{"id":420,"date":"2017-06-26T04:59:14","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T12:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=420"},"modified":"2017-06-26T04:59:14","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T12:59:14","slug":"devotions-matthew-2531-46-no-limits-to-true-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=420","title":{"rendered":"Devotions\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 25:31-46\u00a0 No Limits To True Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew 25:31-46 (34-45)<\/strong> – 34\u00a0\u201cThen the King will say to those on his right, \u2018Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom\u00a0prepared for you since the creation of the world.\u00a035\u00a0For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,\u00a036\u00a0I needed clothes and you clothed me,\u00a0I was sick and you looked after me,\u00a0I was in prison<\/strong> and you came to visit me.\u2019 \u00a0<\/em>37\u00a0\u201cThen the righteous will answer him, \u2018Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38\u00a0When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?\u00a039\u00a0When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?\u2019 \u00a040\u00a0\u201cThe King will reply, \u2018Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me<\/em>.\u2019 41\u00a0\u201cThen he will say to those on his left, \u2018Depart from me,\u00a0you who are cursed, into the eternal fire\u00a0prepared for the devil and his angels.\u00a042\u00a0For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,\u00a043\u00a0I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.\u2019 44\u00a0\u201cThey also will answer, \u2018Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?\u2019 \u00a045\u00a0\u201cHe will reply, \u2018Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.<\/em><\/strong>\u2019\u00a0 46\u00a0\u201cThen they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Please see this video:\u00a0https:\/\/youtu.be\/W8q1M6R0vkc<\/p>\n

Thank you for sharing! I also love these videos. I love my big boy! Yet what really touched me was the lady who trained the dog. They way of the world is lock up and throw away prisoners (prisoners for whatever reason). Too often we don\u2019t have compassion for them. I understand justice and I also desire that justice happen. If a person breaks the law and goes to jail, well there are consequences for bad actions. However, once in the prison, too many would have no compassion on them.\u00a0 To the non-Christian I would say I disagree with that.\u00a0 However, to the non-Christian, I accept that we disagree.\u00a0 But to the Christian I would remind that Jesus taught us to have compassion on those in prison.\u00a0 We were all once imprisoned by the enemy.\u00a0 It is God Himself who visited us and taught us about His love.\u00a0 His love didn\u2019t stay behind the bars of or prison, He stepped through them to free us.\u00a0 Some may object that many behind bars don\u2019t deserve mercy.\u00a0 Neither did any of us.\u00a0 Jesus stepped through the bars that imprisoned us to embrace us and love us (Isaiah 61:1<\/strong>).\u00a0 Jesus taught that those who care about prisoners, who continue to love them, as He does, show that they have His heart within them.\u00a0 Conversely, He also taught that those who refuse to love prisoners, whom He still loves, do not have His love, or His heart within them.\u00a0 Those who call ourselves Christians and don\u2019t have His love within us do not belong to Him (1 John 4:8<\/strong>).\u00a0 <\/strong>Perhaps people consider those in prison the \u201crefuse\u201d or the \u201cdregs\u201d of society.\u00a0 Yet God still loves them and reaches out to them.\u00a0 Jesus died for them as much as for any of us.\u00a0 Mercy triumphs over judgement (James 2:12-13<\/strong>).\u00a0 This is true in God\u2019s love for us and it is how we should live towards others.\u00a0 After all, the world is increasingly returning to a position that the world once had of Christians, that we are the dregs of society.<\/p>\n

In the above verses from Matthew, Jesus groups prisoners as people who need to be loved and ministered to the same as those who are hungry, thirsty, strangers (and what about strangers!), the ill-clothed, and the sick.\u00a0 Jesus includes prisoners in this grouping.\u00a0 The same as we minister to the rest of this group, and we are quick to agree that we should, we should also be quick to agree that we should minister to prisoners.\u00a0 Jesus loves them.\u00a0 God loves them.\u00a0 If God loves them, and if we claim that it is His love within us, then we also ought to love them.\u00a0 Can we at least start with having compassion on them and not despising them?\u00a0 Even the worst of criminals can become a new creature if bathed in the blood of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17<\/strong>).\u00a0 We are no better.\u00a0 They have sinned and so have we.\u00a0 We must remain humble and we must love for, in so doing, we show that God is our Father and Lord.<\/p>\n

What does Jesus call those who love and minister to all in this group?\u00a0 Blessed.\u00a0 What does Jesus call those who do not love and minister to all in this group?\u00a0 Cursed.\u00a0 Family, those who condemn others as cursed and cast them aside, risk being found to themselves being cursed (Matthew 7:1-2<\/strong>).\u00a0 Remember that it is not sinning in and of itself that keeps us from going to live forever with the Lord.\u00a0 We all keep sinning.\u00a0 Forgiveness from sinning is always available, through Jesus (1 John 1:9<\/strong>).\u00a0 The identifier of those who are cursed is not having God\u2019s loving heart within.\u00a0 If we have His loving heart within then it will bear the fruit of love. \u00a0A heart of love is active and pursues those who are at the ends of the earth, even in its prisons (Acts 13:47<\/strong>).\u00a0 Love breaks down barriers and loves the unlovable.\u00a0 Unlovable, such am I.\u00a0 Such were all of us.\u00a0 We were all, before Christ, filthy with sin.\u00a0 As we have been rescued by the love of God, let us bring our sacred assignment of love to others.\u00a0 Let us love indiscriminately and so declare to the world that we belong not to it, but to God (James 2:1<\/strong>).\u00a0 Let\u2019s lead with love.\u00a0 Just as God did through Jesus.\u00a0 Praise our God who has loved us so!\u00a0 Let us let us let His love flow through us to others.\u00a0 In doing so we praise God!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6 <\/strong>– Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/strong> – But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/strong> – He has shown you, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew 25:31-46 (34-45) – 34\u00a0\u201cThen the King will say to those on his right, \u2018Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom\u00a0prepared for you since the creation of the world.\u00a035\u00a0For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[1791,1792,82,1797,1809,1794,556,1793,134,1706,147,1808,1802,1799,1804,268,1803,23,1796,7,66,258,1798,815,103,1807,1700,8,1806,16,666,1019,101,1805,1801,471,97,270,1800,1033,445,1795,321],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-1-john","tag-2-corinthians","tag-acts","tag-assignment","tag-bad-actions","tag-barriers","tag-blessed","tag-blood-of-christ","tag-christian","tag-clothes","tag-compassion","tag-consequences","tag-cursed","tag-declare","tag-dog","tag-enemy","tag-eternal-fire","tag-father","tag-filthy","tag-god","tag-heart","tag-hungry","tag-indiscriminately","tag-inheritance","tag-isaiah","tag-jail","tag-james","tag-jesus","tag-justice","tag-king","tag-lady","tag-lord","tag-matthew","tag-prisners","tag-prison","tag-sacred","tag-savior","tag-sin","tag-stranger","tag-thirsty","tag-understand","tag-unlovable","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions\/421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}