cannot explain, but there needs to be one thing we know - Jesus Christ! And lets not be intimidated by the "religious Pharisees" of today to proclaim the truth we know: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief!

I was a herdman...

Amos 7:14-15 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:
15 And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.

Here, as he did earlier in 1:1, Amos gives us his pedigree as a prophet. Unlike Amaziah, the corrupted priest of Beth-el, Amos had no "religious" training. The only thing he had was the call of God and the power of the Spirit. God is not interested today in religion, but in relationships. There is no one church that holds the keys to salvation - salvation is in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as found in the Word of God. And that is a message that can be proclaimed by any Christian, even a herdman!

Your Heart's Desire

Romans 10:1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

Here, as we open up the great 10th chapter of the Book of Romans, we are allowed to take a peak into the heart and desire of Paul. This was not the first time he expressed his desire to see those of his own country turn to Christ for salvation. He opened the previous chapter by saying:

Romans 9:1-3 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, (2) That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. (3) For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

What, if we could take a peak into your heart, would we find to be your desire? Christianity suffers today from the selfish attitude that permeates it. We are so busy trying to amass more and more for ourselves that we have no desire to change the eternal destination of those around us - even our own family. God grant us a heart and a desire like Paul's for the lost around us, especially those we come in contact with every day.

Mercy and Knowledge

Hosea 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Hosea was probably one of the most fascinating prophets of the Old Testament. It has been said that no other Old Testament book (in relation to the book's size) is quoted more in the New Testament than Hosea is.

Here in this verse, which is part of Jehovah's response to the remnant of Israel in the last days, the Lord makes an interesting, and maybe somewhat perplexing statement in relation to worship. Is this God's way of saying that He does not care what we do and is not interested in sacrifice and worship?

Well, as Jesus quotes this verse in Matt 9:13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, we recognize that He is speaking to the Pharisees. Even thought they claimed great spiritual insight and were teachers of the laws and prophets, they had failed to learn the fundamental truth of the prophet's statement. The Pharisees had never learned the meaning of this passage, which teaches that kind hearts and helpful deeds are more pleasing to God than outward ceremonial.

Sacrifice is right, but mercy is first in importance.

Thy Great Mercies

Thy Great Mercies

Daniel 9:18 - O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.

Here we come to a very interesting, and important aspect of prayer - why God will answer. As Daniel is in prayer and confession, he pleads for God to answer his prayer, not based on his own righteousness, but he pleads for the mercy of God. I am afraid today that many Christians make their requests before God and plead their good works for the reason why God should answer. The merits for answered prayer are not our righteousness, but the mercy and grace of God. God answers prayer according to His mercy.

The Blog is Starting Back Up Soon...

...will be re-vamping the blog today and debuting it with a new direction with more frequent blogs. Stay tuned, it will be big...