This week’s reading: Matthew 25:31-46
Hi Friends,
The Three Calls of God. We touched on the first two last week, so this week let’s focus on the third. Now that we are like those five wise maidens, IN Christ, having answered the Call to Salvation, now that we are like those good and faithful servants who multiplied the talents God has granted, as we continue to answer the Call to Sanctification, here with the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, we will see several ways how these changes within us, show up in our daily walk in life. The key is to allow the inward changes to manifest outwardly in being a blessing to those God places along our path, every day. We are in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, verses 31 through 46. Listen to these glorious words:
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ …. The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” Mt 25:34-36, 40 NIV
The Three Calls of God. The first most vital call of God is the Call to Salvation. If we are not prepared with the oil, that is, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, then we will not enter the Eternal Wedding Feast. The next call of God, helps us multiply the gifts He has entrusted to us. We begin to think, speak and act more and more like Jesus as He grows our soul to imitate His Immaculate Character. Our thoughts become more pure as we believe and understand God’s Word more. We gain greater control over our emotions as we grasp the truth that life is not all about MMI. We start to let go of what “I want” and start seeking what God Wills for us instead. In other words, we grow up. As the Lord has told me before, “You have no choice but to grow older, but whether you grow UP, is up to you.” Maturity means we are living for God and others first, as we have the assurance that we will be taken care of too. Life gets more abundant, more filled to the overflow with peace and joy, as we live it the way God prescribes. We will be more content whatever our situation, even as we work with God to improve it. Being mature does not mean depriving ourselves of a full life. It simply means trusting that, whatever, wherever and however God leads us, IS the most full life for us to live. I think of John the Baptist here. God led him to live out in the wilderness, to wear that unstylish camel skin with only a leather belt to accessorize and to eat a questionable diet of yucky locusts…yet we never hear him complaining, right? His passion for God, his humility before Jesus, his resilience before the authorities, made his life, not only full, but fully inspirational! Whether God’s plan for us is poverty or prosperity or something in between in this world, it does not represent what life will be like in the next world. We can trust Him, no matter what He allows. This also leads me to think about my Baby Girl. She lived five healthy years, then seven and a half years of one horrendous miracle after the next. Horrendous, because they were all so hard and horrifying. Miracle, because she should not have survived even one episode, much less the dozens and dozens of crisis that God helped her endure. But as I said last week, when God brought her Home almost 15 years ago, the first thing she heard was “Well done My good and faithful servant!” And I know John heard those same words, and now, both she and he are in Paradise. A place you and I can only imagine this side of Heaven. Listen to Revelation 21:4 “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (NIV) The old way of this world, where each human is broken, where the world system is corrupt and where the devil still has limited power to steal, kill and destroy, it will vanish. All we will know is God’s Grace. All we will know is His Character. And all we will do is display it to Him and to one another. To love and to be loved. This is the goal…and by God’s Grace, we can begin to experience it here, in the midst of those three enemies. How? By holding on to Jesus, our Salvation. By holding on to the Holy Spirit, our Sanctification. And by serving the Father, our Immaculate example of true, selfless Love.
The Sheep need their Shepherd. In this reading, we focus on the Second Coming of Jesus. When, not if, but when He comes, we will see His full glory. He will be surrounded by all His Angels and He will sit on His rightful Throne. What a marvelous sight this will be! And everyone will see it. How? I am not sure, the Bible does not give us all the details because we probably would not understand them anyway. Our ability to comprehend the spiritual realm is beyond our capability. We barely know what is going on spiritually in this earthly realm, how much less can we grasp the higher, Heavenly things? But then again, this is why the Bible encourages us to walk by Faith. We do not need to know the details, we only need to know the one Who knows them…and Who has prepared them for the good of His beloved. That would be us, His sheep. We wise maidens, who have grown to become good and faithful servants, we are now revealed as His sheep who choose to follow Him wherever He leads. Oh how I love chapter 10 of the Gospel of John. Jesus speaks about how He is the Gate for His sheep. How we can only enter into His Eternal Flock through Him. How we will not listen to any false shepherd because He keeps us safely within His boundaries. How He is the Good Shepherd Who lays down His life so that we can come in through the Door of His Love and be with Him forevermore. How He knows those who are His and how He helps us know He is ours. It is such a beautiful picture of being cared for in every possible way. I do hope you will make some time this week to sit with those verses and fall in love with this incredible Savior, either for the first time or for the 101st time. Let your heart be swelled with the wonder of what it will be like when Jesus returns. Continue basking in the splendor of your Salvation in Jesus. Keep moving forward in the miracle of your Sanctification in the Holy Spirit. And seek deeper to serve the Father by displaying His example of true, selfless Love.
