pastorrudytlc

How many so called “religious” people would have given up on the Lord’s friend Moses after he angrily killed a man to attempt to cover up his mistake of taking the matters of an infinite God into his own finite hands? How many “church going” individuals would have written King David off as a “man after God’s own heart” after he committed willful adultery with Bathsheba and then proceeded to concoct a plan that would lead to the murder of Uriah? How many “holier than thou” comrades would have never even given the Apostle Paul a chance to prove that Jesus had knocked him off his high horse and literally changed his heart and altered his whole life’s purpose and direction on a road to Damascus? I would dare to venture an educated guess that the majority of today’s local congregations would have shunned and voted all of the above incumbents of Heaven’s Hall of Faith as destined failures and outcasts of divine blessings!

If you have never received anything else out of my articles over the years- please grab this! No human being who presently inhabits this planet has any authority or enough knowledge to make a pronounced spiritual judgment or holy indictment of another man or woman’s heart! Only God can judge the heart! And when people start treading in territory that should be limited to the Almighty- nothing positive will be reaped from such a narrow minded garden!

Now please listen when I say that all of us as men and women have the responsibility to confront one another when we exhibit behavior that contradicts what we say we believe! I long for people to exhort and rebuke me when I get out of line! I love others too much to remain quiet when a word of instruction and correction must be shared. But I have no right to label another as a “Christian” or “Non-Christian” based alone on a limited summary. I have no idea what God may be doing deeply beneath the surface of another and neither do you! And when it is all said and done- the only opinion that matters at the end of this race is the one offered by the God who made us! I have a strange inclination that there will be many surprises on the final day! There will be many people dancing at God’s Celebration Banquet that nobody thought was even invited to the party never mind got welcomed in! There will also be many of the goody two shoes that thought by their careful observance to their overt outer legalistic ways alone that they had earned a place at the reception! How many will be shocked to discover that Jesus didn’t even know their name?

I think that you are getting the gist of what I am trying to share by now! Stop labeling the hearts of others! Stop talking and acting like God signed you up as if there was suddenly an opening in the Trinity! A huge pet peeve of mine is when another busybody who masks themselves as a so called brother or sister- assumes to know exactly how you are really feeling and then proceeds to tell you with obnoxious inaccuracy why you are feeling that way! They truly have no clue and their best bet is to just stay quiet! Here’s one to grow on: Instead of trying to fix the other person- why not just learn to love them as they are? The two greatest commandments are to love God and to love one another! Nowhere in Scripture does the Lord appoint others to be his Secret Service when it comes to designating who is in and who is out based only upon the knowledge of earthly things!

Don’t confuse knowing the history about another as knowing his or her real story! Truth always lies below the surface and must be mined as gold! Until you have connected soul to soul and heart to heart- you really don’t know another person! Are you willing to wait enough to wade enough in the deeper waters where the treasure is buried? Before you eliminate the next disciple named Matthew or the beloved Mary Magdalene because of their outer professions- maybe you need to invest the necessary blood, sweat and tears that it takes to know what their inner soul cries out as their true possession! Stop with the gossip! Cease with the labeling! Invest in the relationship! Choose to attempt to plant love where only misunderstanding and just plain ignorance now abide!

It is not the version of the Bible you read. It is not the way you choose to dress. It is not the town you live in or the ethnicity of the family you were born in. It is not the denomination of the local body that you choose to gather with. It is not whether you sing with the tongues of angels or speak intelligently with an immense graphic knowledge of both the Old and New Testaments. It is not if you give all your money to the poor or even end up being martyred for your beliefs. God could have not made it any clearer or get any nearer to the nitty gritty of it all! Without LOVE you are nothing and you have nothing and you know nothing! It all comes down to the love of God! And God saw in Moses and David and Paul and you and me what nobody could or would observe from the outside alone!

So “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24
I am so grateful that I am not what I see my Lord- but what you see and what you say! So turn my ears towards your voice sweet Jesus and give me the faith to fix my eyes steadfastly upon you. Give my heart the courage and confidence to ignore the noise of what others may shout from the crowd so that I can receive what you choose to graciously shower down upon me as my redeeming Coach! And keep me from making conclusions about those around me when I should be responding to the conviction that you put in me to passionately come alongside of them and love them in the same manner and way that you do! We are not what we seem! We are so much more!