I was singing worship today and I felt God give me a word as we sang out the following lyrics from a Gateway Worship song:
“Wonderful
You are wonderful
Yours my heart
You’re my life
Jesus Christ”
He said to me, “I know”, and there was a short pause, “even in your sinning, even in your struggles, I know you’re trying, I know your heart is mine and mine is yours”.
He went on to show me how I used to judge Christians and their actions, their failures to live up to my expectation of what a Christian should do, say and even look like. His response to that?
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye but do not notice or consider the beam [of timber] that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Brother, allow me to take out the speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the beam that is in your own eye? You actor (pretender, hypocrite)! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye”.
Now, I have seen this scripture being used in church on how we should treat fellow believers, I’ve read it probably hundreds of times outside of that, but this was the first time in the ten years of being a Christian that He showed me this verse from the view point of when I was lost.
It’s not just about how we judge each other as believers, those who are found. He showed me this as a response, a rebuttal, to the lost and the refusal of Christ based on the actions and attitudes of others. If you are lost and like me when I was, used this judgment of others as a form of shield or crutch from seeing, experiencing and becoming found by Jesus, take the log out of your own eye first.
Who is to say the person you are judging is not singing those precious lyrics mentioned above, but is newly found or it’s just struggling in their everyday life. Who is to say that Jesus doesn’t just want your heart so that you can help them through those struggles. Who is to say that Jesus isn’t using that because if they weren’t struggling you wouldn’t have noticed them and that is exactly what you needed to be touched and called to Jesus.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The answer to “Who is to say?” is Jesus, he loves you even in your sin, even in your struggles and screw ups, He has no log in His eye which makes Him the only judge that can truly see a person’s heart and He wants to to set you free. Set you free of that judgment of others, something my old lost self or “flesh” still thinks it can judge better than the Creator of the world. Not so. I have set that thought process at Jesus’s feet to let Him take that lie and set me free.
This is for everyone, but especially for those who are already in a relationship with Christ, possibly for a long time, remember He has no log, not even a speck in His eye. He sees everything clearly and misses nothing. Even knowing what He knows about you
He’s in love with you, He loves you unconditionally. Let these words come from you’re heart:
“Wonderful
You are wonderful
Yours my heart
You’re my life
Jesus Christ”
What is the Holy Spirit saying to you I would love to hear from you.
Steve
P.S. Thank you Gateway Worship for putting such great music together that expresses the love of and for Christ so well.
And one more scripture God just showed me for today:
Who is a God like You, Who forgives iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retains not His anger forever, because He delights in mercy and loving-kindness. He will again have compassion on us; He will subdue and tread underfoot our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
