Happy Sabbath friends! I hope you had a blessed week and are hopefully able to relax/rest on this Sabbath day. I have a message for you all today that I hope opens your hearts and eyes to the wondrous love that God has for each and every one of us. My previous message was about us finding our worth in Christ, but now I am delving into God meeting us where we are at. I feel like sometimes it can be misconstrued that we need to be “perfect”, or have everything figured out to be a child of God, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Non-believer, sinner, or whatever it may be, God loves you and He died for YOU! Even the people you would least expect God to love unconditionally, He died for as well and loves them too!!! We are all sinners, and on our own individual walk with Jesus. Who are we to judge what others are doing, or how they are going about their walk with Jesus? At the end of the day, God is the judge. “Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you” (James 4:11 NLT). We are all on our own journey with Christ and we should not view ourselves as superior because at the end of the day, God is the perfect one. We are all sinners and equal in the eyes of God. We should be in community with one another, and witnessing God’s immense love to others around us. “Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth. For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard” (Acts 22:14-15 NKJV). As children of God, we need to spread the good news of Christ Jesus to all the ends of the earth so everyone can know the miraculous works He has done in our lives, and all around us.

But how can God touch the lives of people who have not opened their hearts to Christ Jesus yet? Easy answer. God meets us where we are at. God doesn’t ever expect us to chase Him for His love, and He definitely doesn’t make us earn His love by any means. His love is NOT conditional. It is everlasting and unconditional. Again, God MEETS US where we are at. It could be in the most unexpected ways imaginable. God works in mysterious ways, and all we have to do as children of God, is plant that little mustard seed in people’s lives, and let God do the rest. “It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth, but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade” (Mark 4:31-32 NKJV). Take note, that the verse states that the seed is SMALLER than all the seeds on the earth. Let us be honest with ourselves…do we tend to view other people as smaller than us if they are on a different walk with Christ? I’ll be honest, I’ve had my moments with that, but guess what, there was a time when you were the smallest in the field. Yes, take that in. There was a time when you were the smallest in the field…so shouldn’t we be understanding and encouraging to the little seeds in the field that have so much potential within them to become a flourishing tree??? We need to look at people how Jesus looks at people, and it’s with love, hope, and forgiveness. I’m sure there will be times where it’s easier said than done, but that is when we need to humble ourselves, ask God to fill our hearts with His Holy Spirit, and be a light in other people’s lives. When that mustard seed is finally planted in someone’s life, then that is when God does His miraculous work and starts watering the seed day by day. Meeting the seed where it is at, and gives it love and patience until it is ready to flourish into that beautiful tree.

I am going to leave you all with this verse: “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first” (Matthew 19:30 NIV).

Be a witness and a light in this world. We ALL need Jesus and His miraculously love in our lives. Plant the mustard seed today and allow Jesus to bless not only you, but the people around you.

Amen.