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A renowned and famous board certified Veterinary Internist once made the comment during a lecture that any Veterinarian who picked a subject, Kidney Disease for instance, and read up on that subject for 20 minutes every day would become an expert on that subject and equal to someone who is board certified
I suppose that’s good advice for any kind of occupation or for any kind of hobby.
What about for the Christian? What if a Christian picked a book/epistle or any Bible subject and studied on it for 20 minutes every day? What if, like the Internist, the Christian reviewed any new information written by experts that might come out? What if the Christian, like many Veterinarians, joined a chat group to discuss the subject of interest with other Christians?
That Christian conceivable could become an “expert” and could become a valuable resource to his local congregation and other congregations and maybe the world. He might publish his works. He might lecture.
What if in a congregation several members each chose a different subject and became experts? What would that congregation look like?
What are we waiting for to achieve something that great and that only costs 20 minutes a day? The five talent man would probably spend 40 minutes a day.
The mother of Zebedee’s children (James and John) came to Jesus with her sons. She got down on her knees before Jesus to ask something of Him. He said to her, “What do you want?” She said, “Say that my two sons may sit, one at your right side and one at your left side, when you are King.” Jesus said to her, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to take the suffering that I am about to take?” They said, “Yes, we are able.” He said to them, “You will suffer as I will suffer. But the places at my right side and at my left side are not mine to give. Whoever my Father says will have those places.”
Of course a mother always looks out for the best interests of her boys and Mrs. Zebedee certainly did. She knew that Jesus was going to rule over a great kingdom… she just didn’t understand what kind of kingdom.
Talk is often cheap and when James and John answered Jesus’ question about suffering they said they could suffer like Jesus.
In Acts 12 we find the very same Herod who was guilty of killing Jesus also killing James (with a sword). And while James wasn’t the first Christian to be martyred he was the first Apostle to follow the path of Jesus in suffering.
Mrs. Zebedee’s hope and expectation was that her sons would sit at either side of Jesus in his kingdom. Instead she was honored with one of her sons being the first Apostle martyred and I guess no matter where James is seated his mother was very proud of him for that gift and blessing.
Luke 13, “Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil? “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”
God has a vineyard and the Fig trees in this vineyard are people. God goes to inspect his vineyard and sees a Fig tree (people) that has not produced a single Fig in three years and so he instructs his gardener (Jesus Christ) to cut it down. The gardener (Jesus Christ) says let me fertilize the soil and let’s give the tree one more year and if it still does not bear figs I will cut it down.
This particular vineyard is the Jewish nation. Under the old Mosaic Law they were not fruitful.
Jesus wants to infuse them with a new Law… a Law of love to see what they might produce. At the end of his three year ministry Jesus allows himself to be sacrificed and gave up his perfect life to demonstrate incomprehensible love to his disciples. And with that love God’s people who had been unproductive started sharing that love around the world and God’s garden got bigger and bigger and produced more and more figs.
It’s amazing what a little love can do.
Luke 13 describes a scene where Jesus was asked if few or many would be saved. Of course Jesus answered… “few” and went on to describe a scene where the gates to Heaven were slammed shut and those who were not saved tried to defend themselves and to persuade God to let them in and God told them… I never knew you workers of iniquity.
To make matters worse the lost could see in the gates of heaven and see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc. They could also see strangers from faraway lands sitting in places of honor where they should have been sitting.
Fast forward to our day and time. Maybe you’ve attended church with your family. Maybe you’ve shaken hands with the preacher every Sunday. Maybe you sang the loudest and even shed a tear or two at the Lord’s Supper but basically when away from the church building you did whatever you wanted to. You were just a Christian on Sunday mornings.
Jesus comes and gathers his sheep and carries them to Heaven. You’re there but you can’t get in. Wait… what’s that you see? Some stranger is sitting next to your wife. There’s your mom and dad. The last time you saw them was at their funerals. Oh look! There are all your kids and grandkids. But no one can see you and everyone is laughing and singing and it’s like you never ever existed and you have all of eternity to think back on how you lived and on what you have missed and maybe just maybe those are the real agonizing fires of Hell.
Wake up and prepare yourself for Heaven so you can enjoy Heaven with the ones you have loved the most in this life or sleep on and pay the price.
In the Old Testament, even though there was a tithing system in which Jews gave 10% of whatever they had on a regular basis, there is no indication that the Jews used this system to care for their widows.
In those days families were responsible for taking care of their own widows and if there were no family support system then the widows were allowed to “glean” the fields. In other words they could go into the fields after the harvesters finished and pick up whatever was left over
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Otherwise widows had to find whatever work they could find… or beg.
Enter Jesus Christ… in the New Testament Christians supported each other including selling whatever they had to raise funds to help people like widows. In Acts 6, there was a “daily ministration” run by the church and over seen by the Apostles to feed Christian widows on a regular basis.
In 1 Timothy 5, there are qualifications to distinguish which widows could live under the support of the Church. Did the widow have family? Was she of the age where she could remarry? Was she of an age where she could work? Did she live a life consistent with being a Christian? If the widow did not fall in one of these categories then the Church would step in and care for the widow.
Ask yourself this if you were an aged widow with no family and you couldn’t work would you rather be a Jew or a Christian? Obviously the Christian system reflects a superior system of love which manifests itself in the care of each other and being a part of that superior system makes us better people.
All the widows thank God for sending Jesus Christ!
Remember… “Pure religion and undefiled before our God and father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows…” James 1:27.
