Archive for February 8th, 2008

Have you ever been confronted with a situation where your failures resulted in an obvious question. What do you say when the question is so direct that you know the person already knows the answer?  What do you say when you know the answer will break that persons heart?

Luke 6:46 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?

Malachi 1:6
A son honors his father, and a servant his master Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the LORD of hosts to you…

These are 2 of the hardest questions that I have read lately.   All that I can picture in my head is Jesus looking me in the eye and asking me these questions.  And He already knows the disappointing answers that I must give.  This has been a great perspective changer for me,  this is no longer about playing “Church” or doing what is right in the eyes of your friends, fellow brothers/sisters in Christ, family or anybody else.  This is about doing what at the end of the day makes Jesus smile.  Those of you that know me well know I love analogies and pictures/videos because it creates a sense of understanding that sometimes you might not get from reading something in text.  So the actual visualization of Jesus asking me these questions especially at the moments that I have felt Him instruct me to speak to someone, or to tell me the decision that I should make about a situation, or simply “GO and DO”, has begun to change my evaluation process of my actions.  I want to get to a place in my life where I know that my actions and decisions make Jesus smile.
Now the flip side of this is that I know I am going to fail sometimes.  We all are going to fail at different times and in different ways, we are human.  But what I feel is the most important is that our heart is in the proper place and proper perspective.  There are many examples in the Bible where during Jesus’ time on this earth He reminds people it is about your heart and its condition.  If the heart is in the right place the action will follow as maturity is gained.  For example:

Mark 7:18-19
18 And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, 19 because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?”… 20 And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. 21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. 23 “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

Here Jesus is using the example of food to teach the disciples that the food that you put into your body does not defile your heart because it goes into your stomach and then is eliminated.  He then goes on to say that it is what comes from your heart that determines where you are spiritually.  So in this example we learn that we must do the things that will keep us protected and keep our hearts guarded from becoming defiled.  We must study God’s word, we must spend time with Him daily, we must try as hard as possible to follow His commands and most importantly we must keep Him in our hearts.  So back to my original question, What do you Say?

Well I guess my answer for now is “Lord forgive me!”  I can only be thankful for the grace that my Savior bestowed upon us by His death on the cross.