Author: gabrieltew

A phenomenon emerged in professional sports, particularly the NBA, in the past fifteen years called the super team. It takes three great players to qualify a team as a super team. Lebron, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh formed one in Miami, followed by the teaming up of Lebron, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love in Cleveland. Then, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, with Draymond Green added for good measure, gathered for Golden State. 

In reality, the super team had been around for generations. There was Michael, Scottie and Rodman with the Bulls. Before that, it was Magic, Kareem and Worthy for the Lakers; the big three in Boston were Bird, McHale and Parrish; in Detroit, Isaiah, Dumars and Laimbeer won championships. 

There actually have always been super teams. Russell, Cousy and Havlicek dominated the sixties; Wilt, Jerry and Elgin emerged in the seventies. The difference, and what brought about the super team moniker, is that the teams in the past few years were orchestrated by the players, themselves, whereas, franchise executives masterminded them in previous decades. But managerial personnel have long felt a team needed three strong players to contend for a title.

Far more important than professional sports are the souls of people. To overcome sin and Satan and gain eternal life, God knew each person needed a super team. The difference from the pro sports super teams is that, for us, it only takes two. One of the two is an individual believer, and the other is Jesus. 

Paul wrote that he could do all things through Christ. The angel told Mary that nothing would be impossible, even this miraculous virgin-birth prophecy, with God. In Romans we’re called hyper-champions – translated, more than conquerors – through Him who loves us. Isaiah wrote that no weapon formed against us shall prosper. 

Scripture makes it clear that, as a super team (the individual and Jesus), we’re invincible. I don’t know of a sports team that could be considered undefeatable. In my opinion, the 1992 Dream Team would come closest. But our utterly victorious future is ironclad guaranteed in Christ. 

One thing has always bothered me about the super teams. The other members of the teams are undervalued and de-emphasized. Those other players are essential but are overlooked as fans and commentators focus on the big three. There’s a similarity with the Jesus & you and Jesus & me super teams. The community of believers each of us has is vital for our success and should not be overlooked. 

So, thanks to Jesus, and to my community of fellow believers for allowing me to be a part of the best kind of super team! Wouldn’t you say the same to your team?

In the 1930s, the US government, namely, the Bureau of Investigation, recognized John Dillinger as Public Enemy Number 1. Leader of the Dillinger Gang during the Great Depression, he allegedly led the robbery of twenty-four banks and four police stations. It was Dillinger’s exploits that prompted J. Edgar Hoover to expand the name and scope of the Bureau of Investigation to the FBI. 

When Jesus introduced Himself and the Kingdom of Heaven to the generation of Jews desperate for the promised Messiah, Israel was, doubtless, unified as to who their public enemy number one was: Rome. But Jesus upset many when He revealed that He didn’t come to overthrow Rome; rather, He came to free them from a different oppressor, personal enemy number one: sin. 

Jesus brought all kinds of surprises with His Messianic mission, not the least of which being a focus on the personal rather than the public. He didn’t correct all the injustices or malfunctions in broader society, but instructed His followers to forgive and give extra to those who mistreated them. Rather than reform the practices of the Pharisees (law enforcement officers of the Law of Moses), Sadducees (like Pharisees but differing in theology) , Essenes (diplomatically anti-Rome) and Zealots (militantly anti-Rome), Jesus taught that Jewish citizens should concentrate their efforts on personal repentance and receiving God’s kingdom in their hearts. He was clearly focused on the personal over the public, the relational over the religious.

Samson and David, though not contemporaries, were both warriors who led God’s people, each in their day. Something else they had in common is that they were very successful fighting their number one public enemy – both, the Philistines – but failed miserably against their number one personal enemy – lust. 

It happens similarly in the modern-day church. Some Christians take a strong stand against the “public” issues they see as a threat to Christian decency but tolerate skeletons of secret sins in their own closets. Although I’m using the pronoun “they,” it’s “my” sins that God addresses with me. What sin should I be most concerned with? Mine. Should I love the sinner and hate the sin? Fine, but I must be sure to love people much louder than I hate anyone’s sin. 

