27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Luke 5
LEVI GOT UP, LEFT EVERYTHING AND FOLLOWED HIM. All the words in verse 28 are verbs, action words, we can’t be left in the same place we were originally. A Calling is a ‘Watershed Moment’, it may well determine the whole course of our future.
The Call of Elisha by the prophet Elijah was a good example of God’s Call on a life.
20 Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. ‘Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,’ he said, ‘and then I will come with you.’
‘Go back,’ Elijah replied. ‘What have I done to you?’ (Little or no encouragement to take up the Call)
21 So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the ploughing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became HIS SERVANT. (High Calling, to be Elijah’s successor, but with a humble beginning, as his servant. Often God’s way for His servants) 1Kings 19
Derek Prince once said the further we go in our walk with the Lord, the less the possibility to turn back. As we progress along God’s path for our lives, the way back to our old life crumbles behind us.
Jesus, was challenged once again by the Religious Pharisees because He and His disciples ate with those they called sinners and tax collectors in Levi’s house. Luke 5:29, 30 The Pharisees were Religiously observant and they focused on externals. Religion has a negative slant, it looks for failure to comply with the current rules. The Pharisees were Religious Police and they still exist today in many places today. A friend has recently been pondering the phrase, ‘Grace without Truth and Truth without Grace’. We can’t have one without the other, we need both Grace and Truth operating together.
Levi left everything, as did Elisha, to enter upon their new way of life. It’s interesting that though the people in Levi’s home were treated as outcasts, the Bible records that many of them were true followers of the Lord.
15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. Mark 2
Jesus told the parable of the the two men who went up to the Temple and stood before God.
10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself (A TELLING REMARK) and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. Luke 18
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 18
GOD HONOURS HUMILITY, BUT HATES PRIDE.
God bless and keep you today. Immanuel