Sunday, August 26, 2012

Sunday Morning Thoughts From the Pewside

The Necessity of Obstacles:
Derived From Luke chapter 19

God is in the middle of your mess (both outside (people and circumstances outside of our control) and inside (of our own making-generally have more control) obstacles)

The Story of Zacheus:


19  He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down andreceived him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”



1. Everyone is short in some area- no one is perfect
    Luke 19:4-> If Zacheus was not short he would never have been able to see Jesus
   2nd Corinthians 4: 17-18- 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18  as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2. Those standing in your way are there to help you climb. Resistances is not meant to stop you but rather make you stronger and to challenge. It us up to us to decide how we choose to react in such situations. These obstacles force us to make a new choice...and it is in this choice that we are ready to meet Jesus.
  Luke 19:5-- God already knows his name....he is also saying...Hey it is okay for my name to be associated with your name. Isn't that great. Regardless of whether we are considered the outcast of the town Jesus has decided that we are worth being associated with.
 Romans 5:3-5 
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

3. Your obstacle is actually a divine appointment to meet Jesus
   a. brings you to a point of decision making- one that you would not have have made before. Which allows you to climb and see Jesus
  b. It gets you frustrated-- gets you out of your comfort zone- gets you to a place that you want to do something about it


Extraneous Thoughts:
Life can be bad but God is always Good
You have to take a new action to get a new result.
Inference to child getting shots--although a child is often not told by his parents when he is going to get shots the parent is usually aware of what is going on....although shots are painful for the children they are necessary and essential. Often our obstacles may be painful but remember that God knows and allows them in our lives.
Luke 19:7 Jesus refers to Zaccheus as son of Abraham- he's one of the family.

1 comments:

"Hoppy" the converted Easter Bunny said...

I like these Sunday Morning Thoughts... Pewside.