Printer Friendly Version
Welcome Again to the PathSeeker Weekly,
I hope all is well for all who are reading this. We are here again for a new message from the Gospels of Jesus Christ. God has promised us all as His children several things but the one thing He has never promised us is a next breath. I am thankful that God has given us this next breath for us to be able to come together.
To no surprises if you have been following this series of weekly messages of the Gospel. I will begin here with the main scripture reference we have been using as the central core of these weekly opportunities to learn about Gods word. In case this is your first time here then feel free to browse the archives to catch up with what we have been doing here. I am still covering segment two of this central verse and hopefully opening some insight as to the characteristics of Jesus and together we are about to win the great race with the prize of having the Mind of Christ.
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
During this ability to transform by the renewing of your mind, we are slowly but surely transformed towards receiving the mind of Christ. Together as we transform, we accept Christ as the the Savior of all lives, and we all as individuals come together as one body in which Christ is the head. Christ in which
“John 1:3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
I have a special characteristic of Jesus I want to address this week and that is a characteristic that was not a part of His life but we have made it a part of our lives in some form or another. Jesus came to earth so that everyone who would call upon His name would be saved.
Romans 10:13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
Jesus did not come just to give the Jewish people a chance for eternal life, but He came so that all throughout the entire world would have the exact same opportunity for everlasting life. Jesus came for every man woman and child regardless of sex, race or religion. Jesus came with a purpose and His purpose was to teach us how to be like Him and to take His Gospel messages throughout the world. Jesus loved the rich as well as the poor, He loved women as well as men. Jesus loved all even the religious out casts of His time.
Before the days Jesus walked this earth, prejudice was just as rampant as it is in today’s times. The Jewish people or the chosen children of Israel were just as prejudicial as we are still today. God the father had an important life saving message He wanted to send to a nation that was not one of the original tribes of Israel. The main city of this nation was name Nineveh. Inside this city was sin gone rampant and God had chosen this city as one in which He would show and offer His grace in abundant measures. God had even chose a messenger to go to Nineveh and offer His grace in a one time repent or be destroyed. During this time was a prophet who would travel the Israel country side bringing Gods word to all of the villages and cities in Israel. The prophets name was Jonah.
The Book of Jonah
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
One night while Jonah was sleeping, God spoke to Jonah and told him, God’s plan for the city of Nineveh. But Jonah allowed the prejudice inside himself take over and Jonah ran from God. Jonah ran to the nearest sea port and boarded a ship and attempted to leave in the exact opposite direction from Nineveh. Even though Jonah ran from God, God still knew where Jonah had wondered to. God caused a great storm to come upon the sea and desperate Jonah persuaded the sea men to throw him overboard in order to save themselves from the violent storm. God sent a big fish to swallow Jonah and for three days Jonah was inside the great fish. During this three days Jonah asked the Lord for forgiveness for running from God. Jonah also repented of the error of his ways from not wanting to go to Nineveh to begin with. Jonah told God from that moment on he would to wherever the Lord had wanted him to go. After three days the great fish swam up to the land and spit Jonah up the land. When Jonah had realized where he was, he began his short distant trip to Nineveh.
When Jonah arrived to Nineveh, he still had the prejudice feelings inside of himself. But he still held to his promise to the Lord and went inside the city to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh. Because of God’s grace the king of Nineveh accepted God as the one true God and had his people to repent to the Lord instead of facing death. The people all did as they commanded and indeed they changed and God forgave them. The people of Nineveh were given the same chance of repentance and forgiveness of sins as we have been offered through Jesus.
Jonah was still besides himself after his mission was complete. He had already learned to respect the Lord, and was fearful in what he was afraid the Lord was about to do to the city. Jonah thoughts were that the people of Nineveh were not apart of God’s chosen people. This was a regard held specifically for the children of Israel, from the covenants of Abraham and Moses. As far as Jonah new to himself the people of Nineveh were cursed before he had arrived. No way would God forgive the people of an entirely different race, so Jonah had thought. So Jonah hurried and left the city fore he knew for sure God was about to destroy the city in the same manner as He had destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jonah was excited, he hurried to a nearby hill where he would have a good view and witness God’s destruction. So Jonah sat atop the hill and waited, and waited, and waited. God did not destroy Nineveh.
