Have you ever seen someone that you just had to meet? Someone that drew you to them in someway or another. A person that you saw as being different in some way. Having something about them that was just so different from everyone else. Have you ever laid eyes on someone that you just knew you had to meet them and get to know them? Some say that they met in spirit. Truth is, there is more to this than just meeting in spirit. There is a reason for this taking place.
       This was the way many saw JESUS. When they saw HIM, they wanted to meet HIM. They wanted to get to know HIM. They were drawn to HIM. There was something about HIM that was so different from everyone else. Something that many could not understand or grasp the concept of. Something that caused people to follow HIM everywhere HE went. Something about HIM. There was just something about the man JESUS.
       What was it about JESUS that grabbed peoples attention? This is a very good question. To which there is a very good answer. I find many will have different answers to this question. I believe we are so close to the answer that we miss that very important thing that draws us to the person of JESUS. This one thing draws us to JESUS today just as it did when HE walked the earth in the flesh. This one thing when focused on and applied to our everyday life will change us from the inside out. This one thing is something that we all have in us. This on thing is often over looked by many.
        Let's open our Bibles to the book of Psalm and let's turn to chapter 111 and let's look at verse 4. Together let's all read this verse. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. Here we see that one thing. That one thing was COMPASSION. The Lord was full of compassion. Let's take a look at this word compassion a little more in depth. Compassion is often regarded as emotional in nature, and there is an aspect of compassion which regards a quantitative dimension, such that individual's compassion is often given a property of "depth," "vigour," or "passion. Compassion is the understanding or empathy for the suffering of others. Compassion is considered in almost all the major religious traditions as among the greatest of virtues.
       JESUS was full of compassion for all of us and this is the one thing that was different about HIM that drew and draws us to HIM til this day. HE was so full of compassion that it overflowed to HIS appearance. HE looked just as the other men in that time but this one thing was so strong within HIM that when people saw HIM they did not see the man JESUS but instead they recognized that something was different about HIM. HE was so different from the rest that people just had to go and meet this man and get to know HIM. Matthew spent time with JESUS and began to recognize this compassion within JESUS. Matthew describes JESUS as being moved with compassion.
      Compassion is not something we can see with our fleshly eyes but is something that we can recognize and identify with. I have seen people that I just had to meet and get to know and once I did, I found that they had compassion. Just as when people talked with JESUS and got to know HIM, they found that HE was full of compassion. Let's take a look back in our lives at the people we have seen that we thought to be different and just had to meet them and get to know them. We can honestly say that as we look back and remember that person, we find that they to had compassion. Compassion draws compassionate people to one another.
       I find that as we begin to get to know the compassion that JESUS has for us we also become filled with that same compassion for others. A compassion for others like no other. Did you hear what just I said? I will say it again. A compassion for others like no other. As we begin to understand the suffering that JESUS saw us going through, we will begin to understand the suffering that others are going through. This will cause the compassion within us to grow so strong that we will also have a vigour or passion to want to reach others and tell them of this compassion that JESUS has for them. As our bodies begin to overflow with compassion for others our appearance will also change and people will begin to see something different about us and will want to meet us and get to know us.
      We all need to understand the compassion that JESUS has for us. A compassion so strong that HE took our pain and suffering upon HIMSELF and hung it on the cross so that we would not have to suffer in pain any longer. A compassion so strong that HE allowed us to cause HIM pain and suffering. A compassion so strong that HE allowed us to take HIS life so that we could have eternal life. Seeing JESUS hang on the cross beaten, bruised, wounded, naked, spat on, made fun of, laughed at, cursed at, and stuck with a spear, should give us an understanding that HE knows more about suffering and pain than we could ever imagine. We should come to realization that what we think of as pain and suffering is nothing compared to what HE went through and should cause us to have compassion for HIM.
      We all have some compassion in us but the question is, Are we full of compassion? If we are in CHRIST and CHRIST is in us then we too are full of compassion. It is only when we start put our pain and struggles aside and start to focus on the pain and struggles of others that we become full of compassion. Paul said it best when he said that he must die daily. John the baptist said, " I must decrease so the HE will increase." When we start see the pain and struggles that JESUS went through for us to be able to have a relationship with HIM and the FATHER, compassion begins to move within us and begins to grow. As this compassion grows and becomes stronger we find ourselves starting to have compassion for others. We find ourselves focusing on others rather than us. As the compassion of CHRIST fills our hearts and begins to overflow into our bodies we start to change from the inside out. We begin to have an appearance of that of CHRIST. One of being full of compassion.
       If you are in CHRIST and you have not been focusing on the compassion HE has for us then maybe now is the time to do so. Now is the time to focus on the compassion that we should have for CHRIST. He was and is moved with compassion for us and we to should be moved with compassion for HIM as well. Now is the time to ask HIM to fill us with a compassion for others like no other.
       If you have not thought about compassion and what is like to be compassionate about someone then now is the time to start to focus on studying what compassion is and what it means to become full of compassion. Take this time to look at what JESUS did for you and others. Think about how much compassion HE had to have to give HIS life for your life. How much compassion HE had to have to allow us to do the things we did to HIM. How much compassion HE had to have to allow you and I to murder HIM so that we may have the chance to live a life of happiness. One of no more pain. One of no more struggles. A life of joy and peace. 
      If you find yourself being moved with compassion for JESUS then take this time to tell JESUS how much you desire to want to know him. Tell HIM how much you want to be like HIM. Ask HIM to come into your heart and make you full of compassion. Thank HIM for being so compassionate for you and for giving HIS life for your life. Ask HIM to fill you with a compassion for others like no other. 
     The word of GOD says that once we have received CHRIST we become new creations. That the old is put away and the new has come. That from this point on we are to focus on the things that are right and are of good. Let's start to focus on being full of compassion by growing in CHRIST and seeking that compassion of others that HE has for all of us.

     FATHER, I come before you asking that you bless your word and that we may take it as food for the spirit and that your word will move in us in such a way that we become full of compassion. That we start to put others before ourselves and that we may decrease so that JESUS will increase and draw people to the relationship that you desire to have with them. FATHER, thank you for having compassion on us and loving us so much. FATHER, thank you for JESUS and the life that HE lead to teach us that we can also live a life of being full of compassion. FATHER, I pray that as we become full of compassion for others that our appearance will be seen as that of CHRIST and not of ourselves. Thank you FATHER GOD and in the name of JESUS we pray and give thanks. AMEN!