Good morning to all on this marvelous Monday morning. To all the fathers out there I trust your celebration day was all that you had hoped it would be. Aleron, had us over to his apartment and entertained us yesterday. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and was greeted throughout the day with well wishes from all the children.
I am continuing my exploration of Matthew 22:1-14, "Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet. But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find. So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are invited, but few are chosen." Amen and amen!
Just because you are invited doesn't mean you will be chosen! Just because you are invited does not mean you have been chosen! The promise was given to Abraham that his seed would be the chosen people and under the law, God has kept His promise through the ages, assisting the tribes of Abraham to prosper even thought they were disobedient. The children of Israel has caused no small amount of grief for the great Jehovah even though they were provided prophets, kings and teachers. They still continued to sin and believe in gods that were not the true Jehovah. Then God sent Jesus who took on our sins and sacrificed Himself as an atonement for our sins. We have all, Jews and Gentiles alike, been invited to the "wedding feast" of the bride to the bridegroom. Jesus 1st preached to the Jews and was rejected and then He sent Paul into the world to preach to the gentiles. We are now all invited and must come PREPARED! We need to be clothed in the Word of God and have the raiments supplied by the Holy Spirit. we cannot come to the wedding feast unprepared-we all have to have the cloak of the blood of Jesus or will not be admitted.
Kingdom building is all about inviting folk to the wedding party AND ensuring that those that have been invited have confessed their sins and are redeemed. As you can see from the scriptures, the banquet that has been prepared for Jesus by His Father, is a serious matter. It should not be taken lightly; out lives should reflect that we have taken the invitation seriously and are appreciative of not only the invitation but the Love of the One who made the wedding possible. Glorify God today through your faith and your life.
Stephanie
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