August 23, 2019
Matthew 9:12-13
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
New International Version (NIV)
               How did you find relationship with God?  Did you get it the “old-fashioned” way by earning it?  Or are you, like me, a sinner saved by grace alone.  Our answer to that question is very important.  If we think, for instance, that we were easier to save than some sinners, we may express that to others by our attitudes.  We may focus on external signs of what we think of as sinful and exclude others by our words, behavior and unwillingness to welcome.

                When Jesus called Matthew to follow him, he left his tax-collecting booth and followed Jesus to his own house.  There the Pharisees complained and asked the disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?”  Jesus answered them by saying, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”  He transformed Matthew right before their eyes.

                I have often prayed the words Jim Cymbala spoke, “God, send us the people that nobody else wants so that we love them in Jesus’ name until you heal them.”  God is answering that prayer.  The truth is, we were all the people who needed to be healed by God’s love.  Some of us may have forgotten.  This is a gentle reminder.
Pray with me:    
Father, we were the sick who needed you our doctor.  Teach us again that you desire mercy, not sacrifice.  You have not come to call the righteous but sinners.  Thank you for calling us!  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.     
This year our Every Day with Jesus readings will follow The Bible Project Read Scripture Plan.  Copies of this reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download 
the app at readscripture.org.  Read through the Bible with us in 2019!
Joyfully, 
Duane 
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