Heartfelt Invitation
Today marks the 11th Day of Christmas 🌟 as the season starts to come to a close and find myself towards the end of this Christmas series and writing later than I should 😅 However yesterday had me notice two things, the first that yesterday's message about the ladies became my longest post 🤭 (whoopsie) and turning on the TV 📺 afterwards, I found a program called 'Without Sin' that is new this year in 2023 and more to do with innocence than being religious as it sounds. Ironic considering the post I sent, speaking about Jesus defending 🛡️ harlots because the only ones who could stone her were those 'without sin'.
This was the point that Jesus made, as this harlot was surrounded by many condemning her and yet as soon as Jesus came into the scene, He exposed their hypocrisy. It was almost like He showed them a mirror to prove they were no better, even to start writing ✍️ in the sand in the ground, which we believe were sins He was exposing, for it was after this and His question, that those quick to draw their sword ⚔️ soon dropped it and left.
It was why His Prophetic Ministry was so radical, seeing that it didn't threaten the Romans as the Jews would have hoped, it questioned the 'righteous' because of their attitude that He condemned. Infact, He says in Mk 2:17 that He came for sinners not the righteous and in the same Scripture, He comes to heal the sick not the healthy. Makes perfect logical sense ⚙️ because you wouldn't go to a Doctor 👨⚕️ if you are well, but more importantly you wouldn't go to a Doctor if you didn't think 🤔 you were sick, if to you 'you are okay' and we all do it 🤷♂️
Sometimes we know what is wrong with us and sometimes we don't. Sometimes we know what to look out for, other times we don't. We can't even rest 😌 in peace, when we are told what can harm us or increase our chances of this and that, which only gives rise to paranoia and fear 😱 or too much caution ⚠️ to the wind. Leading to the sombre fact that just as our bodies are susceptible to diminishing with 'wear and tear', such raises our need for healing and restoration. This just for our bodies, but much more for our minds 🧠 and our spirits because we don't just suffer physical damage but emotional damage and mental damage as well. For someone may look positively healthy or positively 'perfect' but not in the inside.
Speaking of King David 👑 yesterday, flawed as he was and yet his heart ♥️ was in the right place when it came to God. However when the Prophet Samuel was tasked with finding a new King of Israel after King Saul sinned 👎, David was not the oldest nor brightest nor strongest. Visiting their family home, Samuel thought his older brother looked like he could be a King but God said He doesn't look at the outside but what's inside (1 Sam 16:7).
Perfection isn't required, for the songwriter says 🎵'just as I am'🎶 for He experienced the human life when He came down ⬇️ as Jesus at Christmas time 🌟 to suffer like we do, to be tempted like we do, to cry 😭 and mourn 🙏🏻 like we do (Heb 4:15). Being born in a stable, He made Himself available to everyone by being a nobody (Phil 2:7), pretty much an 'average Joe' to not look very impressive but "a tender plant" (Isa 53:2-3) to not be seen and admired by men for how He looked. What mattered was why He came + His first guests to His birth? The downtrodden, the despised and unwelcome shepherds 🐑 who the Jews turned their back on, who forbid them even to come to the synagogue. Quick to take their sheep for their sacrifices but robbing them of having their own sacrifice. God gave them front row seats to see Him first (Lk 2:15-20)
To these poor shepherds, a door was finally opened to them, that others had slammed in their faces 🚪. Just as Joseph, taking heavily pregnant 🤰 Mary from Inn to Inn to find her a room and NO ONE had room for someone in need but....more importantly NO ONE had room for Jesus ✝️ and sadly that is still the case today 😢
Not to say that these shepherds were 'without sin' to deserve these front row seats, but this is why God's love plays a part ❤️ and where His Grace plays a part, giving us something we don't deserve - this invitation of eternal life (Jhn 3:16) for in the end, as much as God hates the sin 👎 He loves the sinner 😍 He came for sinners 💕 and His own lineage that I shared yesterday proved it.
For out of love ❤️, he grew up from a babe 👶 to a young man 🧑 to adulthood and witnessed everything happening in the community of Nazareth where He lived. He was acquainted with His neighbours, their successes and failures, when things went right or wrong and who faced debts and who faced Roman persecution. So He made it His mission when His ministry began to return to Nazareth and read the scriptures 📖 as He had as a boy and declared to them that this Prophecy they have been waiting for?! They need not wait no more because its here, He's here to take all this away (Lk 4:16-30). Only for them to look only on his appearance and see Him only as 'the Carpenter's son' to chase Him out of town to kill him ☠️
Despite the rejection, He did not let that phase Him. Man can look and judge 👨⚖️ on the outside, but God looks beyond that and welcomes ALL who receive Him 🤗
For us, we are always reaching out as this day in 1959, we reached out to the moon 🌑 which I imagine in space would receive a cold reception ❄️🥶 for space is cold 😜 but the point is.....reaching out into empty space will get us nowhere. Instead on this Perihelion Day, we must not just reach for the Sun ☀️ but reach for the Son for a warm reception 🙌🏻 for the Earth may be its closest now to the Sun, but we to the Son can be much closer than that 🤗 and not just for today only! but all the days.
For it is the reason why He came 🌟 and just as the angel invited the shepherds, I invite you ➡️ The Invitation is OPEN
#JesustheReason4theSeason