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Listen to the podcast here, and please forgive the "sounds" of Christmas still strong in the Valverde household! ;). https://bit.ly/3JjN42K
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46 New International Version Bible)
Happy Monday dear ConCafe Family and may the continued blessings of this Christmas be with you, dear Reader. This coming Sunday is the second Sunday of Christmas, but today we will be looking at passages related to Christmas and New Year planning. May this bring blessings for our lives is my prayer.
I pray you received gifts that blessed your life. More importantly, I pray you gave gifts that blessed your life because you gave. The best gift I ever received as a child was the James Bond attache case. It was plastic and had an assortment of keen spyware that I enjoyed using. Actually, I was pretending I was a spy and that the plastic equipment really worked. It seemed I always had an extra roll of caps, the explosive red tape with black dots of gunpowder that was the ammo for cap guns, which in this case was used on the lock of the note pad. Any unauthorized user would get scared wtih the loud pop of that cap if they opened it wihout knowing how. The best gift I ever received as an adult was on a Christmas Eve many years ago. I was an intern minister and that night I served as the narrator for the pagaent and when it was over I was driving home to Houston. I helped clear up and clean up, and had to say goodbye to the young woman I was dating. She had been at the service so she could say goodbye to me. We said our goodbyes and as I'm rolling the window down to say and hear goodbyes, my lady is crying. Suffice it to say no girl had ever cried for me before. And it was an amazing display of love that I came to cherish and love. Christmas lends itself to either be greedy and demand a great many things, or, it can be a time to give like never before and bless others.
Jesus shares this teaching as both a revelation of what is to come, and a discovery of how things are in so many hearts in each country. Jesus teaches that a judgment is coming when all things end here on the earth. Jesus says that all the nations of the world will stand before Him and a great separation will take place. Using the most common illustration of His day on earth, this separation will be just like shepherds did on a daily basis; sheep and goats. The sheep will go on His right, and the goats on His left. Those on the right, the sheep, "Will be blessed" by the Father, and will inherit the kingdom prepared for them since the creation of the world. And their place was earned by their thoughtfulness and generosity. Hear Jesus tell us why; "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." Wow. It was those who thought enough of the needs of others, who did something about it, who will inherit the kingdom of God. Of course, on that day, the righteous may ask, "Lord, when was it that we saw You hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" The King will say, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the lease of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me."
The ones of the left did not fare as well as those on the right. And it will be because of their self-centeredness and selfishness, dare we say the lack of thoughtfulness, that will doom their eternity. I'm sure the excuses will be plentiful, as will the tears once the realization sinks in that a life lived for self provides no life for others, and measures taken to insure one's own wellbeing, and at the cost of other's, results in denying others, and they will be the ones, at the end, denied entry into God's kingdom.
How can God be so harsh? will be a question that many have asked. Equally, we can ask, how can we be so harsh and self-centered when we know we can and should share life with others? I've shared how when as a DS at a meeting where I would meet with the S/PPRC members about their new pastor, I would bring five loaves of white bread, and five of wheat. I would say that their first order of business should be to seek ways to feed the many levels of hunger in their communities, starting with the physical hunger. At the very first meeting where I introduced that, one woman immediately got angry and declared that there was no hunger in their community. "They all get food stamps! There's no hunger here!" And some more of her ranting. When she stopped, a kind gentleman asked, "Can I have two loaves? I know two families that do not have any bread to eat." I saw there seated before me, a lamb and a goat. Sigh. You probably know a lot of lambs and goats. And our job is to get goats to change over their hearts into being lambs. It will make the difference between a life cursed or a life blessed.
I have been blessed in that I was born into a family where we sought God, my father worked hard, as did my mother inside the home, and we sought to better ourselves with an education. We never lacked for anything, and that was a blessing to us. We had food at all meals with that one exception where our Friday meal was delayed because my father worked overtime. At dinner time, our neighbor was somehow aware of our lack of food and came upstairs to our apartment and shared with us her last can of Spaghetti-O's. With extra water we all had a bowl of that for our supper, then Dad came home, and we went shopping at the Kroger a little later than normal. And I thank God we have never lacked for drinking water. Yes, we lived in Corpus Christi, where three times in the seven years there, the city placed boil orderss to make sure the water was clean and safe. And through all the list we have been blessed by God and we thank Him for those blessings. A priest who served in Mexico shared how one of his parishioners lived in a hovel barely adequate for human occupancy, but his heart allowed his voice to say, "Father, aren't I blessed? I am living like a king because God has provided this palace for me!" The priest shared how indeed this man's attitude and gratitude has already blessed many. Have we? The tougher question is how have we shared with those in need? Are we living as sheep or as a goat?
PRAYER: Loving Father, as we wind down the Christmas season and rapidily approach the New Year, may we realize what it is we are to do for others to bless them and share with them new life. Help us overcome our greed or fear or whatever is motivating our guarded behavior. Those who have been blessed much should share much, and with a great attitude; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord. Seek to bless someone with love like Jesus asked; for in so doing, we may have already blessed Him Himself.
Receive my blessings of joy and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
