God's perspective

This is for all of my "performance-based" Christian friends. You know who you are but please read all the way to the end. I'm not trying to rub you the wrong way, but you tend to be a judgmental lot, sometimes looking down on others because the outward evidence of their relationship with Christ does not look like yours. They struggle with successful application of the Bible in their life and therefore must not be as spiritual as you. You have a checklist or cookie cutter of what a Christian should be and there is sometimes a condescending view of those outside the cookie cutter or with an incomplete checklist of dos and don'ts. Most of you are saying already, "That's not me" and you are probably telling the truth, but then you may still be judgmental, just not toward others. You might be judgmental toward yourself. You realize that there are characteristics, behaviors, or fruits that are associated with a personal relationship with Jesus and because you don't fulfill them all in the course of your day, you condemn yourself to guilt and uselessness in the kingdom of God because you believe yourself to be unworthy, unforgivable, and maybe even unlovable. Judgmental, just the same. Now I know that many or most of you know that a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, according to Ephesians 2:8,9, is by grace, through faith, and not of works, but I run across a lot of folks that intentional or not, make works a necessary ingredient to either receiving salvation and/or "keeping" salvation, maybe better understood if stated this way, getting saved and staying saved. Moreover, Christian performance is frequently utilized as a grading scale for spirituality. For example, wouldn't you say that it is a common assumption that the people that never miss a church service must be closer to God? Or people that are dressed especially nice for every service? Or the most generous givers in the church? Certainly we know that is not always the case, yet many times we are intimidated by those that live with more stringent convictions, seem to have it all together, and surely never trip up. Then there is the other side of the coin. Once we see an epic failure in the life of a brother or sister in Christ it does not seem to be too far a leap to think that they are surely fallen from grace, if they were ever saved before. And again, for my self-deprecating readers, we see our own epic failure as a disqualifier and count ourselves finished, if we ever got started. If you haven't noticed yet, I tend to be that one that disappoints myself.

Well, this morning I was reading in the book of I Kings and ran across this passage in 11:38, "...keep my statutes and commandments, as David my servant did." What!? Not the same David that peeped while Bathsheba was bathing? The same David that was wrecking a home when the man of the house wasn't home? The very same conniving David who brought Uriah home from the battle to try and cover his own underhanded deeds? And the same David that turned his back on one of his own highly skilled, trusted and proven, mighty men of valor (II Samuel 23:39), and set him up to be slain in battle defending the one who wanted him dead? That's what I said. But what did God say? In I Kings 9:4, He said, "And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart..." There's the rub. There is what elevated David to such an exemplary place in the Bible. It wasn't that he walked, but how he walked. I checked a Bible software program and saw that God (capital G) is in our KJV Bible 4,106 times. Israel is there 2,576. Other than the creator of the universe and the country that the vast majority of the Bible takes place in, David's is the name that is mentioned most at 1,139 times. "Father" Abraham is only mentioned 250 times and Moses 848. What did God really think of David and why? God loved David because of his heart for God. Did David fail? Sure. But from God's Perspective, David was "a man after His own heart", I Samuel 13:14.  Remember, man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.

How about you? Do failures in the life of others cause you to judge them harshly? Do failures in your life cause you to judge yourself harshly? One of my favorite passages of scripture is Proverbs 24:16, "For a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again..." Christian, that's for us when we fall. Just get back up again. And if you are one that has a hard time seeing past someone else's failure, can I encourage you with Galatians 6:1? "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." We would all be far better off if these two verses were regularly lived out. I know I would. That's just my Perspective.