Just as God has given us all a new chance for life even though we were dead already to sin, God also gave the city of Nineveh a new start though they too were already dead to sin. Way to often today in the churches we as disciples of Christ refuse to go where God intends for us to go. We run the other direction. Prejudice has been taught to us a children and as we grow to adults we take prejudice to extreme measures. Anti -semantic groups have formed all over the world based upon skin color, religious preferences and even money or lack there of. In the churches today and yesterday prejudice has been an issue.
James 2:1 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. 2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 4 have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 7 Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? 8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; 9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.
James was a brother to Jesus. The letter or book of James is a whole lot like the Proverbs of Solomon. James grew up with Jesus and walked with Jesus as one of His disciples. Shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus there began a new movement and the Christian Church began to be established. The first apostles began to appoint missionaries to travel the world to spread the good news Gospels of Jesus Christ. The majority of the letters written by Paul, Peter, and James were written to point out things that were happening inside the new churches that were begging to spring up all over. I n Paul’s letters to the Corinthians wrong ideas and methods of worship were the centralized themes as with the case here in this text of scriptures found in James. Even at the early stages of the church prejudice was showing its ugly face. James is point here to one form of prejudice which is loving the rich but placing the poor at a completely lower class based entirely on money. In verses 5 and 6 James makes a point that goes back to something Jesus said in the Beatitude segment of Jesus’ sermon on the mount (Mathew 5:3-10). James also points out prejudice is a sin and how even though you keep all commandments but still lack at one you are still guilty of sin.
Sin is a part of our lives, and has been since the first act of disobedience of Adam and Eve in the garden. Jesus supplied the way for the forgiveness of sins through the blood of His life He gave as the sacrifice on the cross. It is our goal as new believers, disciples of Christ, or even seasoned lay people, to strive to be holy as Christ was holy. But notice here I say “strive” instead of “be”. In your everyday life all you can do is strive or try to be holy, I don’t care who you are, none of are absolutely sinless everyday. No matter how hard try, you may be perfect to day but tomorrow you just might find something like a loss of anger which causes you to say something that is sinful or maybe you find inside you a deep seated anti-semantic prejudice against someone whether from race, sex or lifestyle. In order for you to be holy you need to simply accept Jesus as the Savior of you life, humble yourself and admit or confess your sins to Him. The saving forgiving grace God has offered is the only way to be holy. I must point out here that I am not being some kind of a liberal and say that that it is alright to sin and God automatically forgives. What I trying to say is if God has a grading scale it mat look something like this:
Gods Report Card
- A= for perfect in which we are not capable of but Jesus is
- B= for better than before not better than all the rest
- C= for could try harder. Be more than a pew warmer in other words a CHURCHIAN
- D= for don’t try at all
- F= for completely and total fail to recognize Jesus as Lord and Savior
- E= for effort. This is the only grade God will consider as passing.
To God a grade of an E for effort shows that you have accepted Jesus as His Holy Son. You have humbled yourself before Him. And you are striving to become like Christ in all you do everyday. Even though you may fail someday whether from a small lack of faith or something deeply embedded inside you that shows its ugly face such as prejudice.
Jesus Himself faced prejudice against Him. Not from the spiritual aspect of his claims to be God’s Son or His claims to be sent from God. Jesus faced prejudice simply by coming from Nazareth.
John 1:46 And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
Jesus new Nathanael, even before He had meet him, for what Nathanael was, a true Israelite. In other words Nathanael had practiced all the demands of the law and lived a prefect life according to the law. But Nathanael had himself placed on a level that was way higher than any one from Nazareth could possibly be. Even though Nazareth was considered a city within the Jewish community, Nazareth was still not one of the so called holy places. The people of Nazareth were common working people who did in fact obey the laws of Moses but were just simply from a poorer side of town. Nathanael allowed the self imposed higher standing of himself to be a judge of Jesus. But not only was Jesus judged by prejudice but so were some of the apostles during the first few days of the new Christian movement.
