Monday 24 February 2014

Let God decide...

I went to see a friend after church service yesterday and he made a comment that was becoming increasingly familiar- 'That Church (referring to my new church) is full of indecently dressed girls' or something along those lines. I smiled. It wasn't the first time I was hearing that. I had at some point maligned the very church I now attend though for a different reason. It wasn't new. But I couldn't resist the urge to educate.

I told her an occurrence I found very humbling. Two Christian brothers had entered a public transport only to find themselves sitting beside this 'indecently dressed' lady. Needless to say, they had tried everything possible to ensure that their bodies did not touch the lady's going so far as to direct a new entrant into the vehicle to sit between themselves and the lady.

You see, these 'very' Christian brothers belonged to a denomination that was well known at the time for their aggressive stance for piety, holiness and the like. There was no way they were going to allow themselves to be contaminated by this obvious servant of satan.

The bus got to a particular part of the road and found an accident had just occurred. Like several other vehicles before them, the driver of their vehicle parked and they all got down to behold the driver of the car that had encountered an accident on the floor, convulsing. Everyone looked on in horror... except one.

The indecently dressed lady had her hands raised up high, walking back and forth and... wait for it!...

She was praising God, speaking in tongues and praying! How dared she?

And as if that was not enough, she dared to go one step further... She went to the convulsing man, laid her hand on him and....

He stopped convulsing! Wow!

Needless to say the two 'Christian brothers' went to meet her afterwards and got a mild rebuke telling them 'that God looks at the heart'

And doesn't he? When Samuel went to Jesse's house to anoint one of his sons to be the next King of Israel after Saul, what did God tell him as his (Samuel's) human mind processed Eliab's (One of Saul's sons) countenance and height as becoming a King? '... Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him; for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart' (1Samuel 16:7)

What do I have to say? God knows all. he knows the end from the beginning. He knows whether that sister or brother is going to make it. He knows the heart of that prostitute on the street. And you know what else? H alone knows if she will ever come to him.

God alone knows that man you think will never amount to much. He might never. But as long as he is alive. He just might.

Since we cannot wrap our little heads around what God knows, what He sees and what He is working with can we please stop judging others? You have no right to. Preach the gospel is what you have been called to do. Do just that and let God decide who goes to hell.

And while we are on the matter, the two Christian brothers are now in my Church- a Church of which it is often asked, 'if this Church did not exist, where would all these (indecently dressed, usually initially questionable characters) go?'

I say, 'Let God decide'