Jesus thematically answered questions or complaints about the system (secular or religious) by directing them to the personal. Who made Me judge of your civil matters; just be willing to take the loss…your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees… let the one without sin cast the first stone…neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more…sell all that you have and give it to the poor, then come follow Me.

As the Holy Spirit continues the ministry of Jesus, He works in us in the most personal way. That’s one reason why He dwells within us rather than merely among us. He’s situated right there in our hearts, where we think and feel, where He can sense most closely our purity of heart or ungodly attitudes. 

God being so close to us and caring so much about our heart’s condition and contents, He certainly will help us understand what our individual personal enemy number 1 is. He recently pointed mine out to me, and once He did, it became clear that it was my top priority in spiritual warfare. It’s that particular fiery dart that my shield of faith must extinguish. Since having that understanding and strategy, I’ve been more successful in maintaining purity of heart.

So, I invite you to seek God about yours. Is it offense and bitterness, greed and materialism, laziness and idleness, gluttony and pleasure, lust and destructive attraction? The Holy Spirit will show you, I guarantee, and without condemnation, but with grace. 

The question: what’s your personal enemy number 1?

Prophecies are given for two reasons: so that we may connect a prophecy to its fulfillment when it occurs, thereby glorifying God and growing our faith; and so that we may repent and position ourselves for God’s favor. 

The first recorded prophecy of the coming Messiah had three hearers. God spoke it to Eve and to the serpent in the hearing of the third hearer, Adam. Adam and Eve would produce One (the seed of the woman) who would bruise the head of the serpent, while the serpent would bruise His heel. 

Adam and Eve heard the prophecy and produced a lineage that would eventually fulfill the prophecy. As Moses later recorded it, it was passed down in writing through a hundred or more generations. As their seed read the prophecy, they became watchful for this One who would bruise the serpent’s head. 

The serpent, who was the head of the enemy kingdom, had a different reaction to the prophecy, a third and foolish response. He set out to prevent the prophecy’s fulfillment. He organized his minions to detect and eliminate this “seed” that would bruise his head. 

The first seeds of the woman, Cain and Abel, had to be dealt with, so the enemy drew Cain off course, whispering murderous thoughts to him. By those murderous ideas, Abel would be snuffed out, along with his line. But the enemy didn’t count on a third line, that of Seth.

Generations rolled by, but Hell’s king never forgot his strategy, and never stopped surveilling for clues of this “seed.” His influence was so effective that it reached all of mankind, provoking God to judge of the whole world.

But if Satan, the serpent of old, remembered his strategy, God remembered His all the more. He selected Noah and his son, Shem, for the lineage of the promised seed. While the flood was God’s judgment, the ark was His vehicle of promise, mercy and fulfillment of His prophecy.

Satan’s next attempt was to inspire mankind to unify without God and form a towering civilization so mighty that it would never need God. However, God frustrated these plans by confusing the language and dividing mankind into smaller groups, each unified by their own special language. 

It was in the language of a Chaldean, Abram (later named Abraham), that God made promises and established Abraham as a patriarch of the promised seed. Satan must’ve felt victorious when Abraham raised the knife to kill his son, Isaac. But once again, God was a step ahead of the enemy and eventually used Isaac to beget two sons.

Like he did with Cain and Able, Satan would attempt to pull one son (Esau) off course and kill the other (Jacob). But Jacob was preserved as the patriarch of the nation from which the “seed” would come. 

Elimination of the nation of Israel (new name given to Jacob) was Satan’s next mission, but he failed at the Red Sea and on several occasions in the wilderness. 

By this time, Satan had heard the prophecies that his future bruiser would come from the tribe of Judah, and he devised his strategy accordingly. 

In the Promised Land, it was Achan from the tribe of Judah whom the enemy tempted into idoltry, resulting in the deaths of Achan’s entire family. 

