Acts 10:38 Christians

"Maybe we should step back from our perch and look ahead, instead of just at the sky, and do the work of the church."

I HEARD A PREACHER justify slander. Another made a joke about showing the love of God toward people. Then there was the Bible commentary I stumbled across that criticized preachers who taught healing and prosperity. All I could think was, “Ya’ll have missed the point.” And “You are wrong.” Sit with me for a sec and ask yourself this, Why would the God of heaven and earth send His Son to die for all of mankind and then leave them to suffer at the hand of the same enemy who was killing them? “At least sin is gone. Good luck with the rest!” The apostle Paul asked this question in Romans 8. Perhaps you’ve read past it.

“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

Now, just you try to reword that and make it say less. But last I checked, “all” means “all”. If God would sacrifice His Son on the cross in what was degrading and humiliating, not to mention excruciatingly painful, to cleanse us from sin, then why wouldn’t He, at the same time, give us all we need to live life well? Go read Isaiah 53, any translation. Tell me that isn’t about Jesus. Tell me that “by his stripes ye are healed,” isn’t talking about being healed. Oh wait, that’s the word used! HEALED. Do a word study of verse 4-5. It’ll change you.

Now let’s swivel this chair and face the mirror. Looking there at yourself, say a few curse words. Throw in the word “hell” a few times. Now, pretend there’s Jesus staring back at you (because He’s staring back at you) and justify your language. Being ordained puts you at a higher standard, not a lower one, except in the sense of washing people’s feet. Let’s do that then! Would you, man of God, put on your suit and actually wash people’s feet? I know ministers who have, who are, every week. I know men of God who have given up everything to serve Jesus. And guess what? Me too. I have nothing of me left. I gave it up in order to live.

When did “love one another” become a joke? I’m all for laughter. I happen to know firsthand that Jesus is full of joy. He once told me to drink coffee! Now, that’s funny!! “Love one another” means people with tattoos. Gasp. I hear this ALL THE TIME. (Lowers voice.) “Did you see her tattoos?” RAISES VOICE. God loves people with tattoos. “Love one another” means of any culture, any skin color, raised anywhere. “Love one another” means those people you avoided at the grocery store then gossiped about. They’re those sinners and publicans (that’s tax collectors) that THE RELIGIOUS SECTOR condemned Jesus for schmoozing with.

“And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matthew 9:11-13)

I heard about a church that asked certain people to leave because of who they were. And I’m not talking about criminals. Wait. Did you know that God is in prison? Some of the most dedicated to God people are those behind bars. Maybe we should turn off our TVs and open our Bibles. Maybe we should take its words seriously and meditate on them until we do them without thinking.

Until taking the Lord’s name in vain is repulsive and not loving people is disgusting and what goes before us at every angle is a vision of Jesus on the cross. Maybe we should step back from our perch and look ahead, instead of just at the sky, and do the work of the church as it is laid out in Scripture. Rather than waiting so persistently for Jesus to return that we ignore all the things He’s asked us to do. We’re too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good, and we find that acceptable.

Do you know how many people show up for the church prayer group? Out of thousands, there are 30, and 28 of those are women. Men don’t pray? Or men only pray with men. It’s aight, let the women do it. Except the preacher’s a man and his wife’s a wonderful woman, and I wouldn’t trade those 28 for anyone else. But if youse a man, show up! Aight?

Let’s walk right. Let’s stay on the path of righteousness and go through the valley with the Shepherd, not ahead of Him nor stealing His staff to do what we want with it. Not flippant, but serious. Let’s teach healing and prosperity because they are in the Word. Even better, let’s teach Jesus. Let’s concentrate on Jesus. That’ll cover everything. And speak the words of the Spirit. And refuse to give the enemy a place in our words or our attitude.

Let’s be Acts 10:38 Christians and look like Jesus. I’ll go first.

“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38)

Image by No-longer-here from Pixabay


----------
Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com