The Sheep need to follow their Shepherd. Imagine the scenario of an apprenticeship. There is a master teacher and then there is the learning student, right? The master teacher relays all his knowledge from years and years of experience to the student, and the student then, simply imitates this teacher. But what if the student decides he knows better? What if he doesn’t consult the teacher and chooses to do things according to his own limited understanding instead? Will things go well? Probably not. This continues to be our reality even after we are born again. This is why it is so vital that we grow and begin to live life God’s Way instead of according to our own short sighted, self-centered ways. The Shepherd will lead, but He will not force us into submission. True submission is an act of Free Will. That means we must choose to follow Him. But here is the wonderful thing about being the Sheep of this Shepherd, He will continue to pursue us until we know His Voice and we will, sooner or later, follow Him. The sooner we begin though, the more fulfilling our journey becomes. All that God requires from us is a willing heart and an open mind. Willing because, again, He will not force us, but an open mind because we do not always see what He is doing in and through us. I often say that I just stumble into God’s Will. Because I continue to give Him a willing heart, more times than not at least, and because I continue to allow my mind to be open to whatever, wherever and however He leads me, I do follow Him, even when I am not aware that I am. For instance, I had no conscious intension of helping out a friend recently, but I did sense an urge to call her. When I did, she began sharing a need she had, and I had a “bright idea” of how that need could be met. Again I was not thinking, “Oh, this is an opportunity God is giving for me to serve Him by helping this friend.” I simply called when I felt led and I simply filled the need that was presented. This is what is going on in verses 37 through 39 of our reading. These Sheep didn’t even realize that they were serving their Shepherd because they were simply going about doing good. Ahhh, but this is exactly the perfect picture of the life of Jesus, isn’t it? Listen to the words of Peter from Acts 10:37-38, “You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” (my emphasis) When we are saved by the Grace of God by placing our Faith in Jesus, we begin to be sanctified in the Holy Spirit, because God is with us, we will go about doing good. It will be our nature, our growing character, to desire to imitate our Master Teacher. So we will follow Him, and the more mature we become, the more we will be aware that we are following Him. This increases the fulfillment of our lives because we will be active participants in manifesting the Love of God through the purpose of our lives. God will work through us and the needs of others will be met. Our part? Continue basking in the splendor of our Salvation in Jesus. Keep moving forward in the miracle of our Sanctification in the Holy Spirit. And seek deeper to serve the Father by displaying His example of true, selfless Love, to everyone He places on our path.
God opens the doors so we can serve. This last and amazing Call of God, the Call to Service, is where our Salvation and Sanctification is clearly displayed. We love God by loving others in His Name. That is, we go about doing good, and by doing so, we point others to our God Who loves them just as much as He loves us. It is only by God’s Grace that Goats can be transformed into Sheep. Then it is our privilege to be utilized as an opening for others to know our Lord. Again, God opens the doors so we can serve, question is, do we serve? And because He desires that we sense the most fulfilling life we possibly can this side of Heaven, because He wants us to participate in His Plan for the Salvation of Humanity, God gives us endless opportunities to serve. If we miss one door, God will provide another, and many times He will bring us around to the original door again too. Think of a highway with many exits here. Let’s say I am driving down the Garden State Parkway and I know I have to get out at exit 105, but I am distracted by the radio, or looking around at the trees, or annoyed at the guy driving in front of me…well, whatever the reason, I miss the exit. I drive right past it and…and now what?! I have to wait until the next exit, right? This is the idea of God opening a door for us to serve, but if we are distracted, if we are looking the wrong way or if we are being mad at someone else, we might miss the occasion to be a blessing. But God has already provided for the next door, or next exit to stay with our analogy. When we get to that next exit, we, hopefully, are concentrating more and can get off. We can listen to our GPS and get to where we are going along a different road. That would be like us being a blessing in a new door God opens for us. But let’s say we do get off that next exit but then we can get back on the Parkway going the opposite way and go back to that original exit where we were supposed to get off. This would be like God moving us back to that first opportunity to bless someone. Either God will take us back to the original one, or He will grant us other moments to serve. Oh and by the way, we do have an internal GPS…one day when I was joking with God, I mentioned to Him that I wish I had a GPS system inside so I always knew where He was leading me and wouldn’t feel lost. With what I imagine was a smile on His face, He said, “You do have a GPS within, God’s Perfect Son!” LOL! God is also a funny Father! It really is a pleasure to serve Him. Sooo…let’s continue basking in the splendor of our Salvation in Jesus. Let’s keep moving forward in the miracle of our Sanctification in the Holy Spirit. And let’s seek deeper to serve the Father by displaying His example of true, selfless Love, to everyone He places on our path…being His Sheep who follow Him wherever He leads because that is the only way to Heaven
Sheep and Goats. In the end, the difference between sheep and goats is the heart to be a blessing…or not. This living outside of our MMI is only achievable with, in and through God. When we realize that we are spiritually bankrupt and we are in desperate need of The Savior, we will begin to humble ourselves, which softens our hearts towards others…or it should. When we notice that we cannot live this saved life alone and are in desperate need of The Lord, we continue to be humbled, which further softens our hearts towards others…or it should. This softening leads us to desire to be a blessing to those around us as we display the Love of God towards them…or it should. Again, the difference between sheep and goats is the heart to be a blessing…or not. The goats in this parable would have been more than happy to serve Jesus if they saw Him, in person, in front of them. But they missed the reality that we are all made in God’s Image, so we should serve the “least of these” as if we are directly serving Jesus, because we are. Love serves, and it serves everyone we encounter, whichever way God leads us to do so. There are so many people hungry for God’s Truth. There are so many people thirsting for redemption. There are so many strangers needing to be invited to Church. There are so many cold and naked people longing to be clothed with God’s Robes of Righteousness. There are so many sick people who are desperate for God’s Healing touch. And there are so many imprisoned by lies and addictions and confusion and loneliness and…and fill in the blank…who desire to be set free. My Friends, this is where you and I come in. As we choose to answer the Call to Salvation, as we choose to participate in the Call to Sanctification, as we go about doing good by living in the Call to Service, we are doing what we were always created to do, and our lives? Yes, they become more and more abundant! I know you want more of that so, won’t you join me?
Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think.
<>< Peace, Diane
