Monday, October 27, 2014

Gathering

"Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." - Matthew 12:30 ESV

Jesus is a gatherer. A shepherd. A teacher. A healer. A friend.

"Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." - Luke 15:8-10 ESV

Don't get me wrong... many gather people for different reasons and under different banners. Jesus gathers us so that we can grow together.

"But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you... The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil." - Matthew 12:28, 35 ESV

Good and evil here are not moral judgments. They are kingdom representations.

Grace thaws people out from bondage that comes from natural thinking.

People may say, 'If you are not for me you are against me.' But, Christ's side was and Is the side of the cross. A death that results in freedom. A death to self. A death to a scattering way of life. It is loyalty and lifestyle born of a new life not a better agenda.

I have known many frozen people. I have been one. Stuck at a place in time with a body that grows but with thinking that replay the same themes over and over. Analyzing a situation again and again that can never be reconciled.

Grace breaks the cycle. Gathering with God brings us into a different dynamic.

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends... No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." - John 15:13, 15 ESV

Jesus Is gathering. He Is loving. Any person who Is participating in this activity with Him is growing.

By God's grace we will grow out of our pain and outlive our enemies.

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