Daily Bread 1-30-18

The Sermon on the mount(cont'd)

Matthew 5:23-26

23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;

24 Leave thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

ref. - Job 22:21 - Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.

If ye have done anything unto these little ones, ye have done them unto me. In this world offenses will come, but it is how we handle them that will determine our outcome. The word of God is clear in that it tells us that all of our offerings to God and all of the things that we think we do to help out will not be accepted until we make right with our brothers whom we have offended. It does not tell us to say, "What about them?" or to look at how many that have offended us, it tells us that if we know a brother has something against us that we should stop trying to out serve him or to be the "bigger" Christian, and we should go to him. In the word of God it tells us how to do this and if we do according to our instruction we will come out in the favor of God. Our offerings and our prayers will be accepted. But there are no short cuts and there is no side door for anyone to enter in.(Jn 14:15,23) We must go and be reconciled to our brothers. We can make many excuses and try to shift the attention elsewhere but, all in all, when it comes right down to it, we are responsible for our own actions. These actions must be honest and with good intention as we will stand alone when we face judgment. We must be on the right side of God and of he says to go and reconcile, that means to go and reconcile. Too often we make excuse because of our pride and this is how people go lost. Not that they aren't there physically, but Spiritually they are not there. What the world teaches us is to just get away from them or to stay and fight, but what the word of God teaches is to go and make peace. God sees your actions and knows the intentions of your heart. If you go to make peace and your brother will not accept it, then you go with witnesses. If he does not accept it then, you bring it before the Church. Still, if nothing, and we have done what we are supposed to, with God was our witness, the word of God says to no longer consider that man a brother, but a heathen and a publican, and to leave him alone.(Matt 18:15-17) We will then be in the clear. But, until then, we stand in jeopardy of not pleasing God. If we have come up short of that at judgment we will be cast into the lake of fire. So, you see, today is not the day to wait until a better time. Today is the day that we quit trying to push aside our offended brother and pretend all is well with God. Today is the day that we become honest and true and do as the scripture tells us to do. That is, unless we do not believe or fear, and then we need to start over at the beginning with Godly repentance and a true salvation in Jesus Christ. This is the will of God and this is the Sermon that was given to us by the Son of God to instruct us. Time to take heed. Have a great day!!!