Oct 13, 2016

A daily devotional through the recorded words Jesus spoke while He walked alongside us. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com.

Today's Scripture Focus

Luke 7:31-35

devotional summary

Jesus ate with the tax collectors and thieves and rabble of the cities because they needed to hear God’s message of forgiveness. They knew they were far from God and they couldn’t go into the temple and the synagogues because they weren’t accepted there. How were they to find God if they couldn’t get to the altar and hear His message? The religious leaders would have nothing to do with them because they were sinners. They were obviously lost and they were without help from the holy people. So they were without hope…until Jesus came along.

Jesus ate with them. Drank with them. Sang with them. And Jesus gave them a message of hope and forgiveness. One the Pharisees and religious leaders knew was contained in the pages of the scrolls they memorized, but they would never dirty their hands to share it with ‘those people’. But Jesus did. He shared the message God sent to the world. The message of atonement, forgiveness, cleansing from the guilt of sin. These sinners soaked up the message the Pharisees and religious leaders hoarded within the walls of their sanctuaries and refused to share outside the confines of their collective pious gathering.

Is it any wonder Jesus was welcomed by the crowd from the other side of the tracks so often? Is it any wonder He feasted with the tax collectors and prostitutes and obvious sinners? They longed to hear the message the priests refused to share outside the confines of their ‘club of the uber pious’. They needed to hear that they could be freed from the guilt that weighed heavily on their souls. They needed to hear they could be forgiven of the wrongs they committed and weren’t doomed forever with no way to make restitution to man or God. They needed to find a way back into God’s kingdom.

But they couldn’t find a way…until Jesus became their friend and shared the joy of knowing sins can be forgiven for the asking. The chains of sin can be broken for the asking. The slavery to Satan can be redeemed by the blood of the spotless One when we accept His atonement for our sins. We can be made free once again when we live for Him instead of living for ourselves. We can find freedom in Him.

But how will those who don’t darken the door of our churches and synagogues and temples knows that message unless we befriend them and tell them?

Today's Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year - Proverbs 29-30

see the whole year's plan here