By inspireempowerconnect4235 on July 2, 2021 ( Leave a comment )

Inspired, Empowered, Connected: What Happens When You Point the Finger at Someone?

Today while I was speaking with God I shared my thoughts about how the people in the world point fingers at the people in the church. The people in the church point fingers at the people in the world. I asked God; How have individuals gotten to the place of pointing fingers at each other. Every day we hear people who do not go to church say, why should I go to church? People in the church say they are Christian, but their behaviors demonstrate an ungodly lifestyle. Every day we hear people in the church say, people in the world are getting worse and worse. They need Jesus, because they are living an ungodly lifestyle. Then I heard God speak to my heart and say people leave people not the world and not churches. We see what the finger-pointing people do as tied to a physical location or building, but that is just a diversion from the real truth. The real truth is that people are not pointing the finger at the church or even the world they are pointing the finger at people who are demonstrating a behavior in the church and in the world that is contrary to how God teaches us to live.

While I was having that time with God he brought to my remembrance the moment that he had with Peter. Jesus was walking with his followers one of which was Peter. While they were walking a group of soldiers came to arrest Jesus. In the middle of all of the commotion, those that followed Jesus asked Jesus if they should lift their swords and strike them but before Jesus had an opportunity to answer one of them struck one of the servants of the high priest and cut the ear of the soldier off. In the Bible, it puts Jesus’s expression with an exclamation mark. Jesus said loudly “NO MORE OF THIS”! I pictured God shaking his hand up in the air like individuals do today and just shouting “STOP”! and then He touched the man’s ear and healed him.

Luke 22:49-51, NIV When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.

As I pondered my conversation with the Lord I believe that what he was saying was to tell the people to “STOP”. Stop pointing fingers. Stop looking for a reason to justify your own poor behavior by someone else’s poor actions. Start looking at what you need to do to get right with God. To Jesus it didn’t matter if you were the soldier coming to arrest him, the followers wanting to lift up their swords in retaliation, or even the one who cut the ear off. What mattered to Jesus was that things be done in a way that is loving, peaceful without bloodshed or hatred. Raising a sword or pointing a finger will only result in casualties. It will never unify a people, bring peace or even resolve a hurt, the only thing war does is further divide a people. Jesus set the example that matters are not resolved by pointing fingers. Matters are resolved by communicating with one another. Matters are resolved by peaceful actions. How many followers of Jesus would have died that day if they all would have raised their swords? Sometimes the best offense is no defense. When individuals can start being honest about their behaviors, then the people all around the world will see a transformed body of Christ. But until that moment arrives individuals will always be pointing fingers at one another, because what they see are the blemishes, which God said in his word should not be there. Jesus said he is coming back for a church without blemishes.

As believers we are to bring people to the feet of Jesus. Then the behavior an individual models as ambassadors of Christ should represent His character wherever that person stands. That is what it means to be a church without blemishes. Individuals will always see the body of Christ as broken; If the behaviors modeled are not honest, integral, patient, kind, loving. Have we forgotten the basics?

*The Ten Commandments* *(Exodus 20:2-17 NKJV)*
1	“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2	“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
3	“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4	“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5	“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6	“You shall not murder.
7	“You shall not commit adultery.
8	“You shall not steal.
9	“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10	“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”