Transformational Tip
As we examine our lives for areas of prejudice, we should ask ourselves the ever-popular question: "What would Jesus do?" or WWJD.
The New Testament is filled with accounts of how Jesus approached many who had been prejudged by society to be outcasts, lesser-thans, rejects, avoidables, and worthless. But Jesus approached them anyway…the poor, the sick, the lepers, the prostitutes, the widows, the women, the orphans, the tax collectors, the dead, the criminals.
The description of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well (found in John 4) gives us a picture of Jesus' viewpoint and how he ministered freely with no prejudice.
In New Testament times, Jewish people did not associate with Samaritans because they regarded them as half-breeds…products of interracial marriages. Also, Jewish men did not carry on meaningful conversations or fellowship with women, who were regarded as inferior to men. And yet Jesus, not only spoke to a Samaritan, but to her, not at or down like was the custom in those times, but to a Samaritan woman…without hesitation, sharing life-changing truths with her. He was concerned about HER and her need.
The result? The woman and many in her community came to know Jesus as their Messiah.
Today, try and learn to follow Jesus' example. To see every individual as someone God loves…not as a person of a certain race or background or reputation. Only as we learn to "get a good look at what's right in front of us"…to see through the eyes of Jesus, will we be free to minister to their needs and lead them to Jesus.
Click here to share with the Stepping Stones community your perspective improving our eyesight.
Prayer
Dear Father, please give me Your kind of eyesight…let me see through Your lenses… so I can truly see what is right in front of me. To see the need and not the fault. To see someone You love and not an offensive person. To see someone You died for and not someone to avoid. And then I pray that Your love and power will flow through me to minister to the need. I pray this and all prayers in the name of the One who treated all with love, Jesus Christ; and all God’s children say - AMEN!
The Truth
As you look around right now, wouldn't you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I'm telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what's right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It's harvest time! John 4:35
Friday, April 9, 2010
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