Stay On Mission – 21st May 2018

1. A Godly Passion
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:2
A phrase that I have used more times than I can count, in many parts of the world is this:
‘If we are going to reach the vast numbers of people who are beyond the walls of the church, there is as much need for us, within the walls, to change as there is for those outside”.
You may wonder what I mean by this, so let me explain.
I will begin by referring to the bible verse above. These brief words expose an enormously significant reality: ‘It is possible to say that we love God and yet be opposed to the very things that God passionately wants to happen’.
The Pharisees and teachers of the law thought of themselves as God’s people and yet, when God appeared in the flesh and engaged in His Mission, they did not join Him, they did the exact opposite, they opposed Him!
It is very easy to read a verse like this and think something like: ‘those awful Pharisees and religious leaders, how could they have been like that?’ and yet, at the same time, miss the fact that we ourselves can so easily share the same view that they had. We may not be so aggressive in our opposition, but we can so swiftly make judgements about people that we know, or even people that we just see as we go through our daily lives.
These judgments can lead us to conclude that ‘these are the kind of people that we should stay away from’ or ‘we wouldn’t really like those kind of people at church’.
Yet here is the enormous challenge that leads me to frequently make the statement I have mentioned above. The challenge is that the Jesus who’s mission we join spent almost all of his time expressing God’s love towards the kind of people that most of us find it difficult to like.
I want to dig a little deeper into this over the next few weeks but, this week, take some time to be open with the Lord about your feelings and attitudes towards people who live lives that are not as He intends! Ask Him to move in your heart so that you will see them as He sees them.