Friday, November 27, 2009

Imperfect Christians

Posted by Leona Bergstrom

Almost every day I receive devotional thoughts written by John Fischer. I remember meeting John when we were in college and he was a budding Christian musician paving the way for the Jesus Movement. Through the years he has blessed many with his writing and his music. I like how he thinks, because he thinks outside the “box.” this particular entry on his blog “Fischtank” hit me. For obvious reasons.

Signposts   
Tuesday, November, 03, 2009
by John Fischer

We should be helping to make it easy for people to come to know the Lord. We are signposts pointing the way.

By being accessible. Our lives are an open book. Paul says we are letters "known and read by everybody" (2 Corinthians 3:2). Christians should be the most accessible people on the planet. The reason is: we contain Christ. Someone rummaging around in our lives is going to bump into Jesus. Can't help it. This isn't about being a good witness; it's about being.

By being imperfect. Our ordinary, fallible, broken lives are a constant source of life poured out to others. It is through our sin that others come to know forgiveness. It is through our suffering that others come to know God's comfort. It is through our sickness that others come to know God's healing. It is through our pain that others discover joy. It is through our death that others find life. (2 Corinthians 4:12)

By being non-judgmental. This attitude is the natural and normal result of finding out what a total jerk you are (and that word is about four stages removed from what I dare not print here). When you are the poster child for how far grace will go, you can't possibly bring anything close to judgment upon another human being. Judgment is only for those who are working their way to heaven and relatively smug about already making it. People who know they don't deserve heaven don't care who else gets in.

By being full of gratitude. This is what makes you pleasant to be around. This is what makes you approachable. You just can't believe you get to breathe another breath. You can't believe you get forgiven. You don't know why you are loved and accepted, but you're not going to bring it up in case one of God's angels might find out they made a mistake and you aren't supposed to be there!


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