Matthew 9:9-13 - An invitation

"What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?"

It's pretty cool to read about this for quiet time, especially after we had a sermon about integrity, AND had a Sunday School lesson discussion on the Mardi Gras too. Maybe God's trying to say something to me... But I find all evidents supporting me in what I believed in!

As in... Jesus here is sitting amongst crooks and people who are considered evil, greedy and sinners. Yet He kept His integrity by being amongst them but keeping His colour. So He didn't compromise any part of His character to be like them, all He did was be with them.

Same with the Mardi Gras, right? We can be with them, as long as we don't promote them and do the same things as they do.

Also, coincidentally, today for Jwalking quiet time, we read Romans 15:1-7. Surprise, surprise, guess which verse screamed at me? "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." There are no "good people", and "sinful people". There's only God's people, and others. Before we became righteous, we were once sinners too, so what rights do we have to say that we have to keep our distance from these people? We aren't even righteous ourselves, we were only justified to be righteous.

"I'm after mercy, not religion."