Whom Did God Call?

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" (Matthew 9:10,11)

Handing out gospel tracks on the streets the other night and as three people passed by I tried to give them a million dollar bill track. One of them, a man with a "Miller Beer" t-shirt on under his leather jacket said, "That's fake" & they laughed & went on. It was getting late & I had just about decided to head back to my car when I thought I should just stand there on the sidewalk a minute. I noticed way up the street the three people (two men & a woman) were heading back toward me. The guy in the middle was about 6'6" & at least 300 pounds. I thought to myself, "I'm either going to get the _____ beat out of me or I am going to witness to these people." Luckily for me it was the latter. After having a good conversation about repentance, getting into the Word, and examining "...yourself, to see whether you are in the faith;..." (2 Corinthians 13:5) the big guy told me, "You know, Jesus didn't just hang out at church, he went to where the drunks and the sinners were, and here you are!" What a priviledge!

On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healty who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matthew 9:12,13)

Read what George Macleod of Scotland said:

I simply argue that the cross should be raised at the center of the marketplace as well as the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedrel between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town's garbage heap, at a crossroad, so cosmopolitan thay had to write His title in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek. In a kind of place where cynics talk smut, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where He died. And that is what He died for. And that is what He died about. That is where church-men ought to be and what church-men ought to be about.

We need to work while it is still day.