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many Christians do you know that have been hurt, abused and discouraged by the
system? How many have been stabbed and torn apart by the very church and fold
they thought would protect and nurture them? It is easy to look over and cast
aside those who ‘do not fit in’ or who are simply labeled ‘trouble-makers’
They rock the boat, they say things that upset those in
authority. When every one is going one direction – they are the kind of
person that goes the opposite. Often it is said of them "Why can’t they
just fit in like the rest? Why do they always have to be so different!"
As humans we don’t like ‘different’ do we? Yet if
there is someone who is the most revolutionary or most different, it has to be
Jesus! He was born into a religious, stuck up society and preached grace and
freedom for the vilest of sinners. Even going so far as eating with those
ungodly people!
Do you know what Jesus saw when He saw the prostitute, the
tax collector and every other sinner of that day? He saw a broken and torn
sheep who needed to be picked up and gently stroked to life again. The
religion of that day had destroyed, cut down and cast out any that did not ‘fit
in.’ Jesus came and He gathered them all!
He made an entire Kingdom out of outcasts, nobodies and
rejects. He chose for His Bride the ugly – those who were ‘different’.
Jesus fought the darkness in the lives of those sinners with light! Should we
not be doing the same? Instead of beating the sheep with a rod of judgement
and sneers of contempt, should we not be bending down and lifting them from
the dirt?
When you pass a brother or sister who has fallen in sin, in
discouragement, in abuse – should you not as the Lord Jesus’ hands and
feet extended – bend and gather them into the safety of the fold? Paul said
it very well in 1 Corinthians 4:5:
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the
Lord comes, who will bring both to light the hidden things of darkness, and
will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man
have praise from God
God seems to find that good-for-nothing outcast worth dying
for. He sees things hidden in the recesses of their heart that no one else
does. In fact He found that outcast so special He entered into blood covenant
with him and promises him the very best from His Royal table! Should we not
also have that same mind of Christ? Should we not also carry within us the
heart of Christ?
It is time ladies and gentlemen to stop passing the buck
and to take a look at our own hearts – to judge our own attitudes and
motives by the spirit and word of God. It is a time for change. The breeze has
begun to blow and it is blowing even now in your heart. Can you feel it? Are
you ready for it? Because even now the Lord will chip away the stone and
replace it with His bleeding heart of flesh. The new apostolic move begins
with you. It begins even now in your own heart as you read this. It begins
even in your own home.
Will you embrace it?
Will you accept it?
Are you ready for the gentle breeze of Jesus?
