".........For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." Matthew 9:13b
In the 9th chapter of Matthew, Jesus encounters many wounded and broken people. They all had 3 things in common. They were all sinners desperate to be touched by Jesus, they all had faith that Jesus would make them whole, they were all healed of their infirmities. These people, the wounded, the sick, the blind were all outcasts of society. Those that professed to be godly would turn their noses up as they passed by these people on the streets because in their twisted thinking, these people were sinners and deserving of the "judgement" that was upon them. While those godly people passed by in judgement, Jesus stopped and ministered, praised their faith and made them whole. If the King of the universe would stop and minister to the untouchable why did those that claimed to love God mock and look down upon them?
What can we learn from the acts of our Savior? Can you identify with the "godly people" from the time of Jesus? What is our reaction when we see a homeless person? Do we think, "they made themselves this way, they are drug addicts and can't be helped." Do we, like the Pharisees turn our noses up and pass by? What would Jesus' reaction be? What is our reaction to the elderly in nursing homes, the mentally handicapped, the incarcerated, the foster children, the uneducated, the unemployed, those with physical disability and terminal diseases? Are they touchable? Would Jesus pass them by?
You may think, " What can I do, their situation is hopeless." Is it? What has Jesus given you and what can you do to show them the way to the only One who could make them whole? Here a few things that you as a child of God could do.
1. Listen to their story, many people are lonely and need a listening ear.
2. Pray for them
3. Share the hope of Jesus
4. Put your words into action, feed them, write a letter, visit, tutor, hangout...ask the Lord what He wants you to do in His name.

When the Rain Comes

As I sit and listen to the rain hammering down upon the earth and see the effects of it on the surroundings, I cannot help but think about trials. Like rain, some trials are but mist, some are light, medium, hard...others are flooding and devastating. I have had my share of most of these types. When it rains for a week straight we wonder, when will it stop? But for some, it rains and rains and rains, with no end in sight. It always stops eventually.

Rain is nurturing to the earth as trials are nurturing to our characters. When the rains stop and the sun starts to shine, the effects of the long rain is present in the budding flowers and green pastures. We can go outside and reap the benefits of what the storms have done or stay inside and hide under our blankets for fear that the rain will start again. In our trials, we are not left without shelter, we are never left alone to drown in the floods. If you are built upon the Lord Jesus Christ, then the rains can pour down, the winds can howl and beat upon you but they will never claim you, for you are are hidden beneath a shield of protection that cannot be broken.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."

How many times I have seen this verse come into fulfillment....countless times.

So as the rains pour down upon you, sit tight under the Lord's hand and listen to what he is telling you. He will be glorified through our trials, we will be refined and made more like Him, and we will help others who are trying to brave the storms alone.

"I do what I do not want to do"

I struggle daily between the desire to be what God has made me to be and the self that my flesh longs to be. Once you have a glimpse of God and his Holiness there is an awareness of the imperfectness of our fleshly state. I can relate to Paul who wrote, "I do not understand what I do, for what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate to do." Romans 7:15

It is frustrating being in this imperfect state where on a daily basis I hurt the heart of God. It has often been depressing when I let the guilt overtake me. Isn't that where the enemy of my soul wants me? Depressed? Unable to move out of the desire to sulk and look within myself and my failings, crippled, useless out of my own doing? The grace of God was not meant to cripple me but set me free.

The problem is that I am not looking upon myself as my Heavenly Father does. I am looking at the filth, the sin that pollutes me on a daily basis. I am seeing myself before Christ. When He looks upon me he sees His child whom He loves and has washed and has made white as snow.

My application for today is to attempt to see myself as the Father does, to not give myself over to slavery again but to live in the freedom that he has so graciously given me.

While today I stand unfinished and imperfect apart from Christ, I stand complete and flawless in Him. It was through the blood of Christ that I was bought, redeemed and cleansed, " I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20

"And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba Father! Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." Galatians 4:6-7