52 Weeks with Jesus by James Merritt

Author:James Merritt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780736961035
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers, Inc.

27

The Object of Our Worship

This week’s Scriptures:

• Luke 18:9-14

• Matthew 7:14-23

• Matthew 7:1-5

• Isaiah 6:1-7

• Luke 5:1-11

A Tale of Two Men

A minister lives with his family in a comfortable gated neighborhood. At the front of the house are bay windows where the pastor kneels to pray every morning, hoping that his neighbors will see him, because he wants to be a witness.

The minister says, “Dear God, I am so grateful for who I am and what I have. I am so grateful that, unlike so many people, I have never had a drink. I’ve never smoked. I’ve never used profanity. I have been faithful to my wife and a good father to my children. I am just thankful I am not like so many people out there who live such terrible lifestyles, and I never will be.”

On the other side of town, where half the homes are boarded up, is a dark house, without electricity. It smells of urine and vomit. Used syringes were scattered across the floor.

In the upstairs room, a man sits in front of a coffee table where a line of cocaine has been sprinkled and scraped. Caught in the grip of addiction, he drops to his knees to begin snorting another line, when a flood of conviction breaks through the dam of his heart.

Instead of reaching for the syringe, he looks up to heaven and says, “O God, I am the least worthy person to talk to you. I have made terrible choices, and I have suffered the consequences. God, would you please have mercy on me?”

Two houses. Two men. Two prayers.

One question: In God’s eyes, who do you think got up off their knees justified?

This Story May Be for You

Jesus tells a story in Luke 18 about two men in a similar situation, but with a surprising twist. One man was convinced for the wrong reason he was right with God, but he was wrong. One man was convinced for the right reasons he was wrong with God, and he got right.

Jeff Foxworthy has become famous for identifying rednecks. To go into Foxworthy mode, “You just might be in this parable if… ” any of the following things are true about you:

• Do you ever look at people who don’t go to church and think you are better than they are, because you do go to church?

• Do you ever look at people who drink and think that you are better than they are, because you don’t?

• Do you ever look at someone who may be living in sexual sin and thank God, because you aren’t?

If so, Jesus is talking to you.

When you look up to God, you will never look down on others.

One man in Jesus’s story was rejected by God, and the other was accepted. Why? Because of how they looked at themselves.

Don’t Bother Comparing

In the first century, there were two services every day in the temple when lambs were sacrificed and an atonement was made for sin. The early service started at sunup and the late service started at three o’clock.

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