Petoskey United Methodist Church
Weekly Devotional

May 13, 2008
By Jerry Patterson

“Shoats”

Matthew 25:31-34

31 "When the Son of Man comes in His shining-greatness, He will sit down on His throne of greatness. All the angels will be with Him. 32 All the nations of the earth will be gathered before Him. He will divide them from each other as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on His right side, but the goats He will put on His left side. 34 "Then the King will say to those on His right side, 'Come, you who have been called by My Father. Come into the holy nation that has been made ready for you before the world was made.

Last year on the Grand Rapids Middle School mission trip we fixed up the backyard and cleaned the outside of Miss Rosa’s house near the west side of Grand Rapids. Miss Rosa had lived in Chicago, divorced, and moved to Grand Rapids with her 4 kids to work as a translator at local funeral homes for grieving Hispanics. The first afternoon we were there, she was working and when we returned Saturday morning to finish she was so excited to see the “little ones” who had done so much around her house. She joined in and worked alongside the youth and talking with them.

When we returned later in the day to pray for her and her family, Miss Rosa told those 8 youth from her heart, if you are in Grand Rapids, you are never alone and you will always have a home at Miss Rosa’s. It came from her God touched heart, from that one on one time she spent with each of those kids. Miss Rosa’s rebellious 13 year old daughter cried as she listened to the prayers of those 6^th, 7^th and 8^th graders for her and her family.

The Holy Spirit is hard to miss when you are in close proximity to others as you do good works in God’s name.

How different would it be if instead of sending money to a group representing disabled vets, you were to actually spend time and get to know and help one veteran with shoveling, or cleaning, or simply just listening? Spiritually, how different would your life be if you were the ears of Jesus to a single mother?  Spiritually, how different would your life be if you ate dinner with an elderly neighbor instead of just dropping dinner off? Big groups, well financed committees, well planned large projects, never replace changing one person’s sharing of the Holy Spirit from within. I can never forget the many transformations of spirits witnessed every year on the Middle school mission trip.

Judgment day is all about God separating believers from the non believers.  No matter what we do or do not do while in this world, no matter when we discover our faith during our life, when the time comes for God to judge, we will be either with the sheep or the goats!

There are no “Shoats” half sheep or half goat. There is no percentage of faith content like the percent of automobiles that make an automobile Canadian or American; there is no percentage of good works that will make us a sheep. Our value, the value of others to God, is that we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It’s not who you know or how you did in this world; it is about “How we Live! When we live in Jesus and our hearts are filled with His love, we become the priceless vessels that God planned for, made in His hands, and grew in to each and every one of our lives.

May the God of love and mercy bless you in this world, until judgment day and throughout eternity in Jesus’ name.

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