We've all seen the signs being held high over freeways or outside stadiums, anywhere a crowd gathers--I've heard them called "You're gonna fry when you die while we go to the sky" signs. I just wonder what Jesus would do or say if He were here today?
I recently heard author and speaker Deborah Pegues tell a story about her and her husband. She had just finished a nice project for her husband when he came home from work. She heard his car pull in the garage, but he didn't come into the house for 45 minutes. She was thinking, "Who in the world is he talking to and in the car? Why doesn't he just come in the house and finish? We have no secrets like that!" so by the time he finally came in she snapped at him, "What was going on out there!?!" When he explained that he was listening to a family member who just needed to talk (something she'd been encouraging him to do--to listen more) she realized she could have approached him in a much better way. A gentler, kinder way would have been, "Is there a problem, Sweetheart? I'm glad you're home." You see, it's all in the attitude and the delivery.
Which would you respond better to--You're a sinner! You've fallen so short of God's standard!--or sharing from a broken heart--We've all messed up, you and I, I don't even live up to my own standards much less God's? Both are the truth, but the second approach is truth wrapped in love. When we go on the offensive the hearer automatically goes on the defensive.
There are many times we have a truth to share--even a hard truth, but Jesus set the example for us in Matthew 23:37 when he said "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings." Can you just see the picture? A hen gathers her chicks to comfort and protect.
I am so grateful that God treats me so much better than I deserve. I mess up regularly, but He is so gracious to me. He always gathers me, much like the hen with her chicks, back in under His wings where He teaches me a better way. And that's where I want to stay, gathered close to His heart so I can hear His heartbeat and care for others the way He cares. I will forever be grateful that though I mess up He has promised to forgive me. Because of His truth wrapped in His love.
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