TODAY’S
WORD FOR WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 16, 2013.
ACCEPT
DEFINITION:
To
receive willingly; to receive with approval or favor; to take or receive
something offered.
SCRIPTURE:
Accept
one another, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
Romans 15:7.
KNOWLEDGE
AND EXPERIENCE:
When
Jesus was here on this earth the Jewish people hated the Samaritans and did not
accept them. In John 4, Jesus met a Samaritan woman at the well and began to
talk with her. When Jesus asked for a drink she was surprised and wanted to
know why He was talking to her as no Jewish man would ever talk to a Samaritan
woman. But Jesus continued to talk with her and she believed and accepted His
gift of "living water."
She
went back to her village and led many Samaritans to become believers in Jesus.
The good news that we can learn from this, is that Jesus came to this earth for
all of us. And He accepts all who come to Him in faith believing for
forgiveness of their sins.
In
Romans 15:7 we are told to accept one another just as Christ accepted you in
order to bring praise to God. As Christians we are to accept and encourage
other Christians. Also we must be willing to accept others who do not know the
Lord without condoning what they do, so we can introduce them to Christ. It is
important for children to understand the difference between accepting someone
and accepting what someone does, when that person is doing things that are
against Biblical principles.
Jesus
knew that the Samaritan woman was an immoral woman. He did not shun her for her
race, social position or her sins. He accepted her as someone who needed His
saving grace.
People
today are hungry for acceptance. Children in school do everything they can,
including lowering their standards, to be accepted by their peers. Adults are
much the same. They want to be included in "THE GROUP" just as
children do. There are certain groups that it is better that we as Christians
are not part of.
Paul
tells us in Romans 14:1 "Do not refuse to accept someone who is weak in
faith. And do not argue with him about opinions.
We,
as Christians, need to make people feel important and needed. This way they
will feel accepted and will more than likely be open to hear about Jesus.
Back
when we attended school at Wheaton College in Illinois, I (Ken) remember being
in an ethics class where we had a discussion about a small group of students
who were not living up to the standards set by the college and they were not
being accepted by many of our peers. As a class we began praying for this group
and about a week later one of the students in the class told us that she had
approached one of the people in the group.
The
one thing I remember her saying was that they did not feel accepted at the
school so why should they change their life style? This small group had all
come from home situations where living a much looser life was acceptable. We
believe that because of our prayers and the fact that efforts were made to be
friendly and show Christian love to them their hearts were softened and God was
able to affect change in their lives. Fellow students approached them with love
and not with criticism with the result being that they were able to be a
positive influence.
This
is an example that should remind each of us to do all we can to make people we
touch shoulders with feel accepted.
LEARNING:
Our
memory verse for this week is found in I Timothy 2:5.
For
there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
PRAYER:
Help
me to find people today who need to feel accepted. May these people see Christ
through my words and deeds. Help my children to stand up for what they believe
and not to be swayed by the crowd. Help me to do what is good and acceptable in
Your sight so that I may know beyond any doubt the good and acceptable and
perfect will of God for my life.
