Stop being Part of the Mob

I'm beginning to come to a place in my life that all the religeous doctrines I have had -- that has put God within the limitations of my narrow-minded religeous doctrines -- is falling away. I feel like I'm loosing control, only to find that when I do, He is indeed real.

That's because He's not a manufactured doctrine. He's a living being.

I find myself refraining from telling people how they should live their lives. Instead I find myself telling them how loving and gracious God has been to me and how much He still loves them in spite of their struggles.

My religeous mind gets horrified that I am not 'dealing with sin in people's lives' by telling them 'the right thing to do'.

I find myself telling people that God still loves them even when they are struggling in sin. That's because that's what He has been telling me.

But I am in awe when I see the love of God move so deeply in people's lives when they meet Jesus through my life. This love changes lives from the inside out. I know, because it has changed mine.

What hypocrites we are, when we thumb our noses at others -- when we can't even change our own lives by ourselves. If we're really honest about it -- it's always His love and grace in our life that has changed us permanently. Always.

My friend Kevin shared with me over dinner yesterday how he had reached out to a former colleague who had left New Creation because she was struggling with a lesbian relationship and a broken relationship with her dad. Kevin shared with her that God still loved her and accepted her. Through the course of a few weeks, God's love touched her to the point that she came back to church together with her dad and her whole family. When Kevin told a Christian relative the good news that 'another soul was coming back to the Lord', he was met with the terse reply that 'I feel sorry for you and the girl because she is living in sin'.

Kevin's relative joined the mob that gathered to stone the woman caught in adultery.

Did you notice that in the gospels only those who were aware of their failures were drawn to Jesus? But the Pharisees stood in judgement of these very ones Jesus reached out to.

Did Jesus tell the woman at the well that she was a terrible person? He simply told her that she had been involved in multiple relationships, but that His love would satisfy her. Jesus was the answer. And he didn't judge her.

Did Jesus tell the woman caught in adultery 'I feel sorry for you that you're in sin *tsk *tsk*'?

He did tell her to sin no more, but only after he said,'Woman, where are your accusers? Neither do I condemn you.'

I'm begining to realize that our part is to point people to His unconditional love. Then God takes care of the rest.

But first let's take a good look at ourselves and how merciful God has been to us.

We're not there to judge them. I've discovered that that kind of attitude just dosen't do anything for people's lives. You know what? Most of the time peole already know the right thing to do, and find that they can't do it, and they are just so condemned in their hearts.

What they need is to abandon themselves to the person of Jesus just as they are and let the Shepherd of their souls heal and restore them back to spiritual health!

If Kevin had taken that attitude his relative had, I dare say that Kevin's colleague would have just gone all the way into living recklessly and she would not have come back to church or to the Lord.

I seem to recall Jesus telling someone (see Luke 7:36-48) that -- I'm paraphrasing -- him who is forgiven much loves much, and that him who who is forgiven little loves litte.

But the point behind this saying is that we are all forgiven much aren't we? It's only those with a faulty estimation that think they are forgiven little.