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"Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God." Matthew 5:8
"Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain?" Psalm 24:3-4
I use a lot of hand sanitizer, courtesy of my mom's reminders.
After holding money, after using the toilet,etc.
I went through a lot of baby wipes when Josh was a baby.
If only it was as easy to clean our hearts and hands for God!
In Rev. 7:14, we read,
"...they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb."
Jesus' blood is better than any hand sanitizer,
baby wipes or laundry detergent that purports
to make clothes whiter than white!
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"When you hold a banquet invite the poor,
the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because
of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the
resurrection of the righteous." Luke 14:13-14
Nothing we can do or give or give up,
can ever repay Jesus who gave His life
in the most excruciating, humiliating way,
just so we could be included in the most
inconceivable joyous heavenly banquet that lasts forever.
No one is more generous than Jesus.
And when we give, we are just responding to His goodness.
Here in Luke 14 He is merely asking us
to echo His generosity in a small way.
When we are generous to those who can't repay us,
we do it to Him as well. (Matthew 25:40)
Jesus talked a lot about money.
He said that we should store up treasures in heaven,
not here on earth where it could easily disappear.
A building can get burned down,
stocks could lose value in a single day,
jewelry can get stolen,
money even in the bank loses its value from inflation!!!
Jesus said that where our treasure is,
that is where our heart is. (Luke 12:34)
If we want to see where our heart is,
we need only to look at our checkbook, our bank account.
Perhaps it is time to think purposely
about where our money goes.
To put it where it cannot be stolen,
where it cannot burn, where it will not devalue, or rust.
I'm thinking inmates in prison,
a family in a squatter area, streetchildren,
even the families of our helpers at home
can be beneficiaries of our generosity and kindness.
And it's not a matter of how much money we have either.
As Mother Teresa used to say,
"If you can't feed a hundred people, feed just one."
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"Whatever you did for one of these
least brothers of mine, you did it for Me." Matthew 25:40
Matthew 25:31-46, Sunday's Gospel,
makes it quite clear that one of the things
we need to do to get to heaven
is to take care of the needs of those God loves.
Feed the hungry, be hospitable to strangers,
clothe the naked, visit prisoners.
Perhaps most of us have done these things,
especially during times of disasters,
earthquakes, typhoons and floods.
But I doubt if Jesus is saying here that
if we've done it once, we're in.
It's an attitude of the heart we've got to work on.
I know, because although I feed the hungry,
donate clothes, am part of a prison ministry,
and have welcomed strangers into my home,
sometimes I just want to get it over quickly!
I don't get to know and love the
"least of Jesus' brothers and sisters"!
Jesus might say to me,
"Yes you fed me but you did not see my face." :^(
I find a lot of inspiration
visiting here:
So many WONDERFUL blogfriends
to discover!
Lovely paintings, did you do them yourself? Popping by from Creative Mondays.
ReplyDeleteYour words are so inspiring and your art work is so very lovely!
ReplyDeleteOh, I think it is important to spend time basking in the generosity of Jesus - it allows me to give so much more freely and I don't hold onto what is "mine" so tightly.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful and inspiring as always, Patsy. Thank you for sharing with us at Unforced Rhythms.
ReplyDelete