Our pointing finger

Have you noticed how much we like it when people think like us, act like us and agree with us?  We enjoy being in our comfort zone, a safe place where we are accepted and where it is easy to be a believer. 

Sometimes we try so hard to be good and do all we can to show God our love, that we forget the people around us; we ignore those who disagree with us and quickly label them and put them aside. We forget what God commanded us: “love each other.  Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”  (John 13:34) We are so busy trying to make everyone think like us that we don’t realize that “your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”  (John 13:35)  There has to be less of us, less of our great ideas and long sermons trying to convince people that God is real and there has to be more love… more of Him.

In the Bible we often see how Jesus shared a lot of time with people who didn’t think or acted like Him.  He lived according to His beliefs and didn’t feel He needed to defend His principles; instead He let His actions speak.  His life was His testimony.  How nice would it be if we could go past our desire to constantly defend our opinion to the point of doing the complete opposite of what we stand for, just to prove we are right.  How nice would it be if we could learn to love like Jesus loves.

God clearly tells us not to judge others because it brings heavy consequences “stop judging others, and you will not be judged” (Matthew 7:1) but it is so tempting to judge those who do not agree with our views; the song “Jesus friend of sinners” by Casting Crowns beautifully describes this problem: “Jesus friend of sinners we have strayed so far away, we cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing… open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing finger, let our hearts be led by mercy, help us reach with open hearts and open doors.” 

“Accept Christians who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong…God has accepted them. Who are you to condemn God’s servants? They are responsible to the Lord, so let him tell them whether they are right or wrong.”(Rom. 14:1;3-4) 

I love this verse! I like it when God puts me in my place and reminds me to be humble; I feel He is saying… “my dear child… who are you to think this or say that, focus on Me” It brings me back to my job description which is to be a servant of God, a believer and to glorify Him.   

So frequently we want to know where someone “stands” in certain issues before we decide how are we going to treat them, like Michael Kimpan said “too often we demand conformity prior to connection.”  As Christians our whole life needs to be submerged in love.  We need to surrender to God so He can shine through us, so He can be the one doing all the loving because alone, no matter how hard we try, we just can’t.

It should not be so hard to get this right… no, I am not being sarcastic, I really mean it. We should always remember how often God has forgiven us and how He loves us now where we are and He loved us then and He will always love us no matter what.   When we remember the grace we receive daily we hear God telling us “Give as freely as you have received!” (Matthew 10:8)  We should know that God loves everyone the same, that includes well… EVERYONE!

“No body knows what we’re for only what we are against when we judge the wounded.”  (Jesus Friend of Sinners) We are God’s witnesses; I pray that our daily actions show all the people around us who He really is.