When you think of “sinners” who might be excluded from God’s kingdom, does anyone come to mind? If so, you may be entering dangerous territory. The Pharisees were certain of their own seat at God’s table, convinced that the tax collectors and prostitutes had no such place. But Jesus came precisely for the people the religious crowd wrote off. He welcomes the broken, the fallen, the forgotten with open arms the moment they repent and turn to Him. God’s grace reaches farther than our judgments, and we may be surprised by those who are on heaven’s guest list!

Carrying Out an Impossible Mission
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When you consider the odds that were stacked against the mission of the early church, it is literally nothing short of miraculous that it ever succeeded at all. Jesus sent a handful of trembling followers into a hostile world to proclaim an unbelievable story to people who hated them. On their own, these weak, broken followers had no chance whatsoever of accomplishing this task. How, then, were they able to carry out this mission with such astonishing power, and what must we learn from them?


