![]() Dear Friend, How are you? I’m well. Are you in the Father’s business? What do I mean by that? I would like to share Pastor John Fenn’s February Newsletter in The Church Without Walls International website: Being about the Father’s business sounds very spiritual, but it disguises itself within the patterns of every day life. Jesus was 12 years old when He was in the temple asking questions to the elders and answering them. When His parents came searching for Him, He replied in Luke 2:49: “….Didn’t you know I must be about my Father’s business?” He was about His Father’s business, yet all He was doing was asking and answering questions. It was everyday life. Years later in Matthew 25: 33-40, Jesus would describe normal life in Him, found at His return, as giving food, water, clothing, and shelter to people, and visiting those who were sick or in prison. (In those days prisoners relied on relatives and friends for food and clothing.) What Jesus describes is not a glamorous faith. It is mundane, even boring, normal life. But it is supremely spiritual, doing the Father’s business. We must readjust our thinking to be like His: Water, food, clothing, shelter, visiting. The people living like that are the ones He puts in charge of the world at His return. Don’t you want to be part of that? That is being about the Father’s business by Jesus’ definition – conversation, questions and answers, and providing physical resources and friendship to those in need. It doesn’t seem spiritual, yet it is, unnoticed by man, noticed and known by the Father. When I read his newsletter and his mentioning Matthew 25:33~40, I was surprised. It was the exact Scriptures I read and meditated on earlier in that day. They were about Jesus’ judging the nations. He will set the sheep at His right hand, but the goats on the left. (Matthew 25:33) I’ve heard some preachers and prophets say there are sheep nations such as America, Korea, and so forth, and goat nations, in addition to sheep individuals and goat individuals. While I meditated on the Scriptures, I wanted to know what the nations in the original Greek in the Scripture would mean. I found out the nation in Greek is ethnos and it means a multitude of individuals of some nature or genus: a tribe, nation, people, group etc. Paul uses the term for Gentile Christians. I interpreted it as each believer and Jesus would judge each one of us. Like the Scriptures said, sheep individuals will have eternal life, while goat individuals will go away into eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. After reading Pastor John Fenn’s newsletter at night, I wanted to read the Scriptures again, during my prayers. So, I did. This time I found out what I had not realized earlier in the day. In those Scriptures, the criteria that divide sheep from goats are whether they were faithful in giving food, water, clothing, and shelter to people, and visiting those who are sick or in prison like Pastor John Fenn wrote. … for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. (verse 35~36) ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ (verse 40) And I found it very interesting they were the only criteria that Jesus mentioned. He didn’t say those who read the Bible every day, those who fasted, prayed and worshiped in His house or those who knew the Scriptures very well. But the only criteria to divide sheep from goats were whether we loved His brethren. Who are His brethren, then? Jesus said, “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother. (Matthew 12:50)” I don’t mean at all that reading the Bible and praying and worshipping in church is unimportant, but I mean that it does not guarantee our ticket to heaven. Our love toward the Lord’s brethren does. Our good deed toward them is worshiping in truth. Friend, I do not know whether you’ve been feeling that you have a mundane life, the same old day every day. But our love toward our family, our neighbors, friends and those in need is our Father’s business and it is very spiritual. I want to be in that business. Would you? I pray that you and I have the heart of Jesus and we feed His children physically and be friends to them, when they are in need, in Jesus’ name. Have a bliss! Yunee What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14~17) Comments are closed.
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