QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “If you have a heart, you can be saved.” Abba Pambo, desert father.

This strikes a cord with me for so many different reasons.

I know there have been times when I’ve made Christianity – a relationship with Jesus – more like an application process for getting into a country club than a saving bond between God and humankind. I, like the Pharisees, in the words of Jesus, “shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” Harsh.

But Jesus doesn’t speak harshly to the Pharisees just because he’s having a bad day – it’s not because he’s cranky. The Pharisees actually had a lot of things right, believe it or not – we actually could stand to learn a lot from their dedication to God, their reverence and fear of the LORD. Their motives, however, easily got shifted from “get to” to “have to.” As in, “I have to worship like this,” or “I have to say this type of prayer,” or “everyone must do things like I do or they’re wrong.” This, as Jesus points out, misses the point.

If you have a heart, you can be saved. If your pulse is strong, your heart can be transformed by the living Christ. You are not out of his reach. God is willing that everyone should be saved – from everything, for that matter, not just eternal separation from God – that none should perish. Where are you “perishing?” If you have a heart, you can be saved.

Prayer for the week: God, save us from the places we are perishing. Breathe your life into us. Amen.