Sunday, January 14, 2018

I COULDN'T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE LOGS IN MY OWN EYES

We must be ever on guard against the insistent trait of normalcy that we criticize others with little attention to our own falsehood.  This sensitivity warning was declared by Jesus and admitted by Paul.  We are never better than the next person...every...next...person.

That disposition is not what I held in the beginning days of my ministry.  I was deeply trained in how right my religiosity was.  To find elevation was simple.  All I had to do was note the erring ways of others; especially other groups of Christian name who didn't do (I thought) church right.  But then...Jesus entered my terrain and ruined my delight of living by comparison.

As I watched the Son of God move about each day, he encountered two distinguishable sorts; (1) the broken who needed His strengthening words and touch, and (2) devoted religious leaders who couldn't see the needs of the hurting community because being right (the most scripturally right) was their incessant talk.

I was more of the latter.  And, I was wrong.  I couldn't see the forest for the logs in my own eyes.

The only example I am to anyone is that God can extract the trash of man from Hell's incinerator and transform him into a useful messenger.  Never is the tone to be about how much I've gotten figured out; but, rather is to be about how off-base my conclusions are from what God has desired.  Thus, I have a deep ministry for one main reason.  I understand any who believe that they aren't enough.

Not enough-ism is the story of every person I know.  So...our natural tendency is to strive to overcome via personal elevation of some degree.  The problem with self-improvement is that, every time such markers are placed against the Son of God, we only seem to gain demomentum.  God looms larger and, thus, we shrink into diminishable fractions of who we had hoped to be by now.

ANNOUNCEMENT: This is precisely where God would lead us so that we can develop a daily dependence upon Him.  We must not ever believe we have conquered any turbulence on our own...lest we elevate ourselves as having been the self-source of recovery.  If it is to be...it is up to Him.

No comments: