In Love

“Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy.  But the crowds were displeased.  ‘He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,’ they grumbled.” Luke 19:6-7 [emphasis added]

For a heart change to occur, the second thing is, I Must Believe that God LOVES me. It is not enough to believe that God is after me because some people think that God is after them to kill them. When some people think of God coming after them, they think of a judge with a big whip searching for their errors and whacking them on the head and on the backside. For a lot of people, when they think of God all they can think of is a taskmaster. So it is not enough to say that God is after you. In fact, if you stop some people and tell them God is after them, you have just ruined their day. And it is because their understanding of God is the God that judges them. So you must believe that God loves sinful people like you and I.

I really do not know what it is with “church people” and it  has been like that from the days of the Bible. While one person was rejoicing that he has finally found Jesus, the church people were grumbling. They probably were saying, how can you cheapen the grace of God like that? Jesus, this man is a notorious thief. “Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy…” Now if there is a notorious person that has finally accepted Jesus, what should we do? We should rejoice. But what did these people who were close to Jesus and following Him everywhere, do?

The Bible says, “But the crowds were displeased” and they grumbled. God does not have to fit into your box. God loves people and God will meet people where they are. A lot of people have problems with the denomination or the methods in which things are done. Who cares about those things? The most important thing is, is Jesus saving people? Is Jesus healing people? Is He restoring people? Then let us celebrate. Let us not be like these people that were waiting for Jesus to give this thief and traitor some damnation preaching. They were expecting Jesus to be like a “pre-Isaiah-6” Isaiah, “woe unto you”. They were expecting Jesus to do what they call the turn or burn doctrine. But what did Jesus do? He responded with love. Wow!

Prayer: Holy Spirit, help me to always respond to people in love and not in judgment, in Jesus Name.