John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. NKJV)
We choose. Jesus is the only way to the Father without Him there is no salvation. Carla
Matthew 13:47-50
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, 48 which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, 50 and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” NKJV)
Matthew 13:47-50
47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. 48 When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. 49 Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. New American Bible
The last two parables speak of kingdom responsibilities for disciples. First, Jesus describes a large seine net, which would encircle a large area and drag the bottom of a lake. Such a net gathers fish of every kind, without discrimination. Similarly, the responsibility of disciples would be to catch as many “fish”—of every kind—as possible. The work of judging or ferreting out the false catch, however, is a job that disciples are neither called nor equipped to do. That work is assigned to angels at Christ’s return. The NKJV Study Bible
The world is a vast sea, and men, in their natural state, are like the fishes. Preaching the gospel is casting a net into this sea, to catch something out of it, for His glory who has the sovereignty of this sea. Hypocrites and true Christians shall be parted: miserable is the condition of those that shall then be cast away. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Matthew 13:38–42
The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels…
Matthew 22:9–10
Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Matthew 25:32
All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
I can tell you that I love to read—and to tell—stories about the power of kindness. Small gifts of kindness that make our world a better place. Gifts that replenish the receiver, and the giver. This is a story from 2018. It was in my stories file about the way we treat “the least of these”.
The headline in the newspaper: “Mexicans shower the caravan with kindness — and tarps, tortillas and medicine.”
Outside her family’s hardware store, Coqui Cortez, 57, set up a table to feed migrants (what we are calling the caravan) lemon tea and stew, using meat from her son’s butcher shop. Down the street, her daughter was handing out fruit.
“My family has been very blessed,” Cortez said. “And we know that we are all brothers. What God gives us, we should share. But we do it with a lot of love."
For decades, because of poverty and violence, people have hiked the back roads and ridden trains heading north.
“Today it’s them. Tomorrow it could be us,” said Lesbia Cinco Ley, 70, who was volunteering with the Catholic church in town to distribute food.
So, get this. Town officials in Pijijiapan began readying for the caravan’s arrival, holding meetings to strategize how to attend to the migrants. Before dawn on Thursday, Cinco Ley and several others began cooking, on a mission to prepare giant vats of ham and eggs and 14,000 sandwiches. Between the municipality, churches and private citizens, town officials estimated Pijijiapan had spent nearly $8,000 for one day’s worth of food. “This is a poor town, but we still did all this,” said Guadalupe Rodriguez, 48, a city councilwoman.
(Adapted from Washington Post article, Joshua Partlow)
“And the law of kindness is on her tongue.” The Book of Proverbs
It is no surprise that I am frequently drawn to the story of the good Samaritan. I like Thomas Merton’s take, “Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is to love.”
I can choose to be a peacemaker. And a dispenser of kindness. Sabbath Moments
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).
This message was particularly relevant to Paul's audience of believers in Ephesus, who were familiar with pagan religious practices that focused on appeasing false gods through rituals and offerings. Ephesians were so passionate about their idols that they rioted in Acts 19:24-34 when the free gospel threatened the "business" of idol-making at their temple of Artemis. However, Paul's words in Ephesians 2:8 stand in stark contrast to paganism, stating that salvation in Christ is not transactional: "It is the gift of God."
The Greek word for "gift" in this verse is doron. It's used throughout the New Testament in the context of offering sacred sacrifices (Matthew 23:18-19; Hebrews 8:3-4). We also find the related term dorea in scriptures that refer to an unmerited or undeserved gift.Romans 3:24 says believers are justified by God's grace "as a gift [dorea], through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
With this in mind, Ephesians 2:8-9 points us to three truths about salvation:
1. Salvation involves a sacrificial gift.
Jesus is "our Passover lamb, [who] has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). Previously, God established animal sacrifices in the Old Testament so humans would have a way to temporarily cover or cleanse their sins ... but Hebrews 10:11 reminds us these sacrifices could "never take away sins" (emphasis added). Jesus accomplished what other sacrifices never could: He permanently removed the sin that separated us from God.
2. Salvation is entirely unmerited.
Romans 3:23 reminds us "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Yet God in His infinite mercy offers salvation freely to all; it's not based on human achievement or worthiness. Theologian J. I. Packer states, "Grace is simply God's love demonstrated toward those who deserve the opposite."
3. Salvation is received by grace through faith.
In ancient Ephesus, the temple of Artemis served as a place of pagan worship as well as a place where some citizens deposited their wealth, believing they would receive favor by investing in a false god. Yet the true God does not seek our money; He seeks only our faith, "so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:9).
When we live as though God's favor must be earned, we miss the Truth of the gospel. Salvation was never designed to show us how worthy we are but to point us to a worthy God and a redeeming Savior. Our acceptance is solely rooted in Christ's finished work on the cross, not in our work for Him. First5
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