{"id":529,"date":"2010-10-14T15:11:32","date_gmt":"2010-10-14T20:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/?p=529"},"modified":"2012-02-15T09:40:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T14:40:00","slug":"small-thought-receive-them-joyfully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/","title":{"rendered":"Receive Them Joyfully"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Luke 19:2-7<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>[<strong>2<\/strong>] And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.<br \/>\n[<strong>3<\/strong>] And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.<br \/>\n[<strong>4<\/strong>] And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.<br \/>\n[<strong>5<\/strong>] And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house.<br \/>\n[<strong>6<\/strong>] And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.<br \/>\n[<strong>7<\/strong>] And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p>We all know the story of Zaccheus. I\u2019m sure that if you ever attended Sunday school at some point that you have heard it. For those that have not heard it, I will attempt to give an understandable version of it.<\/p>\n<p>Zaccheus was the chief tax collector in Jericho. He was a rich man, and despised by those around him because he took not only the money for the Roman taxes but also kept for himself. In principle, the more money that one could get from the people, the more they could keep.\u00a0 When he heard of Jesus\u2019 arrival to Jericho, he wanted to see what all the fuss was about.\u00a0 Being a man of small stature, Zaccheus was so determined to see Jesus that he dropped all he was doing and climbed a tree to try and get a view. Despite the crowd around him, Jesus saw up in the tree and told Zaccheus \u201cCome down at once, for today I must stop at your house\u201d. Being the person that he was, people all around were clearly upset, even by speaking that Christ was going to be a guest with a sinner.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of messages focus on the fact that he was short and climbed up the tree to make the extra effort to get closer to Christ, but we want to take a deeper look into what happened in the before and after.<\/p>\n<p>Zaccheus was a person who did not care to take from people that were poor for his own good. Therefore in essence he was in the wrong for some of his actions. The crowd around him even judged him by calling him a sinner. However, once he knew that Christ had acknowledged him, he came down quickly and received him JOYFULLY.<\/p>\n<p>There will be many people that we come into contact with that may not be on our list of friends or even people that we dislike ourselves. But as Christ was demonstrating, he showed that it IS possible to look beyond the flaws of someone to try and show love to them. There are many people out there today that are \u201changing up in the trees\u201d, desperate for something to fill the void in their life. If we are not too careful, we\u2019ll be as the crowd and pass judgment and not give a second thought to it. Don\u2019t pass them by! God can inspire you with the words to say that will not only show compassion, but also a chance to lead them to salvation. This can go beyond friends into the very home that you live in. If you want to see your parents and relatives notice the light you shine, show them that same love that Jesus showed. Get along at home, practice forgiveness, and love them regardless. And in the process of all that, PRAY! He can change their lives! And you can be the light that leads them to deliverance!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luke 19:2-7 [2] And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. [3] And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. [4] And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore &#8230; <span class=\"more\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/\">[Read more&#8230;]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[66,80,72,29,76,2530,79,78,77,75],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-admin","4":"post-529","6":"format-standard","7":"category-life-lessons","8":"post_tag-charity","9":"post_tag-church","10":"post_tag-compassion","11":"post_tag-jesus","12":"post_tag-joy","13":"post_tag-life-lessons","14":"post_tag-love","15":"post_tag-luke","16":"post_tag-people","17":"post_tag-receiving"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Receive Them Joyfully &#8211; Heart of Grace Ministries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Receive Them Joyfully &#8211; Heart of Grace Ministries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Luke 19:2-7 [2] And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. [3] And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. [4] And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore ... [Read more...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Heart of Grace Ministries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theheartofgraceministries\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theheartofgraceministries\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-14T20:11:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-02-15T14:40:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/cropped-HeartofGrace_ColorLogoEmail-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"523\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"186\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jared Meredith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@heartofgracetn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@heartofgracetn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jared Meredith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/life-lessons\\\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/life-lessons\\\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jared Meredith\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/45dffb1a0a08c1d093df73fb6e7c7617\"},\"headline\":\"Receive Them