By Michell Porisch
I was an unintended witness recently in a hospital waiting room. I overheard a conversation….Two women, one the patient, one a clerk gathering information. The conversation peaked my attention when the patient was asked if she had an advance directive. Her response rang in my years, “You better never pull that plug and I will come after anyone who does! I want everything done to keep me alive!” The conversation turned to chatting about different religions. “My daughter studied a lot of different religions and decided she was closest to Buddhism.” Another snippet was, “Yeah, you can teach a child anything and they will believe it.” They chuckled about Jonah and the whale and other ridiculous stories… It would have been inappropriate to interrupt this conversation but I pondered the question of what was God trying to speak into my life in this moment.
I love the scripture Ephesians 2:8-9 but don’t forget vs.10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Another scripture shared in the message on Sunday was from Matthew 22. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” and the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
In the context of the messages from Luke 14 and the scripture from Ephesians and Matthew the simple truth is I can’t even do the most simple thing to receive Jesus’ invitation and it’s all about Jesus! Jesus must be #1 in my life. The one word I boiled it all down to was Love. When Jesus enters into these moments like I described above our hearts melt like His. His life was spent on a mission to save and redeem the confused, the desperate, the lost. Love those you don’t understand and don’t agree with. Love those that are different that you. Reflect Jesus’ love. On my own I reject, dismiss, criticize, hide. When I am empty of my agenda, my time, my pride, Jesus ‘ whisper and gentle word comes. Love them.
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