Matthew 7: 3 - 5 NKJV
I came across a post from Wayne Jacobsen this morning titled simply "What is it to you?" From what I got out of his peice, Wayne was focusing on how we can lose our focus on just what God may be trying to accomplish in us as WE ourselves focus on what others are doing. I get it. Now, I will admit that Dennis has been critical of the ratio of my writings that focus on the imperfect nature of the modern church. Again, I get it. For if our attention is indeed focused on others, we may just miss where our heavenly Father is leading us. Any police officer will tell you that distracted driving is extremely dangerous, but what about distracted christianity? What happens when we ourselves are so lazer focused on the behaviors of others that we lose sight of what is happening in our own lives...distracted christianity. Jesus Himself warned against this on His sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7. As He tells us, "Why do you look at the speck in your brothers eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?" Again, I get it. Why is it that I focus on the behavior of others all the while perhaps ignoring where God is leading my heart? Trust me, we all have our own planks in our eyes which just might prevent us from seeing where God is truly leading. Now, don't get me wrong, it is not above the creator of all that we see to use others to show us a little bit about ourselves. Trouble is, all too often we're blinded by those planks in our own eyes. We become distracted, which isn't always a good thing.
1Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. 2For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 3Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. 4Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
Romans 14: 1 - 4 NKJV
One thing that I took from Waynes post was the fact that when we concern ourselves with what others may or may not be doing, we just may be seeking to control what it is they believe and how they believe it. We want everyone to be as we are, to worship and know God as we do. Sorry, but God doesn't work that way. It is God who took a Jewish Pharisee (Saul) and led him to be one of the greatest defenders of the gospel in history. It is our heavenly Father who even today is seeking to lead us to where He wants us to be. The million dollar question is, how can He show us where He wants us to be when we are not focused on Him but on the behavior of others? Distracted christianity. As that reformed Pharisee tells us, "God is able to make them stand." So it is that we should be able to see clearly where God is leading us and not how He may be using those around us. That, my friends, is between God and our brothers. Once we become less concerned with where God is leading others, we can see clearly enough to see where we're headed. That doesn't mean that we will not show concern over where others are headed in their lives, but that we trust God enough in our own hearts to reveal Himself in them in His own time. For it was in His timing that He revealed Himself in the apostle Paul, so it also is with us.
15But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, 16to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
Galations 1: 15 - 17 NKJV
~Scott~
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