Her Father's Eyes

When I was growing up there was a song by Amy Grant called Father's Eyes. It was a song about having God's eyes and seeing things the way He would. In the 2nd verse it states 

And when you're called to stand and tell, just what you saw in me. More than anything I know, I want your words to be: She had her Father's Eyes. Her Father's Eyes. Eyes that found the good in things, when good was not around. Eyes that found the source help, when help would not be found. Eyes full of compassion, seeing every pain. Knowing what you're going through and feeling it the same. 

This song became my prayer as a child. Every chance I had, I would play this song on my tape deck; even now as an adult I play this song on an MP3 player. About 7 years ago someone did me wrong. So wrong in fact that they bore false witness against me, took me to court, did everything they could to hurt me. It made my friends furious. I couldn't get mad. I tried. I wanted to hate that person. I couldn't. I'd go out and my friends would mention the situation and they'd get angry and I would just sit there. One day, we saw this person out in public and I said "Hey, I know you!" they ignored me. My friends were livid. I just walked on. Later that night as we were eating dinner my friend said "You have an uncanny understanding of grace and mercy." That doesn't mean that I am not hurt by what happened, or I am not angry, because believe me I was hurt and I was angry, but I chose to see what God saw in the situation. 

Recently, I was banned from a Christian chat room because I said "People need to stop being idiots." The room owner came in on the tail end of the conversation and swore I said that one of his admins was an idiot. I was banned. Earlier tonight a friend of mine asked if I wanted to come to the room, and I said "sure" we tried for two hours to get me in the room, I even apologized to the room owner, though I knew I wasn't guilty of what he thought was the truth; the room owner said "are you going to behave?" Again using accusatory language instead of being gracious. 

I know not everyone is gracious; not everyone is gifted with mercy and grace, but honestly as Christians we should be gifted with grace and mercy. We were extended mercy and grace under no certain terms and we too should offer that grace and mercy to others. 

This is another thing that runs people away from God. People run because they think that God is accusatory. Satan is the accuser. Satan is known as the "Accuser of the brethern" (Rev. 12:10). He accuses of of our sins before God. Satan does NOT want God to extend grace and forgiveness to us, nor does He want us to receive God's grace. Satan wants us to suffer, and in order for him to get his way, he will use those who call themselves Christians. 

When I think of Satan as the accuser, I think of a courtroom. In that courtroom is every person you have ever known, or touched their lives. The jury is made up of Satan's minions; God is the judge, Satan is the prosecuting lawyer. He starts telling the entire jury every time you stumbled, every mistake you made. He tells the jury every thought you had that was evil and vile. He tells them every word you said that was vile and disgusting. You sit there before God; there is nothing you can do, nothing you can say. Your hands are bound by chains, and you know that because there is nothing that you can do that is right you are going straight to hell and suddenly Jesus stands up, He looks at God and says "All of this is true. They had bad thoughts, they used bad language, they made their mistakes, but right here, in this book, is where I saved this person. This is where I forgave their sin, this is where they repented. Their name is right here!" Suddenly the chains that bound you are gone, you are free.

Grace and mercy completely undeserved are given. While Christians can't be perfect, we can imitate Christ, we can have our Father's eyes and show grace and mercy.

Jude 23, when do we start snatching...

Over the past few days, God has had me in the Book of Jude. Jude was written most likely by the half brother of Jesus; and the reason for writing, well Jude’s purpose in his letter was twofold: he wanted to expose the false teachers that had infiltrated the Christian community, and he wanted to encourage Christians to stand firm in the faith and fight for the truth.

The verse in the book of Jude that has stood out for me most lately is verse 23. It says "Save others by snatching them out of the fire; have mercy on others, coupled with a fear of God, hating even the clothes stained by the flesh."*

Last night, as I read this I kept thinking, what all does this mean? 2 Timothy 4:3 gives us a hint For there will be a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things.

As I watch Christians today, I realize that I have a really high set bar. I don't think my bar is set too high, in fact I fail reaching my bar daily, and it's definitely not one set by me. 1 Peter 1:16 sets the bar for us, "for it is written, "You shall be holy, because I am holy." and prior to Peter telling us to set that bar high, God set it for us in Leviticus 11:45 for I am the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, and you are to be holy because I am holy.

As I read Jude 23 and 2 Timothy 4:3, I began really thinking about what the world sees when it sees Christians. There are several things I think non-believers see when they see Christians. Two of them are pretty detrimental to our ministry. The first thing (I'll address the second at a later date) they look at is how we live our lives. Are we living like we are different? In John 17:15 Jesus is praying and He tells the Father "They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world." Yet every day, E-V-E-R-Y D-A-Y the world sees us as living just like them. Using their language, sleeping with people we are not married to, stringing hearts along, holding grudges, taking people to court over minor issues. The world sees us lying, stealing, cheating, doing all the things they do. So why should they change? What makes us different? Because of our sameness with the world, we have become irrelevant to the world. 

Several years ago, a dear sister in faith did me wrong. So wrong in fact, that I was asked to leave a church. I was heart-broken. Instead of seeing all of the people who didn't want me to leave the church, all I could do was paint that church with a broad brush, all Christians in that church were just as vile as that one sister in faith who hurt me.

After about 6 months, when another friend was going welcome her first child into their family I was invited to the baby shower, and I had carried around a root of bitterness for so long that when her sister-in-law asked me where I went to church, I said "I don't." Her other sister-in-law had snacks with me, and got to know me a bit better and the first sister-in-law watched as her children ate their snacks with their aunt and I. Before I left, I commented to this sister-in-law that I noticed her watching and she said "Yeah, I can't be too careful who influences my children; but I do hope you find a welcoming church someday." About a month later, I went to a local UMC with the sister-in-law that I got to know that day. 

Had I kept in my heart what I had experienced and thought I knew to be the truth about Christians, I would have missed out on a lot of new friends and beginnings. However, non-believers don't have the opportunity to look beyond the hurt, the hypocrisy that sits in the pew every Sunday. In fact, they don't know how to look past it. 

When the pandemic started, I walked around my town and offered to pray with people. They didn't have to tell me their stories, they didn't have to say anything, just a "Hey, can I pray with you?" If they said "No." I would say "Okay, I hope you have a great day!" Other times they would see me and I would ask "How can I pray for you?" A lot of times that flipped a switch and I would hear story after story after story...and many of them would tell me how I could pray then they would thank me. 

Church, it's time to get out of the pews, out of the building; stop treating church as a box to tick off on the weekend, and start living it. The rich man couldn't leave his worldliness behind and he lost out. No lives where changed by him giving up everything to follow Jesus. Nothing is being gained by living your life like the world either. It is time to stop seeing sin as something that we need to tip toe around, we don't need Sunday motivational speeches. we don't need Sunday box tickers, we don't need our souls fluffed like pillows, we need to strive daily to reach the bar that Christ as set for us. WE NEED TO BE THE CHURCH, we need to be relevant and we need to show the world that we are different!

*All verses in this article are from the New English Translation -NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.