Notes to the Lord:Throne Rooms Are Dangerous Places

Matthew 25

41"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

Lord Jesus--I would prefer to hear about the blessings but I can not avoid the call of your Holy Spirit. You remind me of acceptance based on your sacrifice. But there is also accountability. I would like to avoid the accountability part.

You remind me of the cost of denial of the needs that surround me. Lord Jesus, I am aware that I live in a cluttered culture where things are valued more than people...where the needs of the many are so often over looked for the needs of the entitled few. You remind me that revival of Your Spirit will lead not to a political power base but to a revived sense of what is most important.

I need to be living out your call to meet real needs of real people with grace and accountability. I am accountable for the grace I have received. Except for your grace received I could be a displaced person living in some foreign border town.

If I could pick a place that I would want to live it would be on the corner of Mercy and Hope Streets. I am sure that on that street corner I could see you, Jesus. You would walk by and I would see you in the limp of that veteran with just a touch of post-traumatic stress...I would be able to see you in that single mom with the little one that was tagging along behind her. Let me live at the corner of Hope and Mercy Streets.

42for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.'

Lord Jesus--When I am blind to the needs of those that surround me, I am also unable to see you. That is the piece that I miss so much of the time...If I look for you I will find you not in the fine dining places on Broadway, but in the hunger of those who do not have enough to eat. I will find you in the soup kitchen.

I will find you in the places I would least expect... prisons and hospitals and second hand clothes closest for the poor. It is when there is need that there is an openness to change. Lord Jesus help these eyes see the needs and in a way that sees need as an opportunity for grace to be received.

44"Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' 45"Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' 46"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Lord Jesus--In the day that is coming in just a couple of hours help me to see You looking out at me through the needs that surround me. Help me to not allow my own agenda to push out the needs that come in so many forms and fashions. If I look with the eyes of the grace I have received, I can see you in the least of these...people who the system would see as unimportant, or a drain on resources. I can see you in the oppressed, the imprisoned and those who need the touch of grace to their bodies, minds and souls. Those who I touch in this coming day...let me reach out with your grace.