You can never be a Christian long enough...(part 3)

...to stop realizing you don't know everything. Praise Jesus :)

I must essentially renounce possessions of all kinds, not for salvation (for only one thing saves a person and that is absolute reliance in faith upon Jesus Christ), but to follow Jesus. ". . . come. . . and follow Me." And the road is the way He went.

That paragraph came from this morning's Oswald Chambers devotional. If there's anything being married can teach, it is that my perspective is not the only perspective to be had on everything. It's amazing how critical and unappreciative we can become of the person we have vowed to love, honor and cherish for the rest of our lives. When this criticism and unappreciative nature is confronted by the Holy Spirit (through whatever means He chooses), my natural reaction tends to be..."Yeah, but..." Insert redirectional clause here. Now this applies to everyone in every fascet of life. For example, I can be pretty judgemental of people, groups, and events that I hear about on the news. But Jesus comes right back with the Spirit saying, "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." (Matthew 7:5)

Jesus wants me to follow Him and Jesus did not set an example for us to follow so that we could be judgemental, overbearing and insensitive people. I'm not saying that sin isn't wrong. I'm also not saying that there isn't a place for godly-correction. But as the Scripture says, we must be right with God before we can begin to confront another. Also, if we are right with God then we will confront the other person IN LOVE, not in judgement. It also means that we don't have to confront people on every little thing. For example, taking up someone's offense when they haven't been offended. Sometimes people I know may do or say things that, in my mind (for whatever that's worth), may offend others. In the flesh, I may pull the 'offender' aside and say,"You offended that person...go and apologize." That may be true and it also may not be true. The point is that I should pray long and hard before trying to be the Holy Spirit in someone else's life. The Lord may give us a word for them, or He may be trying to teach US something. The point is we should be quick to listen and slow to speak. In some ways behaving this way strikes me as a lack of trust in God to speak to His children, as if I could say it any better.

I love how Oswald Chambers talks about surrendering every possession or aspect of our lives. We don't need to do this for salvation, but we DO need to do this in order to follow Jesus. I guess one of the possessions I'm needing to surrender is my overbearing, correctional attitude. God is God and I am not. I am crucified with Christ, therefore I know longer live. (Galations 2:20) Therefore, the least frustrating existence to strive for would be one in which I pursue Him while carrying nothing else. God Himself will provide whatever is needed (Genesis 22:8 sort of and 1 Peter 4:11), both in our own lives and in the lives of His children around us.