I used to think that people who were "good" were right! So people who were "bad" were wrong! And then I grew up and here is what happened. Dancing, movies, short skirts, rock music, black eye shadow, tattoos, all these things weren't "bad" anymore! And spanking your children so they will learn that life has consequences, riding your bicycle to the gas station by yourself to get 2 cent bubble gum at the age of 7, playing outside with NO sunscreen, and drinking whole milk, well all of these things weren't "good" anymore! I began thinking about the rules I'd been given, that I KNEW I'd give my children! And then I thought about how different those were from the ones my parents had been given. I started thinking about all my reasons for why I had been so "good" and others had been so "bad". And yes, I LOVED Jesus and still have no regrets for the things I chose to stay away from but in raising my own kids, there are questions everyday that I have to pray God will show me the answers for. I struggle with why and if things are wrong and how long it has been wrong and does that mean in a few more years it won't be wrong anymore. I remember a day when I would see a black man with a white woman and think "I hope I'm not standing by them when the rapture takes place". Good grief!!! So sad but so true and I believed those things were wrong!! But today, I don't and neither do the people that made me believe that. And that's just it, if dancing and wearing shorts used to separate you from God, and a clean record of holiness brought you closer to him then why in the world is there all this talk about God seeing the heart?
A man who is giving his life everyday to make sure that every heart has a chance, in a place where he could be killed for doing that was asked, "how can you say that those who have never even heard the name of Jesus will go to Hell when they die?" That's something I have said many times! And what he said in response was so amazing! Sometimes it's not the answers we need to all of the carnal minded questions we have but the simple reminder of why we are here! I can't tell my daughter she will go to Hell if her shorts are too short or because she wants a tattoo. Her bottom is covered much more than it would be in a swimming suit! And she draws on herself everyday at school and no one thinks anything about it! What would it do to the most sensitive amazing beautiful determined heart that is inside of her if I changed her focus at this stage in her life? The wise man basically said, I am not the judge, only God can judge the heart, but I simply use the illustration that most likely these men have denied their creator and in that chosen to be eternally separated from God. Us not knowing who has, who hasn't, and who simply has no idea should not leave us sitting here critical of where they deserve to spend eternity but should compel us to do everything in our power to see to it that they have a chance!! To me that means this...if my daughter was about to fall off the side of a mountain and I knew there was a chance she would be able to catch a limb on the way down and be ok, I would not take a chance of that happening just to save my own life.
Another man said if you believe in this gospel message but you aren't willing to give your life to see it reach the lost then I question the fact that you even actually believe it. I hear these men who speak of preachers that have been placed in boxes not big enough to even lay down in for 9 years, who have lost their limbs, their children, their lives, and it sickens me that as American Christians we have spent so much effort trying to keep the "good" people good and trying to change the "bad" people to be like us! If I went to a foreign country and saw a man with 15 piercings, 20 tattoos, and only wearing a rag around one part of his body, do you think I would start my mission by saying, "I'm sorry to have to tell you this sir...you look like a freak, but God really loves you and you should be like me so you can go to Heaven some day!"? I would never say that, but in our culture this is what we do in a sense. We all have our views, our convictions, our pasts, our Grandparents who believe what they believe for whatever reason (and definitely have the right to teach us what they believe), but here I am, almost 33 years old, and I'm still amazed at how the Holy Spirit can take all that I think I am and have been and turn it into a pile of ashes in the very second that I think it may count for something. Yes I was the "good" girl. Yes I made the "right" choices. But "I" am nothing and my life means nothing outside of the grace of God as well as all the other "good" people and all the other "bad" people! I am not worthy of Heaven, I don't deserve to be loved by Jesus, but He loves me anyway. God, help us all to remember that for our "heart" the standard will never change. We must love you with every part and show others that none of us can prove our righteousness! Remind us that there is one way to you and that is through the blood of Jesus Christ. Give us the strength to live our lives willing to die so that the heart of another man, even ONE, would decide to love you. And cover up our stupidity that this hurting world receives as hypocrisy. God help me live in such a way that those who know me but don't know you will come to know you because they know me. -Unknown
