Recently I read a story about an old lady in a hospital who had a visitor. As a way to pass time, the visitor found himself eating the peanuts by the ladies bedside. By the time the visitor was leaving he had eaten all the peanuts, so he apologized for being selfish. The old lady then told him not to bother that in fact she was very grateful because she hated peanuts. She then went on to tell him that the previous day her husband bought her chocolate-coated peanuts and since she loved chocolate, she sucked it the chocolate off and spat the peanuts into the bowl by her bedside. With a very grateful smile she told the visitor thanks for finishing them for me.
In reality, a lot of us are like the old lady. In the sense that we see something or most times someone we like and feel we can benefit from. Then we start to really know the person and then we discover that the person isn’t really perfect in fact has a lot of flaws, faults and gazillion skeletons stashed away in closets. Eventually, we reject them or more like spit them out.
Today the church is full of many rejected and casted away Christians. It’s not new gist or something unexpected if society rejects you in fact the bible says in 2 Tim 3:12 that we should that we should anticipate it. What is painfully surprising and rapidly becoming the order of the day is when believers—tongue speaking, spirit filled, bible professing, miracle working, demon casting (hope you get the picture) Christians reject one another.
The church body was initially ordained for the fellowship of saints. I once heard a woman of God preach and I agree with her graphic description and illustration of the church. She said a church is like a “hospital”. The church is supposed to be where saints who have been injured on the battleground of life are sent to for adequate care and love to be administered until they have recovered and are strong enough to stand on their own.
Our heavenly Father saw us in our sinful and dirty state where all we had was PhD and doctorate degrees in debauchery, backbiting, gossiping, stealing, lying, cheating, fornication, murder, pornography, alcoholism, hard drugs—just name it! And guess what? GOD fell head over heels in love with us even in that state. Why? This is because he saw the potential in each of us. He saw us not as we were but as we ought to be or could be.
If God, the father in all his glory and splendor could forgive the imperfections of man and accept him into his beloved, who are we to do otherwise? Are you on the other side of the equation? Have you been rejected or looked down on for any reason at all? Just keep your eyes focused on Jesus Christ, the Capstone who can never reject or forsake you (Isaiah 41:10-13)
Christianity is not just about empty barrel words. It is about proofs—actions. Ephesians 5:1-2 says it all,” Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly beloved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