Later, David was Satan’s target. Many times, the king of Israel, from the tribe of Judah, faced the threat of death on the battlefield, and lost several of his sons. The enemy was ever busy in attempt to prevent this “seed” from ever being born. But his busyness proved futile.

Satan, through post-Davidic generations, used all his power to eliminate the lineage that would produce the promised seed, the Messiah. He incited Assyria, Babylon, and the monarch over Daniel as some of the final attempts to prevent God’s promise being fulfilled. But nothing ever worked.

Finally, it was clear to Satan, if not to all mankind, that the Messiah had arrived. Angels had announced it, a virgin (Mary) and a town (Bethlehem) had confirmed it and shepherds and Oriental kings had verified it. 

To his credit, Satan never gave up. The Bethlehem massacre, Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and inciting religious leaders to pull Him off course were but more failed attempts by the serpent to keep the Son of God’s heel off his head.

He may have felt hopeful when Jesus hung on the cross one Friday, but by Sunday morning the empty tomb would make it clear that the head-bruising promise was fulfilled.

Satan, like a snake that seems impossible to kill, still hasn’t given up. If he couldn’t stop the Messiah, he’ll still try to stop us from trusting Him. That’s his only remaining play. But by the grace of God and His immutable plan, our faith is sure and our enemy is bruised again, over and over. And his ultimate bruising is soon, when he’ll be cast into the Lake of Fire.

Let us keep the faith, my brothers and sisters. Our enemy is defeated by our God and King! 

The burgeoning nation of Israelites, just three days into their independence from Egypt, stood at the shore of the Red Sea waiting for Adonai to show up. The thunderous rumble of Egyptian chariot horses made its way across the desert and into the panicked ears of the Hebrews. A cloud of sand dust made for a scary horizon as Moses and his people, their backs against the edge of waters too great for them to cross, frantically cried out to their Deliverer. Pinned between the greatest army in the world and the waters of a vast, deep sea, the Israelites heard no response from God. Whatever could’ve been done, it would not be. It was too late.

Too late or not, Moses raised his staff in the air above the Red Sea as its waves moved to the shore and its undertow took them back out again. 

Suddenly, the sea waters began to move in a way no one had ever seen before. A crease-like movement ripped, beginning under Moses’ staff and zipping across the sea, seemingly all the way to the other shore. As the crease moved out, it left in its wake walls of water, as the water rushed to the right and to the left, forming a road of the now dry sea floor between the two walls. 

“Behold! I AM has made a way!” Moses shouted as Aaron, Joshua, Hur and the other leaders ran onto the newly made road, the crowd of two million following them, everyone running in an uncanny frantic-yet-joyful manner. 

It wasn’t too late after all!

It was, however, too late for Pharaoh’s army. They tried their luck on the road made by Jehovah, but they didn’t make it.

Three young men stood before Nebuchadnezzar. Of all the subjects of Babylon, only these three, Hebrew advisors to the great king, had been found disobedient to the king’s mandate. 

“Our God will save us,” they had said, “but even if He does not, we will not bow to anyone but Him.”

The mighty king instructed his men to feed and stoke the furnace’s fire even more, making it seven times hotter than usual. Of course they complied. The king gestured for the three Jewish men to be thrown into the fire. The king’s men took the three men by their arms and ushered them forcefully to the furnace door. The heat was nearly unbearable as they approached the door. One of the servants reached out, opened the door, and fell to his knees. Then he keeled over, gasping for breath, but the air was too dry; it was so hot that it completely dried out his lungs, rendering them unable to expand and take in air. The servant exhaled one final time; he was dead.

As the three Hebrew men watched, knowing they were about to be thrown into the fire whose radiated heat had just killed this man before their eyes, it became apparent that Jehovah wasn’t going to save them. The fire was too hot, their judgment had been passed, their sentence decreed. It was too late.

As the king’s servants threw the three Hebrew men into the burning furnace, three more of the servants fell down and died. 

Somehow, though, the furnace didn’t seem hot to the Hebrews. Standing in the flames, they looked at each other in amazement, the three of them each noticing in their peripheral vision a fourth man. Then, they all turned to the man with joyful but puzzled faces. Slowly they realized this was the Son of Man.

