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Gerry Gutierrez' Update
PAYING ATTENTION. Sept 18, 2016. GA
Beware of Cold-Shouldering Jesus and doing your own thing. Matthew
22:1-14. The experts say that most of communication is
non-verbal but body language. Even Francis of Assisi said, ÒPreach the Gospel
at all times; use words only if it is absolutely necessary.Ó When this man was
in Calcutta to visit Mother TeresaÕs Center for the dying, he could see with
his own eyes that the time for words was gone for most of those people. A gesture of love and compassion, an eye
contact, a touch to their body, and a little attention was most welcome to
them. Mother Teresa would bring them from the streets,
from the garbage hill with flies planting eggs on their open mouths, with dogs
licking old wounds, the dying would then be cleaned up and placed in a small
bed with clean sheets to die with some dignity, sometimes the very same day. As Mother Teresa managed to feed some warm soup
to the dying and prepared to leave to attend to the next patient, the skin and
bones man had enough energy to grab Mother TeresaÕs hand and to make eye
contact long enough to say, from way deep into his heart the works, ÒThank
youÓ! Mother Teresa would say later said, ÒI just went
to help him a little,Ó but his words helped her more than he will ever know.
The words of a grateful heart go farther than any effort to pay back. There is
power in those two words ÒThank you.Ó It is also true that those words are
always ÒWelcomeÓ by anyone and anywhere. God is perfect, complete, powerful, omnipotent,
omniscient, Holy, pure, almighty; he is also LOVE. God does not need anything,
as a human is in need of many things. But He generously invites many to a
banquet of His own making, where no one has to bring anything but himself and a big appetite. In a display of the purest kind of love,
generosity, and goodness He has prepared an out-of-this-world gourd-made meal
with everything on the table and nothing missing. It is a meal in honor of his
beloved Son whom He loves and with whom He is well pleased that He has done
this thing. ÒListen to Him.Ó The great banquet is ready,
but the invited guests refused to come. This mighty King humbles
Himself and sends his servants again and again to bring them to fellowship with
Him and His Son, but they pay no attention! Attention is like taxes. You must pay taxes to
which taxes are due. The King is the Lord of the Land and the life of
the people and all their wealth. Not to pay taxes is not only a
passive-aggressive action as it may look like at first sight. No. Not to pay taxes is like not to pay rent or
not to pay the bill in the restaurant for the food that is now in your stomach.
If you walk away without paying you bill, it is an act of robbery, a grand
theft because it is what belongs to the King. God is the giver of life and time. How one
spends his time is how one spends his life. One tenth of that time already
belongs exclusively to God. The remaining ninety percent is also HisÕ, but man
is only a steward and servant of God over it. The people of this passage do not paid
ATTENTION!! They refuse to go and paid their respect to God and his Son! They
gave God a cold shoulder. By the way, do you know that
you have been invited to the covenant tent of God for a banquet? Do you know
that you do not have to contribute anything to the meal? Have you willingly and
gratefully gone to enjoy the banquet by the grace, the goodness and generosity
of God that it has not cost you a thing? Perhaps you have rejected
again and again and preferred to do you own business and walk away in your
heart in bitterness and violence to the servants of God and his own Son? If so, you have paid no attention to God. The Lord was enraged with those people and He is
the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will not have for innocent the
guilty. Beware of the wrath of God! Perhaps you are of the second wave of guests and
have entered into the wedding, but your heart is not in the wedding spirit.
Then you have not been chosen, but have invited yourself. In their excitement
with the wedding banquet, the servants may have not noticed you at the door.
They may have overlooked your unworthiness, but the eyes of the righteous King,
who is wise and fair, have seen it all. Nothing escapes His scrutiny and He has
noticed you. In the spirit of the wedding banquet, He
approaches and calls, ÒFriend, how did you get here without wedding clothes?Ó
You may be even wearing a white gown, but you are not wearing the gown of
righteousness of the Lord Jesus. Your silence will be your admission of guilt;
because before the Lord who knows it all, you can only say, ÒWoe is me.Ó You may have fooled the
servant, but you are not going to fool God. Before the bad apple spoils the
whole basket, drastic measures are taken at the order of God the Father
Himself. He has faked it and He has
made it all the way into the banquet hall. This man has been dubious, and to
the dubious, God is shrewd. ÒTie him hand and foot, and
throw him outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. ÒFor many are invited, but
few are chosen.Ó Have you been invited or have
you invited yourself? Have you been chosen or have you chosen the
counsel of your own will? If that is the case, then what have you done is
not right in the eyes of God. You do not belong to the wedding party. You have
offended God and come with falsehood. Even your clothing speaks about what is
in your heart. You have deceived the servants of the King and
offended His beloved Son. You may have sweet-talked you way all the way here,
but you will not deceive God. This is in the hand of God, who said, ÒVengeance
is mine; I will repay.Ó You sin was not paying attention to the Voice of
God that has led you to this crime of deception. God pays attention to one and
all of His creatures. You have been found lacking in integrity without which no
one can enter and stay at the wedding banquet of the Lord. You may have been
invited or may have invited yourself, but you have not been chosen. JesusÕ Acorn. ÒThis ManÓ Gerry Gutierrez.
A sheep in wolves clothing 
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