KINGDOM LIVING - THE LOST SHEEP

Dear One,
    The Pharisees and scribes murmured and griped about Jesus eating and communing with sinners.  (Luke 15:1-2) They believed that He certainly was not the long awaited Messiah because he ate with mere sinners.  The scribes and Pharisees thought He was supposed to come and gather the people to Him who were obeying the religious laws at the time, and only gather them to him.  They thought that the sinners were outcasts from society and that the long awaited Messiah should not be fraternizing with sinners.  He was only supposed to fraternize with the righteous people who obeyed religious laws.  As the tax collectors and sinners gathered to hear Jesus, the Pharisees were angered because of the preference that Jesus showed to the sinners. 
    Jesus explained His attention given to sinners by comparing His actions to a man who had one lost sheep and ninety-nine safe ones.(Luke 15:3-5)  He even asked the Parisees and the scribes if they were the owner of the sheep would they not leave the ninety-nine ones in the wilderness and go after the lost one?  Jesus told them that an owner of sheep rejoices at finding one lost one, that he would put the sheep safely on his shoulders high above any ravenous wolves. (Luke 15:5)  When he reached home, he would call his family, friends and neighbors together and tell them to rejoice because he had found the sheep that was lost. (Luke 15:6)
    Then Jesus told the Pharisees and scribes that there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who turns to Me than ninety-nine righteous ones who don't need to repent. (Luke 15:7) That angered the religious Pharisees and scribes who knew the religious laws and kept them.  They wanted the Messiah, if Jesus was Him, to rejoice over them and tell them how holy and righteous they were for following all the religious laws.  They didn't want there to be rejoicing in heaven by Me and My angels because of the people who are usually rejected by the religious ninety-nine in the earth.
     Then Jesus compared My kingdom of heaven to a woman who had ten silver coins but lost one.  He said that she would light a lamp, sweep the house and look diligently until she found the coin.  Upon finding it, she called her neighbors and her friends and told them to come and rejoice with her that she had found the lost coin. (Luke 15:8-9) Then Jesus told the Pharisees and scribes that not only is there rejoicing on the earth that one lost sheep is found or one lost coin is found; but, even so, there is joy by Me before the angels in heaven over one sinner who turns to Me.  (Luke 15:10) That image is what angered the religious leaders, that I, along with the angels in heaven, always rejoice and celebrate when one sinner repents and turns to Me.  The expectation of the religious people is that there is rejoicing in heaven for their diligent attention to religious laws, attending church every time the doors are open, when they give alms to the poor and tithe to the church, when they open their homes for meeting, but certainly not that there is rejoicing in heaven by Me and My angels when a sinner repents. The self righteous Pharisees and scribes considered it to be unjust and unfair that I and My angels would rejoice over sinners instead of rejoicing over them, the rule followers who are secure in religious laws.
     In explaining what goes on in My heaven when people repent and turn from sin to Me, My Spirit was teaching through Jesus the extreme joy there is in heaven which results in rejoicing when a sinner repents and a person finds Me when he or she is lost. In doing that, Jesus indicates that there should also be rejoicing on earth when a person repents and turns to Me. 
     Rejoicing needs to be your day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute reaction when you see and experience My miracles in your life and in the lives of other people.  My angels and I rejoice.  You need to rejoice at all times, especially when the poor, the maimed, the blind and the sick enter into a church with a need.  They have a greater need than the righteous people and they will be exalted when their needs are met by Me and there will be rejoicing in heaven and should be on earth when their needs are met.
     Your attitude toward the poor, the sick, the maimed, the blind and the sinners shows what is in your heart.  If there is any disdain for them, you must cast out from you a pharisaical spirit of self righteousness which robs you of having mercy for the human sheep whom I seek to enter My kingdom.  (Luke 14:21) Pharisees never enter into kingdom living while in the earth.  I said your righteousness needs to exceed their righteousness to enter into kingdom living in the earth.  (Matthew 5:20) Matthew 23:23)
     Your Father Whose Delight is to Save The Lost