“It is never too late when you trust in God.” The Man said.

Maybe you’re in a dire situation and it seems like time is running out. You know it isn’t too late yet, but it soon will be.

Remember, God has a track record of working at what we think is the last minute. He also has a pattern of letting things seem impossible before He works His miracle. As if that isn’t trying enough for us, He often adds the element of silence, not speaking or displaying anything until the time of His providential choosing. 

I’m actually in one of those situations now, myself. Let’s do this: let’s save our craziness for when He resolves our trouble; instead of freaking out now, let’s be patient. Then, we’ll completely lose it when He manifests His mighty work. 

It’s too late. That may be how you feel, but it never is, especially when we trust Him.

In the movie, Cabrini, which I highly recommend, the heroic nun, Frances Cabrini, an Italian orphanage ministry leader wants to expand her ministry to other lands around the globe. But she has many obstacles in her path. The Catholic Church leaders are men who doubt Mother Cabrini’s abilities and disagree with her vision. As she sits with the pope, trying to convince him to ordain her proposed international ministry, he cites the condition of her health; she is a fragile, slight and a physically weak woman who has a terminal illness and has been given five years to live. 

In response to the pope’s pointing out her health limitations, Mother Cabrini retorts, “We can serve our weakness or we can serve our purpose, not both.”

Mother Cabrini continued forward to fulfill her vision, never allowing her weakness to distract from her purpose.

The Apostle Paul was disappointed at the obstacle in his path. A messenger of Satan had been sent to limit his ministry. Paul cried out to God in three probably lengthy attempts. But God’s response wasn’t to remove the messenger or Paul’s obstacles. Rather, God’s response was that His grace would be sufficient for Paul in this challenge, that His strength was made perfect in human weakness. All Paul would need would be the unmerited favor of God. Like Cabrini, Paul’s weakness could not steal the attention his purpose needed.

I became extremely discouraged about two years after suffering a stroke. The losses I had taken seemed more than I could tolerate. The fingers on my left hand would not open. Worse, my music abilities were about ninety percent gone. (I was a music major, studied music one year at the graduate level, spent two years as a Christian songwriter, recording artist and concert musician, and had served in music ministry in various capacities for decades). Now almost all my abilities as a musician had left me. 

The worst loss of all to me was the way I perceived my family treating me. They didn’t seem to hold me in the same position of respect they had in the past. Whereas I had been the patriarch the Tew Crew came to for counsel and always showed honor, I was now like a child that needed constant monitoring for instruction and correction. All this left me exasperated. It was too much for me.

At my lowest point, at the precipice of suicide, the Lord spoke to me these words: Gabriel, there’s only one loss you can’t afford.

As I continued to seek God for understanding, I understood that the only unaffordable loss is a Godly attitude. As long as my attitude was Godly, I could manage well with any loss, including the ones I had seen as intolerable.

Unlike Mother Cabrini and Apostle Paul, I allowed my weakness to gain the attention I needed to give to my purpose. But by the counsel of the Holy Spirit, I got on track, putting my losses in their proper place in my thinking and shifting my focus to the purpose to which God has called me. Now, I have a long list of goals I plan to spend my life trying to reach. These things are all about helping people to know and walk with God. My purpose. 

I could still be frustrated every day – or dead from loss of hope. Paul could’ve given up, and our Bible, as well as Christian history, and the church, itself, would be far less than what they are. Frances Cabrini could’ve nursed her illness, rather than fulfill her purpose, and orphans wouldn’t have grown up to have families and produce descendants who populate our nation and world today. 

Serving our purpose is far better than serving our weakness.

Joseph told his brothers who had badly mistreated him, not to worry. What you meant for evil, he told them, God intended for good. 

A couple months ago, I was fired. There were false allegations by someone with whom the company’s owner was personal friends. I was the leader of the facility and the accuser was the top director on my team. She didn’t like my being in charge of her for some reason, and always pushed back when I offered guidance to her. Come to find out, she was talking with the owner, telling him that I was forcing my religion on my team. After addressing this with my boss, she (my boss) indicated she understood that the team member was lying about me. She even told me I was the best facility leader in the company.

