Hey, I want to invite you to join me weekly for a brief time of prayer and Scripture reading. God willing, I will be able to keep up with this weekly. Here's a site that gives us a daily prayer resource from a great new prayer book called Common Prayer. You can connect, follow the daily prayer guide along with me and thousands of others, then see some of my reflections below. In order for this to become an online prayer group, I expect you to participate by sending your comments as well. What has the Holy Spirit spoken to you about in the reading of the Scriptures and the prayers? Start here at http://www.commonprayer.net/.
Luke 5: 27-39 struck me on two counts. One, for the most part, the Pharisees are people seeking to be deeply faithful to their understanding of God, but they believe God wants them to be separated from sinners to keep themselves pure and, therefore, able to worship God in the Temple. There's nothing wrong with being concerned about one's purity before the Holy God of the universe! However, according to Jesus, they seem to be missing the point on how their holiness translates into their relationships with others, particularly sinners. Jesus demonstrates by reaching out to Matthew, a tax collector and, apparently, a well known sinner. Jesus invites Matthew to be with him, and even goes to his house to eat with him! They might actually touch each other's food, shake hands, or welcome each other with an embrace (sarcasm should seep between the lines here)! Jesus shows that true holiness is concerned with healing people and calling people drowning in sin to repentance and salvation.
Life Question: What sick people (mentally, emotionally, or physically) or sinful people might Jesus call me to invite into my life and into life with Jesus?
Your thoughts and prayers are welcome on this blog as they may encourage others in faithfulness!
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