Not Guilty!

Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”? Even small children are known by their actions, so is their conduct really pure and upright? Proverbs 20:9,11

No matter what we do or have done in the time we’ve been on the earth, none of us can say, we’ve never done anything wrong–unless we were physically incapable of acting on our own.

And that’s the key. If we are able to make decisions about anything, chances are–we’ve made a few wrong ones. Even small children–learning to walk and discover–find out the hard way that not everything should be put in one’s mouth or they shouldn’t touch everything they see. How much children are harmed by their discovery activities depends upon the parents’ detail to attention in keeping them safe and harmful events–limited.

So, if small children are known by their actions, how can we reasonably conclude that adults are not known by theirs?

When we promote hatred of other people simply because of their religious beliefs, skin color, or how they look–what does that say about us?

When we constantly promote the engagement of negative attacks upon others–what does that say about us?

When we think we are superior to others and totally discredit the thought processes of others–what does that say about us?

When we think we can chastise others and are never receptive to chastisement for what we do–what does that say about us?

We are known by what we do and say–and warrant greater judgment by God because we are adults–not children. The children–who do wrong–usually don’t know what they’re doing, but adults–especially those who claim to know Christ–have no excuse.

When we know The Lord and are cognizant of The Word and live it on a daily basis, we cannot say, “we’re not guilty” when we do wrong. And if we claim we’re not guilty of ever doing anything wrong–we lie and proclaim the devil is our father.

The one thing I will not be guilty of doing in this lifetime is saying, I’ve never done anything wrong. I hear Holy Spirit when He speaks and though I’m sometimes slow to obey, I do obey. I obey even if I don’t understand why He wants me to do certain things, but I know–if He says it–it can’t be wrong.

Therefore, I will continue to live like the King’s Kid that I am and hope to be known for being His–always willing to admit when I’m wrong and correct my behavior.

Unlike some–I cannot say, “Not Guilty” of ever being wrong, but I know that love–will make it right!

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Hypocrisy–The Bitter Pill!

“But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18 NKJV).

What is hypocrisy? One definition of hypocrisy is “a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.” (dictionary.com)

So then a hypocrite–would be “a person” who thinks they have a particular character or virtue, when they actually do not, and expect others to respect their pretense.

Wow! How many times do children see “hypocrisy” in the behavior of the adults around them? We demand certain behaviors from them, but we do not do what we want them to do or another way of saying is–“we’re talking loud and doing nothing.”

And we wonder why our society is in the shape it is in and why children have so little respect for adults. There is nothing to wonder about it. They see our true selves–when we cannot see us for looking at them.

Remember the commercial with the kid whose dad was jumping all over him about smoking weed. Finally, the kid just blurted out, “I got it from watching you” and the dad stood looking perplexed. Are we looking perplexed when our children do what they see us do when we tell them just the opposite?

The old adage–“do it because I said so,” just doesn’t work with kids today. If we want to see better kids, we must show them better modelling in our own behavior. And until we do, “we’re just hypocrites, living hypocrisy, and won’t admit it.”

But it is not just what we say to kids and don’t do that makes us hypocrites. It is criticizing others for behaviors in which we indulge ourselves.  We say, we don’t like to hear people bragging about their things, but whenever we get the chance, we brag about every new thing we do or obtain. We say, if that was me, I’d do things another way. And yet, if we were them, we’d do the same thing.

Admitting that most of the time we are hypocrites is a bitter pill to swallow. The bitterness is a reminder that we have not reached perfection “in anything” and until we do, we should not be so hard on others who are in the same boat we’re in–the luxury liner–called “Hypocrisy”.  The word “hypocrite” is mentioned 20 times in the bible–14 times in Matthew and we still do not get it. We apply the word to others, but not to ourselves because we refuse to see ourselves as hypocrites. Until we face the truth of the matter–we won’t be in a position to change anything–not in our homes, not in our churches, not in our communities and certainly not on a global level.

If the world is going to change–the change has to begin with us acknowledging just how much of a hypocrite we can be and the change must come now!