Luke 18:10-14 & Romans 5:8 6/16/15

Luke 18: 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 and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people— robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’  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.

 I often hear people say things like,  "I'm not good enough to be a Christian".  But a heart in that condition is ready for salvation.  It is the heart that feels worthy that doesn't understand its condition and the Grace of God.  In these verses Jesus says the humble man who acknowledged his sin and asked for mercy is the one who went home justified.  

You don't clean up your life and come to God.  You come to God, and He will clean up your life.  

The hardest thing to grasp is that He actually loves you right where you are. 

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.