Positive

I met a lady who takes walks and photographs God's beauty when she does. She also comments on her days as she walks a sunlit pathway. Wednesday she wrote about watching television, and this caught my eye:

The second preacher who came on this morning made me cringe . He was all about tearing down Christian churches who he perceived to be lacking. He did nothing to encourage the people in their Christian walk or to reach out in God's love. I can see nothing positive in tearing down others who are in the body of Christ!

It reminded me of teaching positives. Yes, Jesus told people not to do some things, but the vast majority of his teachings were positive examples. Even when He spoke against, He defined what required changing:

O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. (Matthew 12:34-35 KJV)

They didn’t heed Him:

Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: (Matthew 23:31-34 KJV)

When we focus on the wrongs of others – even other churches or denominations, we’ve become part of the lesson in Matthew:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. (Matthew 23:23-26 KJV)

Our job is to open our hearts to God’s cleansing, to become what He has planned for us:

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalms 51:10 KJV)

Consider the law, judgment, mercy and faith in our own lives, cleanse from the inside, before considering someone else’s exterior. God knows their heart. Our names are written:

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. (Isaiah 49:16 KJV)

And he catches our tears in His bottle and our deeds in His book:

Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book? (Psalms 56:8 KJV)

I’m positive.