Joyfully\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-14T20:11:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-02-15T14:40:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/life-lessons\\\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":626,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Charity\",\"Church\",\"Compassion\",\"Jesus\",\"Joy\",\"Life Lessons\",\"Love\",\"Luke\",\"People\",\"Receiving\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Life Lessons\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/life-lessons\\\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/life-lessons\\\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/life-lessons\\\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\\\/\",\"name\":\"Receive Them Joyfully &#8211; Heart of Grace Ministries\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-14T20:11:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-02-15T14:40:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/life-lessons\\\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/life-lessons\\\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/life-lessons\\\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Receive Them Joyfully\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Heart of Grace Ministries\",\"description\":\"Faith, Family and Love\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Heart of Grace Ministries\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/HeartofGrace_ColorLogo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/05\\\/HeartofGrace_ColorLogo.png\",\"width\":523,\"height\":186,\"caption\":\"Heart of Grace Ministries\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/theheartofgraceministries\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/heartofgracetn\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UC3TgcuiTqUVFrxBF6NZmu7A\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/45dffb1a0a08c1d093df73fb6e7c7617\",\"name\":\"Jared Meredith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e0a5f59641cad05360d6cdda2bd4e0a7a46f8dcdb47f6707e30ff2f5af8afb62?s=96&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e0a5f59641cad05360d6cdda2bd4e0a7a46f8dcdb47f6707e30ff2f5af8afb62?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e0a5f59641cad05360d6cdda2bd4e0a7a46f8dcdb47f6707e30ff2f5af8afb62?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jared Meredith\"},\"description\":\"Singer and Musician, Audio\\\/Content\\\/Devotional\\\/Video Editor, Web Site Administrator, Heart of Grace Ministries.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/theheartofgraceministries\\\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Receive Them Joyfully &#8211; Heart of Grace Ministries","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Receive Them Joyfully &#8211; Heart of Grace Ministries","og_description":"Luke 19:2-7 [2] And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. [3] And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. [4] And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore ... [Read more...]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/","og_site_name":"Heart of Grace Ministries","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theheartofgraceministries\/","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theheartofgraceministries\/","article_published_time":"2010-10-14T20:11:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-02-15T14:40:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":523,"height":186,"url":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/cropped-HeartofGrace_ColorLogoEmail-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Jared Meredith","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@heartofgracetn","twitter_site":"@heartofgracetn","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jared Meredith","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/"},"author":{"name":"Jared Meredith","@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/45dffb1a0a08c1d093df73fb6e7c7617"},"headline":"Receive Them Joyfully","datePublished":"2010-10-14T20:11:32+00:00","dateModified":"2012-02-15T14:40:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/"},"wordCount":626,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Charity","Church","Compassion","Jesus","Joy","Life Lessons","Love","Luke","People","Receiving"],"articleSection":["Life Lessons"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/","url":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/","name":"Receive Them Joyfully &#8211; Heart of Grace Ministries","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-10-14T20:11:32+00:00","dateModified":"2012-02-15T14:40:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/life-lessons\/small-thought-receive-them-joyfully\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Receive Them Joyfully"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/","name":"Heart of Grace Ministries","description":"Faith, Family and Love","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Heart of Grace Ministries","url":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/HeartofGrace_ColorLogo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/HeartofGrace_ColorLogo.png","width":523,"height":186,"caption":"Heart of Grace Ministries"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theheartofgraceministries\/","https:\/\/x.com\/heartofgracetn","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC3TgcuiTqUVFrxBF6NZmu7A"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/45dffb1a0a08c1d093df73fb6e7c7617","name":"Jared Meredith","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0a5f59641cad05360d6cdda2bd4e0a7a46f8dcdb47f6707e30ff2f5af8afb62?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0a5f59641cad05360d6cdda2bd4e0a7a46f8dcdb47f6707e30ff2f5af8afb62?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0a5f59641cad05360d6cdda2bd4e0a7a46f8dcdb47f6707e30ff2f5af8afb62?s=96&r=g","caption":"Jared Meredith"},"description":"Singer and Musician, Audio\/Content\/Devotional\/Video Editor, Web Site Administrator, Heart of Grace Ministries.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theheartofgraceministries\/"]}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2235,"href":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions\/2235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}