Yet, a couple weeks later, she showed up one day and said I was fired; she cited a divided team of directors in my facility as the reason, which wasn’t the case at all, apart from the one aforementioned falsely accusing director.  

This was the first time I’d ever been fired and I was humiliated. Since then, I haven’t had success getting a job. It could be because I’ve been forthcoming in my interviews about having been fired; I’ve operated by honesty being the best policy and I think it’s better they hear it from me than from someone else. 

I’ve spent many hours seeking God and calling upon Him for help in my employment situation. A few days ago, I felt He was directing me to the Scripture account of King David being forced out of Jerusalem by the uprisen coup and government takeover by his son Absalom.

As David and his loyalists made their way out of the city,  Shemei threw stones at David and his processional, shouting curses at him, all of which were false accusations. Finally, one of David’s men requested permission to go over and remove Shimei’s head. But David denied his request, saying, “Let him curse, because the Lord has said to him, ‘curse David.’ Who then shall make him stop?” (2 Samuel 16)

I asked the Lord how this pertained to me, and the answer I perceived was that God was in my firing and the ensuing struggle to find income. Of course, I pleaded that it wasn’t fair and I didn’t deserve it. But the Lord simply wants me to trust Him. Since when have Jesus followers been exempt from unfair treatment? Blessed are you when people persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely (Matthew 5:11). 

What I do know is that God is working this situation for my good (Romans 8:28). I don’t understand everything about it, but He often calls us to trust before we understand (Proverbs 3:5). 

God’s ways are such a mystery sometimes, and we can often have a lot of questions. Did God cause this? Or did He just allow it? What’s the purpose of it? What’s my role in it?

I’ve learned that most of those questions are unnecessary; they don’t get at the real issue. What we really need to understand is that, whatever happens, God will use it for our good, because we’re His and His love and purpose will always prevail. Everything that happens in our lives God will run through His Purpose Filter, assuring that it aligns with His plan and will. 

Finally, though, I do request your prayers, that you would stand with me, asking God to provide His choice job for me at this chapter of my life. Please and thank you, my brothers and sisters.

In Isaiah 1:18, God invites us to a conversation with the King of the universe, Himself, the Creator, Almighty and only divinity. Let’s analyze the invitation word by word, phrase by phrase.

God says come. When the Lord calls us to Himself, He’s calling us to holiness. Holy means set apart. 

When our kids were small, we used time-out as a disciplinary tool. The child would sit in the time-out chair without playing, talking, laughing or crying. They were temporarily separated from all privileges and all fun. Holy is very different from time-out.

My parents didn’t use time-out – too passive for their style. But sometimes, if I misbehaved (and the setting was too public for spanking), my mom would have me sit out of fun with my friends and sit with her. This is a step closer to holy because holy is being set apart with God. With God – important distinction. But being set apart from all things fun, and sitting with my mother, is still a long way from what holy means. 

Holy is to be set apart with God to rule and reign over our lives. Subjects like bitterness, resentment, hatred, greed and lust present themselves before the throne, asking for a place in our kingdom. After we confer with God, we decree that these subjects have no place in our life and are banished from the kingdom.

Forgiveness, love, generosity and hope come before us and, with the counsel of the Lord, we give them a place of honor in our court. This is what it’s like to be holy, ruling and reigning with God over our lives. 

Then, through Isaiah, the Lord says, Let us [do something] together. Whenever the Lord issues such an invitation to mankind, He’s inviting us to one or more of four things: fellowship, revelation, assignment and/or rest. 

Fellowship. Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone will open the door, I will come in and have fellowship with them and they with me.” (Revelation 3:20) Fellowship is between fellows, those who are peers or who have much in common. That we would be invited to have fellowship with the King of the universe is mind-blowing. I can more easily see myself having fellowship with the lowest of beings than with the Most High. 

