FROM PASTOR TIM JOHNSON:
For those who had a chance to hear this past Sunday’s sermon, I hope all of you have taken some time to reflect on the day you became a follower of Jesus. At the end of the service, I read a prayer card put in the basket praising God for the recent salvation of a loved one. Praise God indeed.
The day Matthew left the table that organized his tax activities, is the day he chose to follow Jesus. Did you give up anything on the day you chose to follow Jesus? What did you leave behind to follow Him so that your life is not the same?
Matthew invited his fellow tax collectors and “sinners” to eat with Jesus. Perhaps he loved them enough to introduce them all to Jesus hoping that they too might leave behind certain activities to follow Jesus.
If we are active in this world, we all know some “sinners” and “tax collectors”; people who do not know they need Jesus, and some who have been ostracized by this world for various reasons.
Are there any creative means by which we can “introduce” them to Jesus? Of course. God has given us all creative ways to fulfill that call. Some might invite them to church, and that’s not bad. But nothing would have more of an effect on someone than inviting them to our home.
There is an intimacy in our homes, one of hospitality that makes us somewhat vulnerable. They see our homes, how we live, and they sense we care. When we make a meal, they sense that even more.
Let’s all challenge ourselves to invite someone over to our home who does not know Jesus, and in doing so, look for opportunities to introduce them to Jesus, the lover of tax collectors and “sinners”….of whom we used to be ourselves.
Working for Him together with you,
Pastor Tim