Outcast, But Not Cast Out
Today’s Reading: Mark 2:13-17
Focal Verse: John 6:37
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”
He was a troubled young man. He had smoked pot and gone drinking with his friends. He had developed an eating disorder. For the last year and a half, he had been on a mental and physical downward spiral, and although he was raised in church, he didn’t want anything to do with God. His words and attitudes were full of hatred towards others.
But the youth pastor of the church he should have been attending didn’t give up on him. He didn’t see the “outcast”. He saw someone who needed Jesus.
He found something they had in common – Star Wars. They went to the most recent Star Wars movie. He then invited the blue-haired young man on the church’s graduating senior’s annual trip to Florida. While there, that young man accepted Jesus as his Savior. That young man was my son.
The hate in him disappeared overnight, but his blue hair stayed around a little while longer. Pastors and youth leaders and other Christian youths took time to get to know him and disciple him. They were patterning what we see Jesus doing in this passage.
I am thankful for believers who, like Jesus, don’t look at what a person looks like or their sin, but look inside to someone who needs a Savior.
We were once outcasts. He didn’t turn us away. We, who are His, must not turn others away either. We must bring them to Him.
Acts 10:28b says, “But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.” Spend time meditating on this verse.
No comments:
Post a Comment