40 Days of Praise - Day 23
Day 23
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Luke 19:10
It’s not every day that you see a business man climbing a tree in public. But Zacchaeus hadn’t made it to where he was in life by caring about what other people think. So when he heard that Jesus was in Jericho, he knew that Jesus would pass by that tree on that road, and he wanted to get a look at Jesus.
What Zacchaeus didn’t know was that the reason he was up in that tree was that Jesus was coming to see him. As He walked and taught, surrounded by a small crowd, He came to the tree. He stopped, looked up into Zacchaeus‘s eyes, and invited Himself to Zacchaeus’s house.
Jesus had dinner there, stayed the night there, and the next day Zacchaeus was a changed man. "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." He remembered his Torah from his childhood at synagogue and committed to fulfill its requirements. A man who had sold himself to the Romans for the sake of making money -- he was a tax collector for them -- is now promising to give away large amounts of money. All because Jesus stayed at his house.
Zacchaeus thought that he was seeking Jesus when, in reality, Jesus was seeking him.
Have you ever given thought to how the gospel got to you? Why it came to you persistently, or just at the right time, so that you responded in saving faith? Why the circumstances of your life had you in the frame of mind to hear what was being said to you? Why it made sense now when you blew it off all the other times?
It wasn’t a coincidence.
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. You were lost. I was lost. We didn't know we were lost. We were just trying to make life work the best way we knew how, trying to make a buck, trying to make our relationships work, trying to make a little headway. When God came to mind, we brushed it off as something that we would have to address later. Or we shut down because we had gotten disappointed or hurt at church before. But Jesus came to our tree and looked us in the eye, said He wanted to stay with us. He invited us to hear Him, to see Him, to believe and receive Him.
Jesus came and found us.
Aren’t you glad?
Charles M. Butler
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Luke 19:10
It’s not every day that you see a business man climbing a tree in public. But Zacchaeus hadn’t made it to where he was in life by caring about what other people think. So when he heard that Jesus was in Jericho, he knew that Jesus would pass by that tree on that road, and he wanted to get a look at Jesus.
What Zacchaeus didn’t know was that the reason he was up in that tree was that Jesus was coming to see him. As He walked and taught, surrounded by a small crowd, He came to the tree. He stopped, looked up into Zacchaeus‘s eyes, and invited Himself to Zacchaeus’s house.
Jesus had dinner there, stayed the night there, and the next day Zacchaeus was a changed man. "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." He remembered his Torah from his childhood at synagogue and committed to fulfill its requirements. A man who had sold himself to the Romans for the sake of making money -- he was a tax collector for them -- is now promising to give away large amounts of money. All because Jesus stayed at his house.
Zacchaeus thought that he was seeking Jesus when, in reality, Jesus was seeking him.
Have you ever given thought to how the gospel got to you? Why it came to you persistently, or just at the right time, so that you responded in saving faith? Why the circumstances of your life had you in the frame of mind to hear what was being said to you? Why it made sense now when you blew it off all the other times?
It wasn’t a coincidence.
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. You were lost. I was lost. We didn't know we were lost. We were just trying to make life work the best way we knew how, trying to make a buck, trying to make our relationships work, trying to make a little headway. When God came to mind, we brushed it off as something that we would have to address later. Or we shut down because we had gotten disappointed or hurt at church before. But Jesus came to our tree and looked us in the eye, said He wanted to stay with us. He invited us to hear Him, to see Him, to believe and receive Him.
Jesus came and found us.
Aren’t you glad?
Charles M. Butler
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2023
November
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