A loving family.
A strong church in which I grew up learning and growing about God, salvation through Jesus, and all the other things that go along with that.
A Christian education.
A husband and the opportunity to mother two beautiful children.
However, time and experience. God's Word. The Holy Spirit's guidance. A little maturity. A lot of mishaps along the way is bringing me to a new revelation.
I'm as different as the rest of society.
It's not about being able to minister to those who are similar to us. It's about being able to share Jesus with those who are open and ready to be "different" than they are at the current moment.That takes on many forms and riddles and conditions and actions.
For some that's turning from a lifestyle of drugs and alcohol. Others it means turning their back on depression that has haunted them for days, years, months. Some it means letting go of the fake
Christian facade and humbling asking Jesus to tear down their walls of pride. Still others are
desperately in need to simply FEEL again. Feel anything.
Love. Hope. Joy. Even sadness if properly placed.
Jesus came to "heal the sick".
The Pharisees felt they didn't need Him. In fact they KNEW they didn't need Him and went so far as to kill Him in order to shut Him up. He was messing with their way of life. Interfering with their religious business. They had walked with and served God their entire lives. Shouldn't they have the right to question this "crazy" man? He was going against everything that they had held to since the exodus of the Israelites. Before that even.
Yes, they did have the right to question Him! They did have the right to make sure that His life and words where lining up with Scripture. However, they couldn't see the forest for the trees. We see the
end. We know the Pharisees were wrong. They turned what once was a name associated with the holiest of people into a dirty word. "I could never have been a Pharisee! Why couldn't they see that He was the Son of God-God Himself in human form?"
Well, why can't we see that by placating those "certain" people, that often, we place ourselves in the same "set apart" group as they once did. Or worse yet, I believe we all have a little Pharisee blood pumping through our veins. Passed down from years of church attendance or self-righteous living.
Please don't get me wrong....
I in NO way mean to shed a negative light on holiness and Godly living. No way. In no means. Absolutely not. But I do want to consider my own heart attachment to the things that Jesus Himselfdenounced so fervently.
"Do not look down on those around you."
"Love your neighbor as yourself."
We are to be "salt and light" not backbiting and bitter.
It was His last earthly breath that charged us to "go out into all the world" and "preach the Good News!"