Revelation. “Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son reveals Him.” (Matthew 11:27) An invitation to become privy to some esoteric heavenly insight is like the POTUS giving a first-grader clearance for the most classified information. Actually, it’s even more absurd; yet that’s the privilege to which our God has invited us.

Assignment. Follow Me and I will make you fishers of people.” (Matthew 4:19) Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John had their lives changed when Jesus extended them this invitation. Imagine instantly stepping out of the identity of catchers of Galilean fish into the ushers of people into eternal life. And the calling into our assignment is the same, regardless of what our focus was when He called us.  

Rest. “Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) This rest is peace. We won’t be idle, just the opposite; we’ll be industrious and very productive, but our efforts will carry the satisfaction of the highest of purposes – those of the King.

Reason. The thing God is inviting us to with Him, through Isaiah, is to reason. He says, let us reason together. Reasoning is one of the five thought processes. This process is thinking logically through the reasons for occurrences. It’s A is the reason for B and B is the reason for C. God says to let’s do this together. As we reason with God, there will be fellowship with Him, and there will be revelation for us. 

Anytime we think with God, we’ll be elevated to a higher plane of thought, one we could never reach without Him. His ways are higher than ours and His thoughts higher than our thoughts, as Isaiah wrote in another place (55:9). 

Such an example is when, in John 9, Jesus was with His disciples and they saw a man blind from birth. The disciples inquired as to the cause of the man’s blindness. Was it the man’s eventual sin seen by God in advance or the sin of his parents? In their minds, the only options were somebody’s sin. 

But Jesus reasoned differently with them. Their concern had been cause, but His was purpose. Either could be the reasoning thought process, but Jesus’ purpose focus was much higher than the disciples’ cause focus, which would have served to place blame.

Red…White. Isaiah continued in what saith the Lord with, though your sins are like scarlet and crimson, they shall be like snow and wool. God has committed to move us from deep dark red stain to pure white light innocence. 

This He has done through Jesus Christ and has sent out the invite to everyone for this divine conversation. 

God wants to have an intimate conversation with each of us individually; please join me in accepting His invite and beginning the conversation with Him. I know we’ll all be amazed at the fellowship and revelation.

Come, let us reason together; though your sin is like scarlet it shall be white as snow, though it is red like crimson it shall be as wool. – Isaiah 1:18

This Easter weekend I’m thinking about who it was that Jesus died to save. There is a short answer, which I’ll state in a bit, but it may help to recognize some of the specific people named in the Gospels many would consider unlikely candidates for God’s kingdom. I’ll count down my top ten most unlikely.

10. Thomas the Apostle. This is the guy who, after following Jesus, geographically and spiritually, for about three years, heard Him foretell multiple times His resurrection from the dead and His teaching about the necessity of faith in the Son of God, and still refused to believe the other followers report that Jesus was alive until he touched His scars. Would Jesus include Thomas in His kingdom after such lack of faith? By God’s grace, I believe He did.

9. Simon the Leper. This man was a Pharisee who had had leprosy. Lepers were looked down upon by everyone, except Jesus. Simon was also a Pharisee, a group of generally hypocritical legalists who opposed Jesus more than once, ultimately successful in their condemnation of Him by the Sanhedrin and the Roman government. To me, Simon fits the bill of an enemy more than a saint; yet, Jesus chose him to host one of His last meals, a gesture of fellowship, as He neared the day of the cross.

8. Centurion with Sick Servant. Rome was the Jews’ oppressor during the time of Jesus. They treated the people of Jesus’ race unfairly and harshly, inflicting upon them unbearable burdens and talking to them as if they were dogs. A leader among such a mean class of bullies seems no candidate for the kingdom God would send His Son to populate with faith wielders. But that’s just what this man was, a faith wielder. In fact Jesus commended his faith as being greater than any He’d seen among the Jewish people. That great faith moved the centurion from unlikely to perhaps one of the greatest in the Kingdom.

7. Rich Young Ruler. This man of great wealth wanted to know from Jesus how he could gain eternal life. Jesus essentially told him it would be by being perfect in keeping the Law; then Jesus named some of the commandments, including loving his neighbor as himself. After the rich man claimed perfection under the Law, Jesus gave him a chance to prove it. By doing this additional thing, Jesus added, by liquidating his sizeable holdings and giving the proceeds to the poor. Scripture indicates that the man declined Jesus’ charge with sadness. So did Jesus die for a man who had rejected His invitation? If He did not, I’m in trouble. God gave me many opportunities to say yes to Him, and He probably did for this man also. I don’t have proof, but I believe Jesus offered His blood and body for all who would ever have an opportunity to accept His amazing gift. (Some – Calvinists and Reformists among others – may disagree with me on this one, but I stand by my words; Sorry, brothers and sisters, but I don’t hold to the Limited Atonement part of the TULIP)

6. Mary Magdalene. Two things made Mary unlikely. First, her depth of spiritual darkness. Mary had been the host of seven demons, but Jesus had freed her from them. Second was her gender. Jesus went against the grain of the culture by treating women fairly and respectfully. Jesus didn’t let her past or her gender keep Him from including her among His followers. She even ended up being the one to first discover Jesus’ empty tomb. Many would’ve consider Mary unlikely, but clearly, Jesus didn’t.

5. Matthew. Tax collectors were despised by Jews in the time of Christ. Contractors with the oppressive Roman government, tax collectors earned commission on their collections, so they became wealthy by taxing the people even more than Rome required. Someone who enjoyed the plunders of God’s chosen people and the lifestyle their ill-gotten gain afforded them flew in the faces of their fellow Jewish citizens as they continued to live among them. Yet, Jesus called Matthew and appointed him to be one of the Twelve. Matthew even penned the first Gospel, the first book of the New Testament. So, while many complained that Jesus included Matthew as one of His closest followers and friends, it’s undeniable that Jesus took him from unlikely to one who will judge the multitudes in eternity.

4. Zaccheus. Like Matthew, Zaccheus was a tax collector. Unlike Matthew, he wasn’t invited to Jesus’ close friend group. Does that imply that Zaccheus was unqualified for God’s kingdom? No. Jesus validated Zaccheus by inviting Himself to his home and having a meal of fellowship with him, a gesture of, not only acceptance, but commendation for a Jewish rabbi of the time. The basis for His approval? Zaccheus sought Jesus. Seek, Jesus taught, and you will find. Remember? Zacheus wanted so to see the Messiah that he climbed a tree to get a glimpse. There’s even a song about the diminutive tax collector (a wee little man was he) My Gramma had me sing the little song over and over to her in the cucumber field as a small child. 

3. Samaritan Woman at the Well. This woman was a member of the half-breed race rejected and despised by the Jews. And she was even rejected by her own people because of her immoral lifestyle, having had five husbands and finally opting to share the bed of a man without being married. Her lifestyle would be very common in our culture, but it wasn’t in hers.  And while being from a mix of races is common in our day, it set a person up for social rejection by Jews whom the Law of Moses had instructed to not intermarry with gentiles. But Jesus crossed all those lines to introduce Himself to her as Messiah. Once she understood and accepted what He offered her, she became what some consider the first evangelist, introducing the people of her village, Sychar, to the Savior of the world.

2. Woman Caught in Adultery. Of all the traps Jesus’ opponents set for Him, surely this one would capture Him. How could He support a woman caught in the act of adultery? Moses was clear about this transgression. She must be killed. Jesus had a choice. He could violate the Law or have the woman killed. He couldn’t violate the Law of Moses; that could get Him killed. As for pronouncing a sentence of death for her, He healed, freed and resurrected people; that’s why the crowds believed in Him. He was, like the woman standing before Him, caught. But the wisdom of God would free both of them. A sinner with empirical evidence against her, she would go uncondemned by God. Jesus would at the end of that week go to the cross to pay her penalty, so she could be with Him in eternity. 

