Seeing oneself as God see them

Acts 2:38-41

This morning after reading these verses, I ask, “Lord what would it take to make mankind look into their hearts and see themselves as you see them?”  Could it be that we have a misguided understanding of how we are seen by God?  It is true that all of us have come up with a set of values that guide how we live, what we do and whom we do it to or with.  Still the question hangs out there, how can we be sure that we have the ladder on the right wall, or better said, how can you and I examine our lives by a standard that is approved by our Creator?

This is not a new problem, and as I ask this question my mind went to this verse in Judges 17:6, “In those days there was no king in Israel.  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”  We have an example of the people of God who have by choice thrown off all moral and spiritual authority, and that always leads to each person asking the other by what authority do you have the right to tell me how to live?  The account in Judges is the people of God living in disobedience to the commands of the Lord, and allowing the Canaanite people to invade their culture, minds and hearts, and they regressed from being the distinctive people of God to living as wicked as the Canaanites.

As I ponder on “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes” I was led to Proverbs 21:2, “         Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.”  My thoughts went back to our country and how it was founded, history tells us it was the Bible that our founders looked to.  It was the most important book in the development of Western civilization.  Yet, as mankind became more enlightened we chose to do as the Jews who came out of Egypt did, forget what God had done for them, and not abide by the agreements we had entered into as a people.  It was a choice made by people who did not want anyone or any authority over them, so our nation has told God to park it on the sideline, because we want “Hope and Change.”  And God has already spoken, it is our choice, we can choose blessing from God or curses, and as a nation we have chosen.

If we, as a people, could only learn that God is truth, His word is truth, and it has been left as a guide for each of us while living on earth.  We have the words of Moses spoken to the people coming out of bondage of Egypt, listen and examine your hearts to see if you are doing what God told the people to do. “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.  (Deuteronomy 11:26-28 ESV)

It is written that they chose curses, and so have the United States of America and much of the Western world, but do not lose heart, look at what God told Moses to tell the people of Israel. “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.  (Deuteronomy 30:1-3 ESV)

When you come to this point, will you ask Jesus the same question as these men of Israel did in Acts 2:37?  “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”  Listen to Peter’s reply, it is the reply that God is looking for; “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”  (Acts 2:37-39 ESV)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice