Shabbat Shalom Family!
Praying that you will receive God's Blessing and enter into His rest this
day. Please enjoy and share the powerful Word and Worship that
follows:
“But we know that the law is good
if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous
person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly
and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of
fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for
sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other
thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of
the blessed God which was committed to my trust. And I thank Christ Jesus
our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into
the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an
insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly
in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and
love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
of whom I am chief."
Jim Cymbala preaches at a
church (Brooklyn Tabernacle) in the slums of New York. He tells the following
story: It was Easter Sunday and I was so tired at the end of the day that I
just went to the edge of the platform, pulled down my tie and sat down and
draped my feet over the edge. It was a wonderful service with many people
coming forward. The counselors were talking with these people.
As I was sitting
there I looked up the middle aisle, and there in about the third row was a man
who looked about fifty, disheveled, filthy. He looked up at me rather
sheepishly, as if saying, "Could I talk to you?" We have homeless
people coming in all the time, asking for money or whatever. So as I sat there,
I said to myself, though I am ashamed of it, "What a way to end a Sunday.
I've had such a good time, preaching and ministering, and here's a fellow
probably wanting some money for more wine."
He walked up. When he got
within about five feet of me, I smelled a horrible smell like I'd never smelled
in my life. It was so awful that when he got close, I would inhale by looking
away, and then I'd talk to him, and then look away to inhale, because I
couldn't inhale facing him. I asked him, "What's your name?"
"David." "How long have you been on the street?" "Six
years." "How old are you?" "Thirty-two." He looked
fifty- hair matted; front teeth missing; wino; eyes slightly glazed.
"Where did you sleep last night, David?" "Abandoned truck."
I keep in my back pocket a money clip that also holds some credit cards. I
fumbled to pick one out thinking; I'll give him some money. I won't even get a
volunteer. They are all busy talking with others. Usually we don't give money
to people. We take them to get something to eat. I took the money out. David
pushed his finger in front of me. He said, "I don't want your money. I
want this Jesus, the One you were talking about, because I'm not going to make
it. I'm going to die on the street."
I completely forgot about David, and
I started to weep for myself. I was going to give a couple of dollars to
someone God had sent to me. See how easy it is? I could make the excuse I was
tired. There is no excuse. I was not seeing him the way God sees him. I was not
feeling what God feels. But oh, did that change! David just stood there. He
didn't know what was happening. I pleaded with God, "God, forgive me!
Forgive me! Please forgive me. I am so sorry to represent You this way. I'm so
sorry. Here I am with my message and my points, and You send somebody and I am
not ready for it. Oh, God!" Something came over me. Suddenly I started to
weep deeper, and David began to weep. He fell against my chest as I was sitting
there. He fell against my white shirt and tie, and I put my arms around him,
and there we wept on each other.
The smell of His person became a beautiful
aroma. Here is what I thought the Lord made real to me: If you don't love this
smell, I can't use you, because this is why I called you where you are. This is
what you are about. You are about this smell. Christ changed David's life. He
started memorizing portions of Scripture that were incredible. We got him a
place to live. We hired him in the church to do maintenance, and we got his
teeth fixed. He was a handsome man when he came out of the hospital. They
detoxed him in 6 days. He spent that Thanksgiving at my house. He also spent
Christmas at my house. When we were exchanging presents, he pulled out a little
thing and he said, "This is for you." It was a little white hanky. It
was the only thing he could afford. A year later David got up and talked about
his conversion to Christ. The minute he took the mic and began to speak, I
said, "The man is a preacher." This past Easter we ordained David. He
is an associate minister of a church over in New Jersey. And I was so close to
saying, "Here, take this; I'm a busy preacher." We can get so full of
ourselves.
This heart-warming story that
Jim Cymbala tells here reflects so much light upon ourselves as Christians. It
shows us that we must never discount anyone, much less ourselves. Paul shows us
also that the ones who are the most difficult to come to Christ are not the
"down and outers" like Jim Cymbala talks about, but the ones like
himself, the so-called "good people" who look and act decently but
are empty, selfish, and sinful on the inside where no one but God can see. He
transforms the lives of all of us by His grace- His unmerited favor extended to
whom He will. Even as accomplished as Paul thought that he was, he knew that
the law of God exposed him as a first-class hypocrite of the worst kind, a
reprobate and even a murderer. This he had to see in the mirror of the law
before he could see what the grace of God could do for him. Praise God, Christ
saved whom Paul considered "the chief of sinners" in order to unleash
his passion to tell the whole world about Jesus.
Reflect: Do you see any so-called "good
people" who need to be saved? They are out there everywhere. They may be
sitting in your home or even in your chair? Who knows?