1. Thief on the Cross. Here’s one who wasn’t baptized, wasn’t part of Jerusalem’s fellowship of believers; we don’t even know His name. All we know about him is that He was a convicted thief who had the audacity to ask Jesus to receive him into His kingdom. And he may well have been the first soul to enter the spiritual Kingdom of God after life on earth. 

Jesus specialized in changing the status of the unlikely to guaranteed recipients of eternal life. This Easter I’m so glad I’m in that class!

Matthew 13 shows Jesus teaching a truth that, on the surface, seems neither kind nor fair. But, like so many hard sayings of Jesus, it’s difficult only until you un understand His meaning. 

For to whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 

Jesus actually said those words. Some politicians of our time would have a field day if their opponent said something like that. And many opponents of Christianity have tried to leverage those words in their fight against Jesus. 

What Jesus was doing with that statement was showing the chasmic difference between God’s Kingdom and the kingdom of the world (the system that leaves God out) whose king is Satan (the god of this age). 

The difference in the two kingdoms is so vast that one has everything while the other has nothing; one enjoys everlasting painless, glorious, victorious life while the other endures crying and writhing in the lonely, fearful darkness of utter defeat. 

The difference in faith in Jesus and any other faith choice is more than religious nuance, more than an answer to what’s your religion? or we practice this while you practice that. The difference is everything important. 

Jesus, with this statement, shows the difference between being in or not being in God’s family.

For clear understanding, read it this way: whoever is positioned in God’s family by having truth-based faith in Jesus will be given so much more understanding that their life will overflow; but those who reject the offered position in God’s family by rejecting Jesus will not only lack family, but will also lack understanding of the basic truths that Jesus teaches.

My wife, our kids and I, along, now, with our daughters- and son-in-law and grandkids, have knowledge of family matters that those outside the family don’t have. That’s the way it is with any family. Family is exclusive. Those included have access; those excluded do not.

The extremely good news is that everyone is invited into God’s family through choosing to trust in Jesus Christ. 

If Matthew 13:12 makes you angry, please understand that anyone can have a place in God’s family. In fact, He wants everyone in His family (God loved the whole world so much that He gave His only begotten Son…It is not His will that any should perish). 

Every one of us has an invitation to leave forever the have-nots and to ever be one of the haves. In this case, the have-nots are without excuse.

Psalms 103:13 tells us that God has compassion for us in the same way that a father has compassion for his children. The Hebrew / Aramaic word for compassion means “womb. ” The idea is that God loves us as a mother loves the child inside her own womb.

Picture this. You’re swimming in amniotic fluid inside your mother’s uterus. You know without doubt that you are in her womb. But there’s also something attached to your belly, a cord that’s also attached to your mother. Through that umbilical cord nutrients flow from her body into yours. So, while you are literally inside your mother, she is also in you. 

I know this is an unusual illustration and it’s kind of hard to write, as the choice of wording can be tricky. But it does serve as an apt analogy for the oxymoron of two simultaneous realities: we are in Christ and He is in us 

Mylon Lefevre’s prayer-song More (of Jesus) has the lyric, You in me and me in You. This is what Jesus came to accomplish for us, that we would find our identity, our provision and protection, our joy, peace, wisdom and eternal life in Him, and that, simultaneously and not unrelated, His Spirit would dwell in us. The New Testament is a treatise on what we have in Christ Jesus.

Back to the 103^rd Psalm. One version translates that Hebrew word to the English pity. God pities us, it says, because He knows that we are made from dust. He knows exactly our capacity for trouble and limits our trouble to our capacity. That’s how God can sympathize and empathize with us. Sympathize means to be with us (sym) in our trouble (path); empathy means to be in (em) our trouble with us. This is why we’re in Him, because by our being in Him, He is in us, helping us in a myriad of ways. We could also say that’s why He’s in us – because we are in Him. It’s like the old chicken-or-the-egg mystery.

But either way, to the question as to who is in whom, God in us or us in God, the answer is the same as to many either /or questions: Both! It’s like we’re in the womb of God with an umbilical cord constantly filling us with Him.