"accepted?" Jesus says "yes!"

A friend that I know recently began attending a new church. After a couple of weeks, he told me that he thought that he "would be accepted as it seemed promising." I smiled and wished him well, but a nagging thought occurred to me: "he was waiting to see if he would be accepted?" Accepted?

Didn't Jesus come and give up His life so that ALL would be saved? Didn't he admonish His disciples to "go therefore and make disciples of ALL nations...?" (Matthew 28:19). Didn't He tell us "all who are weary come to Me and I will give you rest?" (Matthew 11:28). Yet here was my friend, "waiting to be accepted!"

My friends, Jesus is here today, will be tomorrow and can be counted on for all of eternity. What He is waiting for is for YOU to come to Him, warts and all! Warts and ALL! If we were to wait to be cleansed from sin before we approach His table, we'd probably never get there!

This is the same Jesus who ate with tax collectors! He called Zacchaeus down from the tree that he was straddling just so that he could get a better look at Jesus: "I am having dinner at your house tonight!" Zacchaeus was told. (Luke 19:1-10).

He even spoke to women and many women followed Him, yes, even on His painful last walk to Calvary. This did not endear him to the scribes and Pharisees of the day, but Jesus didn't come to impress them, His mission was to call people to His Father and call them He did!

If you feel God's call within your heart, it is my hope and prayer that you are welcomed wherever you go. A church is not some fancy restaurant in which you need a tux and tie to get in. "Come to me, all who are burdened and I will give you rest!" Find a place that is hospitable to not only you, but to anyone who may cross its path. Find your place at the Lord's Supper. Find yourself in Good Hands, the Hands that bore those nails so that you could have eternal life.

"I am the Way...and the Truth...and the Life. He who comes to Me shall not perish but shall have life and have it abundantly!" (John 14:6)

May you be blessed today!