Choosing To Only Know | The Worshipper's Thought of the Day

While conversing with my brother and close friend Lee Johnson on Tuesday, something came to me that was simply phenomenal.  Our conversation was about loving people and seeing them the way GOD does.  During this most interesting discussion, I was reminded of something I heard Dr. Joyce Adams, one of the ministers at the church I attend (Greenwood Acres Full Gospel Baptist Church | Shreveport, LA) say in one of the past messages she delivered.  She said, "The only thing I want to know of anyone is Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2).  I thought I understood then what she meant at the time--and I may have to a degree--but I NOW know that I've received greater illumination on this because it nearly brought me to tears as I articulated what I shared with Lee and am about to share with you.

In the carnal sense, it's so easy for us to look at people and see their faults, shortcomings, vices and weaknesses while we make every excuse in the book for how hard it is to see the good in others.  However, since we're now part of the "ecclesia" (or "the called out ones"), this ought not be so.  The Kingdom of GOD is counterculture to this worldly system.  Because the Holy Spirit has taken residence inside of us, thereby making us perfect, whole and complete in our spirit man, we are capable of doing the exact opposite of the world.  It should now, therefore, be hard for us to see the negative in others and easy to see their potential, areas of gifting, strengths and goodness.  Of course, some saved somebody will say, "I just CAN'T do that;" but Christ Himself said that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). So my question then to any Christian making excuses is, "Are you calling Jesus the Christ a liar? Or are you simply being influenced by a rebellious spirit?"

What we must understand as Kingdom citizens is that no matter how jacked up, messed up, reproachable or sinful anyone--saved or unsaved--may be that CHRIST DIED FOR THEM.  As a matter of fact, what makes seeing the best in everyone easier to do is realizing that Jesus' sacrificial death at Calvary is precisely what has made it possible for all of us TO BECOME who we were created to be.  It is because of the blood of Christ that GOD sees us as He's made us and not how we've been made as a result of lives born in sin and shapen in iniquity (Psalm 51:5).  If GOD's Spirit dwells in us, then we are capable through Him of seeing people as GOD does.  No excuses.  That promiscuous young man, that thieving woman, that gluttonous guy, that lying girl all have--beyond their ungodly behavior--a GOD-given purpose that can potentially be fulfilled because of the shed blood of our Christ.  Receiving the gift of salvation is SO MUCH MORE than securing eternal life.  It's about becoming.

Knowing only of others Jesus Christ and Him crucified is a conscious decision to look beyond all that's not right to see who GOD created people to become.  It's being disciplined enough to not condemn people for their actions while being sensitive enough to allow the Holy Spirit to show us who people have the potential to become.  It's about choosing to speak words of encouragement and exhortation to the wayward that push them into their purpose as opposed to reminding them of all the wrong they do, thereby discouraging them from possessing any desire to change.  It's about realizing that the stripes Jesus took, the spikes driven into His body and the blood He spilled were to the intent that we all--irregardless of how reprehensibly we've lived and do live--would have the choice to become the man or woman GOD intended for us to be from the beginning.  My friends, choose to know that and you will find it easier to love others as does our Father.