Acts 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.
The religious elite recognized Peter and John as “uneducated and untrained men”. They at first glance recognized Peter and John in a prejudicial manner. They were truly amazed at how two stupid people could talk in such formal manners. Then the religious elite remembered these men had been with Jesus. Even though Peter and John were not educated in formal education, they had been with the greatest teacher of all times, Jesus.
During a time of the life of Jesus here on earth He went through the country side of Samaria. Now Samaria was a place in which no respectable Jew would travel. To the Jews the Samaritan people were considered infidels and would not share in the same glory and promises God had made to the Israel nation. It6 was quite common practice for the Jewish people when ever they would go on a pilgrimage through the holly lands to travel completely around Samaria to avoid the risk of becoming ceremonially unclean before the Lord. There had become a greatly deep seeded prejudice against the Samaritan people. On one particular day Jesus was about to change this for the true at heart once and for all. One day Jesus was traveling from Judea to Galilee and instead as going around Samaria as was customary, He traveled through Samaria. He came to a well and did something truly amazing that no respectable Jewish Rabbi would do. First he stopped at a well and allowed Himself to be approached by a Samaritan person. Second He started a conversation with a woman. Two things a Jewish rabbi would never do because of the degrading of Samaritan people and the degrading of a man making conversation with a woman who was considered a beneath a man in a man controlling culture.
(John 4:1-42)Jesus began to speak with the woman, not just the usual how do you like the weather. He spoke to her about life. Life received from the living water that would bring life to any who would drink. He told her of her own intimate details of her life and the state of being she was in at the particular stage of her life. She went on to tell Him how the Samaritan people were not allowed to worship the one true God in the same manner as the rest of the Children of Israel did. But Jesus began to tell her of How true worship of God was to be. “In spirit and in truth“. He told her the kind of worshippers God wanted. He went on tell her He was the messiah the world was to receive. The woman left Jesus and went to tell the others in her home town who she had met.
John 4:27 And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”
I am pulling this particular verse here to show how the disciples felt about who Jesus was talking with. Even though they knew there had to be some reason behind His madness they still could not believe, Jesus the Savior of the world, Gods own Son, was here having a conversation with a Samaritan especially a woman. They could not at first understand why He even cared. But Jesus explained to them:
John 4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. 35 “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! 36 “And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 “For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
What Jesus was meaning here was that there is an entire world that is ripe and ready to be harvested for the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is for everyone not just for whomever the people choose. Jesus then took His disciples into the city and witnessed to all because the woman first gave them witness as to who Jesus was. And many believed Jesus as Savior of the world.
Before Jesus left to return to heaven to be with God he had this to say:
Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
All does not stop just there. Like I mentioned earlier with the beginnings of the Christian Church came the missionary ministry to take the word of God and offer repentance and forgiveness of sins to all the world. One of the first missionaries to be sent out from the apostles was a man named Phillip. Phillip was sent to Samaria to spread the Gospel of Jesus.
Acts 8:5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. Acts 8:14 Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them,
Because of what Jesus had done starting at the well with a Samaritan woman. The Gospel of Jesus was now being spread and accepted in all of Samaria. Because of the no prejudice characteristic of Jesus the world has been given the opportunity to adopted into God’s Kingdom. Today still even though we have acceptance, we still try to choose who we should invite into our group of Gods Kingdom. But remember the kingdom is God’s. God has chosen whom He wants in and like the harvest that is ripe for the harvesting we need to harvest for God and not ourselves.
1 Timothy 2:1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, 7 for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Thank you and God Bless,
Tommy Harmon
Use this link to read a simple prayer to open your hearts door and let Jesus in.
Please use the comments link below. I would like to hear your remarks to these messages.
*All scripture quotes are from the The New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible unless otherwise noted
