Lord Change Me!!! 

Reading through Paul's epistles I notice that he speaks a lot about the unity of the Body of Christ and also about the things we do. In some he uses the term" and not of ourselves" so often it is like a refrain: " not of ourselves, but of God, Not of ourselves but of God." I love II Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything you may have an abundance for every good work.

Our God always have a purpose. He is never random. We seeing through a glass, a muggy glass, do not see clearly yet but He does see clearly. That is the reason we are admonished not to judge one another, over and over and over again. Running around pointing the finger at everyone just serve to bring division. It seems that arrogance, flesh and immaturity does not recognize the inconsistencies at it's own door. Neither can it. We need one another for that.

Appearance means nothing. Knowing that we are judged by our actions, deeds and fruit some may seek to keep appearances. The heart dictates the actions. Not the other way around. If we have an unhealthy heart and force ourselves to do the right action we become religious and subject to yet another set of laws and miserable. Seek rather to change the heart by pointing it towards God and by letting the love and grace of God change it. The deeds, actions, fruit or appearance only serves the purpose of exposing what is in the heart. James said that our words reveals our faith. But our works cannot create our faith. Our faith, our righteousness, our love and goodness all comes from God. And the more that we fellowship with Him, the more we become like Him. Our ambition, our only ambition, is to be pleasing to Him.

We cannot judge people by the flesh. We cannot know what is in the heart. We are free to judge the actions but not the person. Our deeds will be judged. "Who we are" is already dealt with once we accept Jesus' finished work and enter into the kingdom of God. Our "who" is hidden in Christ in God. We are His workmanship. We are His Body. We are what and who He says we are. For this reason we are not to judge one another. I Cor 4:3-5

Only God knows the motives of the heart. What we are to judge is the deeds, the actions of those around us. Does the deeds, actions line up with the word of God? The deeds follow the reality from within. The fruits tell of the tree. We do what we do because we are what we are. Out of the heart of man flows his deeds. I Corinthians 11 speaks of examining our own hearts and even in this we are limited since we do not always know ourselves. We can only do according to the light that we have.

We are changed not by looking at our failures or the punishment for our shortcomings but by looking at Him. The beholding, focusing, vision of the glory of the Lord in Christ Jesus, revealed by His Holy Spirit is what changes us. No amount of self- effort can do it. Our diligence, our discipline, balances on our pursuit of a relationship with God though Jesus Christ by the ability of the Holy Spirit. This one thing is our only and entire pursuit. Single-mindedly we seek His face and in this we are changed from one degree of glory into another.

II Corinthians 4: 6 God's light shines in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

It is God, not ourselves...