Gods standards are perfection, but not like youd think
PureHeartChildren’sFund
Standards
2 Corinthians 3:2-3. You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God,
We are ‘read letters’ as many people refer to us Christians. Once you tell people that you are a real follower of Christ, a target is put on your back. You will be watched like a hawk to see if this ‘Jesus thing’ is for real. Saying you are a Christian and go to church or teach sunday school is not saying you are a follower of Jesus. It doesn`t demand scrutiny. Most people do stuff like that. When you say ‘I follow Jesus and His Word, that changes everything. Everyone will watch you because everyone wants a reason to dismiss true Christianity. Everyone also way down inside secretly wants to see a real Christian that lives up to their ‘standards for a Christian’ (The unbelievers own unreasonable expectations).
Standards are the norm. Medicine, education, engineering all have their standards. They show us what are the normal goals to reach for. In our ministry even. We are required to measure and weigh the children in the feeding centers. The government wants to see that standards are met. In our school as well through exams and finals. Our other classes, IE professional English, descipleship and Bible studies we often ask the students what they learned. There are always standards to try to reach, if possible. I want to way the standard weight of any normal man my size. It’s a good goal. Wanting to grow an afro is an unrealistic goal for me. Standards are a good thing if they are realistic. To be frank, I am pretty much a push over with everyone else, but my personal standards are pretty high. For that reason I am sometimes frustrated, so I need to reevaluate some of my self imposed high standards.
As a Christian our approximation to biblical standards are visible and expected by everyone, especially non believers. We are an open book, a written letter. Our lives are not to be secretive and sneaky. Everyone knows the standards of a Christian, what to expect when they look at a Christian. They expect perfection! We should expect perfection in ourselves as well some day. Can we ever hope to reach that standard? Jesus seems to think so.
Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect
Jesus said that to us. That’s what He expects of us. What does it mean? The Greek word here in Matthew, translated PERFECT, actually means complete in growth and character (spiritually mature). That’s what the world expects of us as well. We are expected to strive towards those ends. That’s why non-believers get furious when they see us doing things they do, and not even being apologetic about it. They want desperately to see something different in us. We are the only hope in a fallen world. Especially now when no one can idolize the people in power, doctors, news, statisticians, the people on TV, even the pro sport guys. All of them, everyone we looked up to in the past, have let us down. People want to find someone they can believe in again. That someone is Jesus. We are the communication memo, the yellow sticky message from Jesus and them.
What can we work on to achieve perfection? Galatians 5:23 says it best! -love,joy, peace,forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
People that are Christians use the excuse when they fall short, I’m Hispanic, I’m Irish, I’m Italian, my family’s like that, my neighborhood’s like that. Fine! The biggest one is, Im only human, I´m not perfect`. If you are a True Christian you’ll change. Those excuses are only temporary.
I had a pastor once, with serious anger issues. He tpld me that holy anger was a gift of God (I have yet to find that in the Bible). He also told me that if you truly wanted be be like Jesus (to be transformed into His image as the Bible says) you had to read 30 pages of the Bible a day. As our nre president says, ‘c’mon man!’ No wonder that pastor had anger issues! But he had one thing right, we are to become transformed into the image of Christ.
2 cor 3:18 we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
How do you change? From the inside out.
Do you know any one perfect besides Jesus? The Bible mentions at least two that God said we’re perfect. That’s just off the tip of my head. Noah and Job. Were they perfect in our eyes by what we read in the Bible? No! But God said they are perfect! How?
God knows that we as Christians will blow it. God knew that Noah and Job were going to blow it. He also knows our hearts. We can do great things without love in our heart, nor with the right motives, and in God’s eyes it is not perfect. We can do bad things and commit mistakes with a right heart, with the best of intentions and God will see it as perfect. God judges our actions by our heart.
Our standard is perfection, although it doesn´t seem possible. Perfection is our normal, and we all know we aren´t perfect. How do we live perfectly before God? By checking our hearts every time we do something. As a Christian, when we check our hearts, we are checking in with God. We should be always praying and reading the Word as well, but our GPS should be our heart.
God wants us to obey Him without murmuring. He wants us to obey Him joyfully because He chose us when He asks us to do something.
He told Moses what He wanted Him to do. Moses complained because his heart wasn’t right. He said he was 80 years old and didn’t talk well. That He was a stammering old man basically. God already knew that so He didn’t coddle Moses. It made Him mad. God wants us to joyfully respond to His requests, because that shows faith. Without faith, there is no joy.
How do we maintain our standard of being perfect? By being joyful, by praying without ceasing, by reading and obeying God’s Word, but most importantly, by checking our hearts and listening to His Holy Ghost. We at PureHeartChildren’sFund know God wants us to protect these defenseless sweet children. So, while we are waiting for the right funding, and a real orphanage, we do the very best we can with our extremely limited resources. All we can do is rejoice! That’s perfect in God’s eyes
1 Thessalonians 5:16. Rejoice evermore.
WhatIsTheLoveOfGod.com
Dean and Winnie Peters
Joyfully serving the ‘least of these’ in Nicaragua for the glory of God
www.pureheartchildren.org
ANY FORM OF DONATIONATIONS TO PUREHEART ARE 100% TAX DEDUCTIBLE AND 100% GOES TO THE KIDS.
Paper checks can be made out to: GraceLifeOutReach (PureHeartChildren in memo please!) And then mail to our snail mailing address: 190 Seminole Ln Apt 302 Cocoa Beach, FL 32931
Sponsor a Child Today
Copyright © 2021 Pure Heart Children’s Fund, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website.
Our mailing address is:
Pure Heart Children’s Fund
Pure Heart C/O Grace Life Outreach
190 Seminole Ln Apt 302
Cocoa Beach, FL 32931-3394