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Ok, so I'm the 'Christian who thinks we blew it'. What have we blown? We've blown it when it comes to following our Leader and His lifestyle.
I preached yesterday from Luke 7:36-50 about the story of Simon and Mary and the subsequent parable that Jesus taught. The entire crux of the message was that Simon was a typical church person who thought his life was all together while Mary's life obviously wasn't. Mary was a prostitute. The irony was this, without Jesus healing Simon's leprosy he would have suffered a painful, debilitating, humiliating, seperated, agonizing death. However, once Simon's leprosy was healed he somehow felt justified in judging Mary because she was a low-life, scum-of-the-earth prostitute who obviously had major issues.
Simon reflects too many Christians. Too many of us, myself included way too often, think our life is all put together (which its not, if we'd be honest) and that somehow that qualifies us to sit as judge on our fellow man. It don't, people! Paul asks in Romans 14:10, 12, 'Why do you judge your brother? We will all stand before the judgment seat of God. So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.' If each of us will answer for ourselves, why do I think it's necessary to pre-judge another? My judgment will not affect what conclusion God comes to, will it? Absolutely not, but somehow we think we can do God a favor by pre-determining whether a person is genuine, or sincere, or legitimate, or 'save-able'; and that's where we blew it!! God doesn't need us to be His deputies. He doesn't need a deputy, He's got it covered on His own.
We (Christians, church people) blew it and it's time to repent!!
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5 comments:
Excellent message, bro! When I consider how much I have been given and forgiven, how can I possibly sneer at another? Praise God that he not is merely just, but also merciful!
And praise to Abba for your son's public confession! :-)
*sigh*
May I just say how nice it is to have my feelings on what seems to be the vast majority of Christiandom reflected back from another?!
Thank-you.
spot on!!! We did blow it...let's go and live as He lived...in humility...regarding others as ourselves :)
Uhm...aren't we judging when we point fingers at Christians and call them too judgmental?
I'd rather point my finger at them and say, "Grace has you covered, man."
Very nice. I do, as you do, include myself and pray for the Lord to do whatever He has to to deal with us on these issues.
I think, very often, that the root of all of this behavior is that no one is truly walking in the Light. (1 John 1:7) Everyone's hiding their sin, with no genuine, honest, stripped bare fellowship. The result is that none of us trust each other enough to bring our issues to the table.
My prayer is constantly that the Lord would raise up pastors who are genuine and honest...really honest. Pastors who will model the Word of God at any cost.
Of course, the key is to let the Lord start with us. If the conviction comes to us, we're obligated to respond. If we don't, then we're accountable.
Thank you, Brother. Blessings - Doug
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